Is the American Government Aligned with its Mission Statement?

The government of the United States of America has a mission statement.

It's nothing new. It's not one of the "changes" brought forth by President Obama's administration. It's not something that was birthed out of the last decade's mission statement craze.

Actually, the government's mission statement is over 200 years old. You've heard it before:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 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."

Perhaps you've never before heard the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution referred to as the mission statement of the U.S. government. But it is. It declares the exact purpose of the Constitution and of the government which the Constitution established. This mission statement hasn't changed in the 222 years since the founding father wrote it.

My question is this: if the laws and programs established by U.S. government officials fail to align with government's mission statement, are those laws and programs considered unconstitutional? And if they are not, shouldn't they be?

If a law, executive order, or judicial ruling is not helping to:

- form a more perfect union
- establish justice
- insure domestic tranquility
- provide for the common defense
- promote the general welfare
- secure the blessings of liberty to current and future generations of American citizens

shouldn't it be overturned?

And if government officials' actions defy this mission statement, should those officials be fired? They would in the business world.

Happy Independence Day

In honor of the birth of my country, of the freedoms which our founding fathers proscribed for us, and of the men and women throughout history who have died to preserve those freedoms, I would like to share this, my favorite Super Bowl commercial of all time. (My gratitude to Anheuser-Busch and to the person who posted this video on YouTube.)



This commercial aired during Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. Only recently did I have the honor of participating in a similar welcoming home of American troops as they disembarked in the DFW airport. It thrilled my heart to see the number of people who stood and applauded - regardless of personal views on Operation Iraqi Freedom and the present and former presidential administrations - as these servicemen and women walked by.

It is always an honorable thing to give thanks where thanks is due.

I thank God for orchestrating events so that there was brought forth upon this continent a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. I thank God for showing mercy to our nation, even when we have trampled on the avowedly inalienable rights of some - the American Indians, the enslaved, the unborn.... I thank God for the men and women who have, for their allotted time, stepped into terribly difficult positions of leadership in our government. I thank God for the men and women who have risen in the midst of fierce opposition to declare to our country what is right and true. I thank God for the men and women who fight every day - with arms, with words, with actions - to protect the liberty of American citizens and of people around the world. I thank God for men and women who love my country enough to want to make it better.

"Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends."

May God continue to bless America. And may America bless God.

Happy Fourth of July.