Gps for America: Toward “Building a More Perfect Union”

By Abel Gashe

"The American Union is imperfect. But it is certainly motioning towards a more perfect union." It is this foundational thesis in the fulfillment of the American vision that this book focuses on. By affording an integrated and holistic approach, the book shows that the American dynamics is transformational living phenomenon framed on four major paradigms: that America is a land of freedom; that America is a land of opportunity; that America is impregnated with inertia within it that propels it to "repair its faults"; and that the nation has been moving to a higher ground in its motion with a concerted effort of its people as one (E pluribus Unum) to build a more perfect Union.

A pragmatic but positive outlook on the American reality in the bountiful land by a first generation immigrant from Gojjam, Ethiopia, the author tries to help the reader develop a generic framework in understanding the evolving American reality since the founders took the bold step in 1776 to write an audacious proposal that "all men are created equal," endowed by the creator with "inalienable rights." The analysis in the book begins by framing the constitutional bases of the nation as a four dimensional compass. Using what he terms as the American GPS, he leads the reader to have a snapshot on the structure of American government, citizenship, church and state, legal, economic, political and foreign policy issues to show that in fact what is manifesting in the American socio-political topology is not a random act but an in-built, systemic transfiguration in creating the opportunity for all children of Adam to realize their God given inalienable rights, being Geezans (freely roaming citizens of the universe) in fulfilling the vision of the nation.

After reading this book, the reader will never waste time in random thoughts about the American ever unfolding reality. By all accounts America is an emergent and noble idea whose better days are yet to come. That is the projection whose totality can be meaningfully captured through a living compass: The American GPS!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499060508

Abel Gashe

Abel Gashe is an Ethiopian national born and raised in a small urban town called Debre Markos, Gojjam, a beautiful land encircled by the eternal river Nile. He has immigrated to the United States 20 years ago in pursuit of higher education. A business consultant by profession, he enjoys literature, poetry and writing. This work is a partial presentation of the result of a life time study on seeking the living God, to which the author is initiated with the grace of the Lord. The author worships God in accord with the teachings of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, at Debre Genet Medehanealem church, in Temple Hill, MD, and he currently resides in Falls Church, Virginia with his beloved wife Yenewud Belay and his two beautiful children Hawariya and Bezawit.

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Copyright © 2014 by Abel Gashe.

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Rev. date: 09/22/2014

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Contents

Acknowledgment

Witness To America

Prelude

Preface

Chapter 1    The American Compass

Chapter 2    The Four Quadrants Of American Construct

Chapter 3    The Four Laws Beneath The American Gps

Chapter 4    The American Cycle Of Rebirth

Chapter 5    American Dream Scenarios: For The Native And The Guest Alike

Chapter 6    The American Soul: A Unique Brand In Adam’s Family

Chapter 7    Census America Through The American Equation

Chapter 8    The Living American Citizen

Chapter 9    The Living Feature Of American Legal System: The Case Of Miranda Right

Chapter 10    Tribute To A Bountiful Land: Thank You, America

Chapter 11    Dollaronomics Through The American Gps

Chapter 12    American Foreign Policy

Chapter 13    American Wars

Chapter 14    American Culture Of Stardom

Chapter 15    The American Quilt Of Immigration

Chapter 16    The Dynamics Of Church And State

Chapter 17    The Protestant Fervor Behind The I-Church Paradigm

Chapter 18    America’s Religious Bias And Jfk’s Speech

Chapter 19    Mapping The Vision Of A Politician (Part I)

Chapter 20    Mapping The Vision Of A Politician (Part Ii)

Chapter 21    Algorithm Of The Prototype Political Campaign

Chapter 22    The Campaign Algorithm That Got Barack Obama To Office

Chapter 23    Projecting The Presidential Campaign Motto For 2016

Chapter 24    Is The Dragon Rattling The Eagle?

Chapter 25    China Through A Shadow Gps

Chapter 26    The Comparative Advantage Of Usa: Geezan Citizens

Chapter 27    An American Export: The Freedom Software

Chapter 28    Toward A More Perfect Union

Epilogue

Reference

Dedication

Thank you America!!!

This book is dedicated to the People of the United States of America who have carried the torch of liberty around the world, celebrating freedom and life, when much of the world remains enveloped by the thick cloud of tyranny and ruthless dictatorship even today.

Thank you America for allowing millions to come ashore and live with freedom and liberty enjoying their inalienable rights, which are rare commodities in many part of the world.

May the Lord bless the United States of America!

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Praise be to the Lord of Hosts, and his Son Jesus Christ, who authors life and make it all possible and without him nothing is to bear enduring fruit including this writing.

