{"id":157,"date":"2008-09-25T20:51:24","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T02:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/?p=157"},"modified":"2008-09-25T20:51:24","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T02:51:24","slug":"we-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"We the People…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“We the People…”\u00a0 Is there a written phrase more recognizable, more iconic, than this?\u00a0 I was recently in DC for a symposium on Energy Security (which, incidentally, was very interesting; I may have to post some of the things I learned from that later).\u00a0 I’ve been to DC a few times over the last several years — working for a Department of Energy organization draws you to the capitol every once in a while.\u00a0 In previous visits, I’ve focused on the monuments, since I greatly admire some of the people to whom they are dedicated — Washington, Lincoln, and, especially, my boyhood hero, Jefferson.\u00a0 This time, however, I decided to check out some of the museums around the Mall.\u00a0 I’ve been there before, but there is so much to see.\u00a0 While I checked out the Air and Space Museum and the National Art Gallery, my primary goal was to visit the National Archives, home of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n

The Rotunda where all three documents are on display wasn’t overly crowded, but still there was a little wait to get up close to each.\u00a0 Once I got my turn, I didn’t linger, as I knew what the documents say and it is easier to read them online.\u00a0 But, just being in the presence of such important history was both humbling and inspiring.\u00a0 Looking at the Declaration, you can barely pick out the signatures any more — even John Hancock’s signature is barely there.\u00a0 However, the phrase “We the People” which opens the Constitution is just so iconic, so powerful, it was what stuck with me, what really caught me.\u00a0 Is there any phrase in the English language that is so recognizable in its written form?\u00a0 So inspiring?\u00a0 So defining of an entire nation?<\/p>\n

Let me just say that it was truly remarkable to be in the presence of those documents and, in some sense, in the presence of those great men who drafted them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We the People…”\u00a0 Is there a written phrase more recognizable, more iconic, than this?\u00a0 I was recently in DC for a symposium on Energy Security (which, incidentally, was very interesting; I may have to post some of the things I learned from that later).\u00a0 I’ve been to DC a few times over the last several … Continue reading We the People…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Blah\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}