A toast to the Constitution

Mr President, Madam Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted, and deeply honoured, to be invited to propose a toast at this Independence Day celebration.

Although I am not a citizen of these United States of America, I am one who pays high regard to the principles on which they were founded.

“We the people…” These opening words of the Constitution set the tone of the whole proposition. The foundational legal principles of the USA. Not “We, some people,” or “We, certain people,” but: We the people. An unequivocal statement of what constituted the infant nation that grew to span a continent, join two great oceans.

It was of course an aim, a principle, a statement of intent. I like to think that, over these past 250 years, this nation has moved progressively closer to the ideal of democratic government and the rule of law. The Constitution could have been a manifesto for the world entire. In some ways it is.

We the people of the world?

And so, Mr President, Madam Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the United States, I recall you to your founding principles. I ask you to stand and raise a glass to...

We the people!

I implore you never to forget what you did, that day, 250 years ago. To free yourselves from an overbearing monarchy. A tyranny of kings and might of wealth, and unbridled power, steeped in corruption, self interest, falsehood, and malicious self-interest.

Again, I offer a toast to:

We the people

For Lana's raise a glass challenge...

Sorry, Lana, though it was 250 words and, hell, 250 years ago, when Britannia ruled the waves, American colonials waived the rules and established their own, new, nation state. I too am a rule breaker, soz!