I express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the people of the United States for their generosity in allowing millions like myself to come from afar and live in peace with liberty like one of their own when one’s birth place become a tormenting living hell for its citizens.

While profiling about America, the author is obliged to pay due tribute to a wonderful American family, the Brabatos, namely, Lisa, Lauren, Bob and Linda, in Rochester, New York, whose generous heart has been a vehicle to connect the author with this amazing civilization. If everyone in the land were like Bob Barbato along with his superb family, America’s vision to build a more perfect union would already be fulfilled.

The author finds his saving angel in human form through beloved Helen Belachew, who represent a living Samaritan character one finds in Luke 10. Helluka along with her twin Honey Belachew, remain jewels for my soul exhibiting the impeccable upbringing from their amazing, majestic, and righteous mom, W/o Zenebech Ameneshewa (Zenu Emebetie). What a beautiful family!

Many has taught the author on what it means to give without expecting in return. I like to thank my sister Achamyelesh Zewdie along with Getachew G/Egziabeher for standing by me at all times and for their uncountable generosity making me indebted eternally, knowing not how to pay back. There are also people who walk in our life and stamp their indelible footprint of light and love through their goodness and caring personality. And at the top of this list is Mrs. Martha Kebede who nurture my Bezaie and Hawi as if they are her children, namely, Rebecca and Paul.

Among the many who I met in my American experience, my bottomless appreciation goes to Mrs. Woudnesh Amsalu for giving me her best books and best hopes to see me grow in wisdom showing me the way to look into Ethiopia’s transcending biblical identity and destiny while motivating me to seek the best in myself. I cannot thank enough Mr. Mussie Betre, the CEO of Bankers in Silver Spring, MD, who partially financed this publication. In Mr. Betre one would be fortunate to find a wonderful man of God who is humble with a big heart and impeccable dedication to the house of the Lord. Praise be to Mr. Bereket Woldu of Colonial Parking for his love of country that he exhibits in every opportunity he finds to lift up Ethiopians with worthy cause.

The amazing battalion of Yewonze Lejoch who have astonished me by organizing a celebration for my first book, The wisdom compass to eternal Life, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia remain to be living towers of friendship and comradery. Of the many in the long list, the following remain unforgettable in their excitement for my success: Dr. Yehenew Zewde, Mr. Belete Belay, Mr. Anelay Mengesha, Mr. Abebe Chekol, Mr. Mastewal Mekonnen and many others who know how to lift up one of their own.

As testament to the power of love that catches us by surprise ever moment, I have seen the grace of God through generosity of Teferi Mulualem and his wife Mimi who have been the replica of a brother I could not see when I return to Ethiopia after twenty two years of absence. The friendship between my late brother, Mezgebu and Teferi, was so perpetual even beyond grave that Teferi took it upon himself to act like Mezgebu bridging the chasm of emptiness in my fleshly nature. Nothing is more fascinating to witness the magnificent work of the Lord than to find a brother long gone transfiguring in spirit in the likeness of his best friend. Tefe and Mimi… your caring personality dwarfed my thinking power and enlarged my perspective on life.

The author would have been in a difficult bind to publish the book if it were not for the professional editing work done by Dr. Solomon Gebru and Dr. Luleseged Ayalew who both have spent a lot of precious time out of their valuable busy schedule to review and critic the book. Their professional eyes have been like one of an eagle’s in elevating the value of the book in terms of style, substance and presentation. While their invaluable comments enhanced the value of the book, the author remains totally responsible for flawed ideas and all shortcomings in the book. A fellow country man Wukeyanos T. G.Meskel, who helps me in graphic design, lifts up my Ethiopian spirit so that I keep believing in the inherent goodness of my people.

Last but not least, I remain indebted to team Xlibris for great professional work in making the manuscript a real book. John Briones, Lloyd Griffith, Maria Legarde, Richelle Meyer, Raine Burns as well as editors and the support team have been at their best accommodating my uncountable demands to get the book out in its final form.

In closing, no rational expression will capture the sacrifice an author’s family endures while he is on the seeking mode to satisfy his drive to write the dream book. I am very fortunate to have a family that willingly accept the sacrifice required without complaining. The Lord has bestowed in me the crown of grace with my amazing children, Hawi and Beza, along with my wife, Yenewud, who as one spirit granted me the needed latitude, both in time and convenience, until I quench my thirst for wisdom and my desire to remain enveloped in the cloud of unknowing.

