The Constitution

I was listening to Neal Boortz this morning on the radio and he said something that caught my interest (well, in truth, he normally says a number of things that catch my attention... that's his job!). He said (paraphrasing in my words) that our founding fathers intended for the states to rule or have power or the rights for 95% while 5% of rules, government, etc. was the responsiblility of the federal government.

I've been mulling that one over for about an hour or so and finally decided to pop back up to the house and see if I could find out where he got that information and whether he was correct. He usually is pretty much on the money when he cites a fact so I'm assuming he knows what he's talking about in this instance.

I'm on Google pulling up references and sooner or later I'll get there.... What I have found interesting thus far is that I have forgotten most of my history. I loved history. But so much of what I learned has no practical application in day-to-day living so it's been relegated to tiny, dusty, unused synapse somewhere in my brain.

I'm working my way through the Constitution and all the amendments. It's going to take a while, especially since it's impossible to simply read the Constitution. I have to know the whys and to put it in context to get the full affect.

We've come a long, long way and wandered far from the intent of our founding fathers. I suppose it's inevitable, but we seem to have given up so much over the past many years. We have let things creep into our government that seem to be leading us down the path of so many past civilizations.

I don't have enough fingers to point at all the various factors that seem to be eating away at our freedoms and what was once a wonderful experiment in setting up a republic. Some days I think it's our own apathy. Some days I think it's the power-hungry politicians. Some days I think it's the media.

I think as I continue to read our history and the Constitution that the contrast between intent and actuality are going to raise my level of frustration.