Fireworks, hotdogs, barbecues, family, sodas, picnics, sand, and ants

I wrote a poem that starts with these words, then delves into the sacrifice of our military in Iraq. That was nearly 20 years ago. Iraq is far from our minds today as we are in the throes of a new revolution—a transformation—one in which we have trepidations.

We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The attributes of the preamble of our nation’s constitution are still relevant as our common principles today:

form a more perfect Union–it isn’t perfect, refinement is a constant, yet it is the best nation in the world where “… America is the best place on the planet to be black, female, gay, trans or what have you. We have our problems and we need to address those. But our society and our systems are far from racist….” Ayaan Hirsi Ali

establish Justice–not everyone has experienced equal justice in the eyes of the law or those of the community, as is pointed out by the current “injustice” protests. Still, we have experienced significant improvement, particularly in the last 50-plus years—a long list of accomplishments in an attempt to bring everyone into the fold.

ensure domestic Tranquility-Our government with its checks and balances, where the power of the government comes from the people—the rule of law provides stability.

promote the general Welfare-we have our rich and our poor and citizens in the middle. We value individuality, equality, creativity, achievement, yet we are charitable-more so than any other peoples.

secure the Blessings of Liberty-we value our freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly. We value initiative yet act responsibly to respect the rights of others.

Perfect? No.

Transformative? Yes.

We celebrate July 4^th as the birth of our nation but more–the unique experiment that is us.