WITNESS TO AMERICA

A country boy from the highlands of an ancient biblical nation called Ethiopia, born in Gojjam, where the Blue Nile fall springs, I landed at JFK airport on September 1, 1990, to start a new chapter in my life in the new world. As an immigrant, I have been learning the American sociopolitical construct and the people’s way of life ever since. Indeed, I have seen America, and I have remained deeply awed and amazed to this day by the dynamism of this wonderful, bountiful land, and the ebb and flow of life that has been emergent and unfolding with new dimensions ever since the first European settlers have inhabited it. And to this day I remain awestruck by it.

As I try to tell about America, the revelations of John of the Bible comes to mind:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, ... And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Rev. 21–2)

Of course, John delved into the heavenly construct of the kingdom of God through his divinely powered spiritual eye. My observation was about the kingdom of man, a kingdom constructed according to the will of man while the hand of God guides the eternal journey of the nation. This is about a land that God has indeed blessed. Reckoning with this blessing, the nation and its people take a deep spiritual breath the last Thursday of every November to give thanks to the Lord and cherish the spirit of blessing and light that hovers over this bountiful nation. This is about the United States of America, which President Reagan and even others before him like JFK and Winthrop from the puritans’ time boisterously labeled as city upon a hill.

***************

Fast forward one score and three more years, in 2014, I am breathing the air of liberty and freedom, enjoying the sacred nature of life as the Lord endowed it to me, in the mythical land of the Yankees. As a new comer, I try to understand the Union and its sociopolitical topology and its people through a binocular that I developed for my understanding, which I call the American GPS. (The abbreviation GPS refers global positioning system that we use in identifying geographical locations. In its use here, it is applied in its allegorical value.) I am very positive about this country that hosts me like one of its own. Indeed, I yearn to thank the Lord for granting me the blessing to see and live in this bountiful land. This is a country where I internalize the value of eternal peace without war, ethnic strife, and senseless killings. As I pay tribute to this land I try to understand my American experience through the prism of this GPS, which allows me to confess my impression of America:

• Yes, I have witnessed that America is a land of freedom installed with two foundational and spiritual maxims: that all men are created equal, and that citizens are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. I witnessed that such American noble ideals have attracted the children of Adam from the four corners of the world as a spiritual magnet, making the nation a melting pot of all kinds of people thus rightly called a rainbow nation.

• Yes, I have witnessed that America affords unlimited opportunity to its citizens in realizing one’s talent to seize the so-called American dream while it is foundationally set on a fertile ground to spiral upward to increase the opportunity pie to all.

• Yes, I have also witnessed that America is work in progress that has shot itself in the foot, bearing a deep wound in her inner being because of slavery and other significantly unconscionable acts such as racism and discrimination. This wound has taken the United States to task perpetually to be a wounded healer¹ of its own destiny, with the resolve to mend its faults and resurrect from its inertia moments like a phoenix rises from its ashes.

• Yes, I am also convinced that America is pivoted forward with immortal vision garnishing the necessary spiritual energy from within, as mastered by the Lord, declaring the faith motto In God we trust (as eventually was stamped on the currency beginning 1800 and signed into law in 1956 by Eisenhower) while constantly rededicating itself to score better on its performance, thus gravitating to build a more perfect union.

Yes, America has one grand mission that is translated into these four dimensions—not just the two, not the three separately, but the four that flows from one holistic design. If one wants to understand America, let him see the four wrapped in one singular unique mission, thus the four in one and the one in four.

Yes, I see America through the eye of the founders. I see America through its bountiful nature that it promises to all its children. I also see America standing where a black man like Martin Luther King Jr. stands reckoning with its inertia points that has to deal with insufficient funds in cashing the promise of freedom to all. I also visualize America through its hopes and future as a more perfect union.

To recapitulate, America is a land of freedom that affords unlimited opportunity for its citizen. But America has real and unavoidable shortcomings that force it to search its soul ceaselessly while it is constantly rededicating itself to overcome the inertia within it with zeal to repair its faults.

To define America without comprehending the dynamic interplay among these four dimensions is incomplete, and it would unfairly discount the essence of the nation. In order to see America’s destiny for what it stands for in the succession of civilizations, one should transcend the mundane of fleshly thoughts of physical boundaries and temporal limitations into the eternal dimension of the odyssey of a great human enterprise of a unique kind. American civilization is indeed the final frontier of man’s odyssey to seek himself with liberty and freedom conditioned only by the will of God, who is the center of gravity to the final destiny of the nation beyond the wisdom of man. Knowing this power of Providence in guiding them, the people reckon with the fact that the United States is one nation under God while they utter in unison In God We Trust. Amen.

PRELUDE

No doubt, the Union is imperfect. However, it is also telling the obvious that America is in motion on a perpetual cycle toward building a more perfect union. Why do we say that? Ponder on just one foundational transformational change that the nation has experienced in its sociopolitical history.

