Monday, February 16, 2009

Our Presidents


It's amazing to me that this country has only had 44 of them. It seems like such a small number after having personally lived long enough to have spanned the individual terms of twelve of those 44.

More than anything, this country is often viewed by the world through it's Presidents. For sure, we've had some great ones. Then again, we've had some who weren't too good. Some have had to sacrifice their lives for this country. But, through it all, this great republic of ours has survived because of it's people; and, more importantly, because of our Constitution. A Constitution that brilliantly outlined the responsibility of our Presidents. A Constitution that was drafted with the intent to restrict the powers of the Presidency so that the people of this great country could still hold the ultimate control: Their Votes.

Because we are a representative form of democracy, we can take responsibility for hiring those great Presidents. At the same time, we can all share the blame for the bad ones. That's the way it works in a democracy. We're all in this together. It is, as it should be, all about the people. A government of the people, by the people, for the people. And, our Presidents, too, are of and from the people and were chosen by us to represent us all and to implement our "majority" will. History has proven that our Presidents get into trouble when they forget this and they insert their own personal will or ambition into the process of governing this country.

Disney World's Hall of Presidents Image by caniswolfie's photostream on Flickr with Creative Commons Licensing. Some rights retained. (Click to View Other Works).

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