There is a sign outside of one of the many Washington state military bases that says, "What you hear is the sound of freedom." This statement reflects the thoughts of many in this nation who think that freedom is rooted in the strength of our military presence. But such thinking undermines the great idealism that formed us as a people. We were formed in the conviction that human beings can cooperatively live together under the rule of constitutional law. The authority of the Constitution is not rooted in the military, but in the will of the people. To lose this insight is to take a step away from democracy and a step towards fascism.
This past weekend our nation remembered and honored the courage and sacrifice of our military. The military itself is under the authority of constitutional law, with its insistence upon civilian rule. The willingness of the soldier to defend the Constitution even under threat of terror and torture is a heroic calling, one to be admired and respected. As a nation we remember the cost of that commitment. To give honor for such sacrifice increases the nobility of a people. Military service is a selfless act of communal responsibility, a heroic idealism that is greatly lacking throughout many spheres of our culture of self-centered apathy and amusement.
I state all this because I think it is very important for those of us who desire the reduction of the military, who desire the dismantling of our foreign military bases, and who work to end our imperialistic wars, it is important to remember that it is the broken system of civilian rule, not necessarily the military institution, that is the focus of our dissent.
Those who have called for the impeachment of this administration have been right all along. However, those calls have not been heard by a financially corrupted Congress that has abandoned its responsibility to advocate and insist upon a return to constitutional discipline. Unfortunately, in the end, our political parties are reflections of what we the people permit. As we pause in the nation's life to honor the sacrifice of the military, it is my hope that we, the people, will take upon ourselves the obligation to honor that for which a soldier dies, certainly not for a Commander in Chief, certainly not for the ideology of a political party, but for the ideas birthed in our Declaration of Independence (independence from empire), and for the heroic idealism embodied in those great sacred words that form our American covenant:
"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."