Before the abolition of slavery the South Carolina State law includes the following clause:

That all negroes, mulattoes, mestizo’s or Indians, which at any time heretofore have been sold, or now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall be bought and sold for slaves, are hereby declared slaves; and they, and their children, are hereby made and declared slaves …²

During the same era, George Washington, who was the first president of the nation, as well as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, owned slaves. Slave trade was legal in the United States up until the emancipation of slaves was declared.

Of all 1,515,605 families in the 15 slave states in 1860, nearly 400,000 held slaves (roughly one in four), amounting to 8% of all American families.³

That was the grim face of America when the country was half free and half slave. Notwithstanding such painful past, the amazing grace of the Lord allowed it that America has metamorphosed into a qualitatively new era in 2008, electing its first African-American president. Simon Schama, a British historian known best for his work of fifteen-part series in BBC called A History of Britain, was amazed by this turn of biblical proportion transfiguration just as it begins to unfold, thus writing:

I can tell you exactly, give or take a minute or two, when American democracy came back from the dead, because I was there 7:15pm Central Time, 3 January 2008, Precinct 53, Theodore Roosevelt High … it was time for the Iowa voters to offer judgment on who they thought should be the forty-fourth president of the United States.⁴

As it turned out to be proven later, Iowa voters were right on the money, and their vote was a perfect projection of the mega lottery draw of the election history of the United States as it materialized within a year’s time of the Iowa straw poll. A young lawyer with one master key to success, an audacity to hope, walked into the White House on January 20, 2009, mesmerizing the whole universe with disbelief. If Barrack Obama were living in the 1772 America, he would probably be a slave working in a plantation. But the perpetual motion of America to a more perfect union has made it possible that a colored person has become the president of all Americans in a nation where only whites were once considered by law as real humans and true citizens of the nation. Whether one like it or not, the period from 2008 to 2016 would go down in history books that an African American has been the president of the nation for all its three hundred million people regardless of color, ethnic background, or political belief.

In its 230 years of history, the motion of America striding forward to uncharted territory is evident in such other qualitatively groundbreaking transformations: America moved from being colonized to being an occupying force such as in Philippines (1898–1946) and Iraq (2003—2011). America transformed itself from being a land of slave trade where a white man is the only right person to be treated like an honored human being to an advocate of freedom for people who live in tyranny thus becoming a living magnet for all people of the world. Time has changed so much that the American way of life has become a stamp of civilization across the world exhibiting its achievement in varied forms, ranging from the T-Model of auto enterprising to the Wright brothers, from McDonald to Hollywood, from basketball to conquering the moon, not to mention the ideals of freedom espoused through Wilsonian and other foreign policy doctrines that eventually translated into such policy instruments as Peace Corps initiatives and Voice of America as well as the USAID paradigm and more.

The list for transformational path of the United States would also encompass the change in the status of women. Women who had no right to vote up until 1920 are now part of the top brass of the American society contending to occupy the White House as president of the nation. Still more awakening is needed about half of the population of the nation. Even in 2014 a woman is paid 75 cent for every one dollar a man is paid for equal work done. More work remains to be done to attain equality for women which in turn make the nation even more equal and heading toward its goals.

Yes, America is moving around its orbit toward its destiny to build a more perfect union, which of course happens to be a moving target. And America has also been heralding a new model of sociopolitical construct where the ideals of democracy to realize the self-evident truths pertinent to the nature of man are realized. But where would America be as the Union gets more perfect? What is in store for the Union? We should tap the American GPS to comprehend the incremental as well as the transformational fulfilment of the constitutional destiny of the Union in all dimensions of life.

PREFACE

The American phenomena is installed on, and defined by four major foundational poles pertinent to the existential thesis of the nation and the intrinsic features exhibited in the life of the citizenry. These four paradigms are:

a) The axiom of freedom to live with one’s inalienable rights,

b) The axiom of opportunity to seize to fulfill the American dream,

c) The axiom of the American Inertia that become seeds of change the statuesque, and

d) The axiom of existential hope to build a more perfect union.

These are the four quadrants of the American compass that I have discerned through the portal of wisdom to contemplate on my American experience and understand the bountiful land I chose to live in the last twenty-three years.

After I have tried to comprehend the American reality both in my life and the way it flows in all dimensions of our interesting time, I have tried to grasp what I observe through a systematic prism of thought that has in turn allowed me to distill the seemingly infinite things I hear, see and witness into a manageable piece of information. As one can imagine, it is impossible to succeed in capturing every aspect of American life in this small book. Even with this limitation though, the methodology presented here tapping the symbolism of global positioning system (GPS) is expected to help the average reader sort out one’s understanding into an organized binocular that is worth applying in exploring this amazing adventure of glorious experiment of man’s self-will in our time that is simply called American civilization.

