Letter: ‘We the people’ often goes missing

To the community,

In his inaugural speech, President Obama repeatedly made reference to “we the people” which underlines the fact that the people have a social contract with the government. Thus, everything from funding phony wars to raising taxes is done in the name of the people. The government is our government. But at all levels of government the term social contract has been thrown into the wastebasket. It isn’t part of our operating political thought or practice. We the people have become an abstraction.

Bill Crawford

All people are created equal was also emphasized, underlined, by the president in his speech. The idea is as old as the hills. In about 308 BC, Zeno, the stoic taught that each person has a divine spark within their being. Thus, there is a spiritual equality. The stoics believed that slavery was a violation of that spiritual equality. So man is endowed by his creator. That’s a powerful idea that breaks the chains of bondage. Let’s not put it in history’s wastebasket.

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe