THE MISSING WORDS IN OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, OATH OF OFFICE, AND US CITIZENSHIP OATH
Sibel Edmonds
Yesterday, as I was walking among grocery shelves, I passed by thousands of packaged hotdogs, hundreds of cases of beer, and mounds of hamburger buns displayed in special Fourth of July promotions. I kept walking without pausing. Then I noticed a rectangular sheet cake with white icing topped with strawberries and blueberries depicting the stars and stripes – to be appreciated and eaten during the upcoming celebration of our nation’s Independence Day. That gave me pause. I stopped and stared at it for more than a few seconds; then I continued on. An hour later, after I arrived home and as if some kind of sign, the first image popping up on my computer screen when I logged in was the Fourth of July Flag Sheet Cake. This time I put everything aside, pulled out the text of our Declaration of Independence, the US Citizenship Oath, and the Oath of Office. I knew exactly what I was looking for, and I did not find it. It was what I didn’t find that made me sit and write this for my readers as my way to wish you a Happy Independence Day.
During this celebratory holiday please take a few minutes; it shouldn’t take more than five, to read our Declaration of Independence, US Citizenship Oath and Oath of Office. Please do it.
You will not find the word ‘Flag.’
You will not see the word ‘Borders.’
What you will see is the word ‘Constitution.’
What you will find is the obligation to defend, not the ‘flag,’ ‘borders’ or ‘government’, but the United States Constitution, and defend it against foreign and domestic enemies.
The shalwar-wearing bearded men holding rakes and pitchforks in the caves of Afghanistan have never been and will never be a threat to our Constitution.
The terrorists from south of the border will never present any danger to our Constitution – meant to guarantee our freedoms.
The made-to-be-enemy dictators of foreign nations across the ocean have never and will never be able to touch our Constitution.
When it comes down to it there has never been a clear and present danger to our Constitution from any foreign entity or power. I suspect there never will be. No bomb attack, no pitchfork, no fatwa or jihad can even come close to destroying the United States Constitution.
The only enemies that have ever targeted our Constitution, the only entities that have ever launched an assault against our freedom, the only institution capable of destroying our Bill of Rights, the only power that has done so, and has been doing so, and if left untouched and unchallenged will continue to do so until nothing is left of the Constitution entrusted to us by our founding fathers, are the domestic enemies among us, or more accurately, ‘above’ us from where they rule.
My dear friends, I don’t intend to spoil your festivities and celebration. I want you to go ahead and enjoy that cold beer, those hot dogs, and the fireworks. All I’m asking of you is this: when the time comes for the dessert, while you are slicing that white sheet cake with the red and blue depicting the stars and stripes, think about the irony of it and how our domestic enemies have been slicing up and tearing apart the one thing that represents being an American – Our Constitution. Happy Independence Day.
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness… when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security…”- Declaration of Independence, July 1776