>>> "Michael Hoover" <hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us> 04/23/99 06:29PM >>>
> Jim heartfield wrote:
> >The phrase of the declaration says it all, 'We, the people...'
>
> Preamble to the Constitution. And, as Dan Lazare says, keep that phrase and
> junk the rest of it.
> Doug
don't need to remind folks on this list that "We the people" did not mean all the people and constitutional guarantees were only for 'free persons (although I guess I just did so)...in its celebration of & commitment to individual power and uniqueness, liberalism suppressed the power and uniqueness of majority who weren't white male property owners (irony?)...
words are fickle and can be put to many uses, including ones unintended by their authors...so above phrase, and those of Jefferson about equality and rights in the Declaration, have been used by historically disenfranchised attempting to achieve "we the people" status... differences suppressed/concealed by the framers have been used against them with their own words...
deconstruction reveals how rhetoric belies reality...Michael Hoover