A page about Fidel Castro in our World History book stirred me to consider how I thought about "the people" in the "We the People of the United States ....." which begins our Constitution.
I believe that "People" is meant to be inclusive. I don't think that it refers to the comfortable ones among us alone. I think that word includes those who want a better, more just nation.
I believe that the People of our Constitution includes the hundreds of thousands of Americans without work and the hundreds of thousands who have work, but don't earn near enough to care for their families well. I think that 'the People' includes industrial workers who not only lost their jobs, but also watched their benefits and retirement funds disappear.
The People must include those men and women who pay interest on money borrowed to get their families from one month to the next, from one week to the next. The People includes tens of thousands of teachers and professors who are paid less than jailers and honored little more.
Tens of thousands of small business men and women weighted down with debt and confounding paper wok are equally part of the People.
Tens of thousands of young professionals with fresh degrees and a desire to work who find themselves before closed doors are included among the People.
Each of these Americans are responsible for his or herself each stands ready to pay taxes and to defend the country with blood; each is ready to help us unite in a more perfect union.
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