WHAT'S NEXT? We are in a phase so often of late in which we wonder what may possibly happen next?
We should not expect to see speedy solutions of such problems.
This morning I have heard much comment pro, con and non-committal, concerning the national constitution the leaders of Iraq are supposed to come up with this week. We forget that we are fairly young as nations go and that it has not been too long when we, too, were in such a waiting period. As I recall my version of our history lessons, it took some time to get the colonies to agree to discuss such matters, and even longer for them to approve such a document once basic principles had been written down. It took time for the participants to decide what was good and what was not suited to their common needs. And, if we think our constitution came into being as a fully blown bloom you are dreaming. It did not come off the presses all finished with all “t's” crossed or jotted and all “I's” and “j's” properly tittled .Why do you think those twenty-one plus amendments had to be appended? They are added to patch up the holes in the original documents statements or to give meaning to new concepts generated though living by democratic principles and beliefs.
The people of Iraq, so long without any mode of self-expression will now have a state document which assures that each of them has equal rights. The words of the document are a guide by which they may keep it that way it that way and the exact words are not
something to be rushed or faked. Even if they happen to have another Thomas Jefferson at hand to dash off a finished document it will still have to be put to the tests of time, trials, and tests unknowable.
A. L. M. August 17, 2005 [c330wds]