Indeed this GPS has helped me to see America from divergent prisms. When I hear someone quoting the first amendment to defend one’s free speech, I contemplate on the freedom quadrant of the compass. When I hear the rhetoric on American dream, I delve into the opportunity quadrant that America opens for every soul to venture into one’s entrepreneurial spirit in realizing one’s talent in the service of others and humanity at large. When I hear someone carrying a banner of protest and marching somewhere around Capitol Hill or the White House to seek better treatment in the eye of the law—such as the immigration debacle, the abortion debate as well as other important issues—I see America through the inertia prism in the design of the system, contemplating on the seeds of change that mushrooms continuously, leading the nation to look into itself and improvise its modus operandi. Finally, when I see the citizens of the nation debating with seriousness and purpose mindedness to make tomorrow a better day either through a policy initiative like equal pay for women or healthcare for all Americans, I see the vision of the founders at work to build a more perfect Union.

Whether it is the most recent presidential campaign between Governor Romney and President Obama or the life path followed by an illegal immigrant who sneaked through the boarder to seek better opportunity in this bountiful land; whether it is the foreign policy issue initiatives behind the USAID that send America’s spirit of capitalism and democratic idealism into the four corners of the world or the war in Afghanistan that ensued after the tragedy of 9/11; whether it is the transcending vision of President Kennedy to conquer the outer space or the continuous political debate related with abortion or marriage; this paradigm allows me to sift through the morass of things and see the ever-fascinating American phenomena and interpret the unique destiny of a nation called America. Indeed, the compass allows me to interpret the journey of the nation as a perpetual cycle to fulfill a transcending spiritual mission allotted to it in building a much better society for posterity and the human race at large. More often than not, the compass format developed in this writing has become a paradigm I tap in understanding American-related issues and realities, be it business, political, cultural, economic, or spiritual in nature, evaluating it in terms of the intrinsically built framework that is discernible while contemplating on the perpetual evolution of America to its destiny.

Though the approach implemented in this small book is a quick scanning of limited but essential topics, the reader is led to see how the four corners of the American phenomena are interrelated to each other in a vibrant dynamics in which the sociopolitical human enterprise is energized by the motto of freedom for the citizen so as to grant unlimited opportunity for every soul to realize one’s God-given talents. In the full context of our discussion, we will discern clearer prisms to see the functionality of America’s system where the social and political fabric has an in-built mechanism to deal with the conditions and limitations in it so that it can recharge itself and recalibrate with the kind of zeal and commitment to march toward building a more perfect union. It is this rejuvenating nature of America’s phenomena that Alex de Tocqueville admired and signified when he said, The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. How does America complete its revolutions in repairing its faults and build a better of itself tomorrow than what is there to see today? How does America regenerate itself? We attempt to understand this through the American compass.

The obvious operational question would be what is the American compass and how does it represent the perpetual American cycle? As a start to our discussion, we tap constitutionally defined concepts to build the American compass and show its relevance in understanding the American phenomena in a systematic manner so that everyone who is fascinated with this great nation would have a more systematic paradigm in becoming part of the system, not in a rhetoric sense, but in a more profoundly philosophical and spiritual sense, thus empowered to know the source of America’s freedom, grace, and the blessing the Lord bestows upon this bountiful land. In the first four chapters of the book we build the compass, identify its poles, and define its quadrants and the laws that governs each quadrant. Once we familiarize ourselves the existential value of the compass in understanding the American phenomena, we are going to tap it to understand varying facets of the American system ranging from the political to the cultural, from economic to foreign policy matters. Since the American phenomena is a corpus of infinite value, it is hard to cover all. But representative topics are chosen to highlight the value of a systematic approach to understand it. The author believes that such systematic approach in looking into the American reality would help the reader developed a better paradigm to increase one’s awareness about the American reality not as a static phenomenon but as a revolving, dynamic construct. This awareness in turn enhances the citizen’s conscious effort to be a productive member of the society while pursuing the yearnings of his heart in realizing his God-given potential in the service of his fellow citizen by positively contributing to the greater cause of building a more perfect union.

CHAPTER 1

The American Compass

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

—George Washington

American civilization is guided by a living compass. This compass is intrinsically embedded in the design of the nation’s Constitution, which is the ultimate frame of reference in governing the nation. That said when we contemplate on the American system of government and its underlying power structure as a one holistic system, we are necessarily drawing into the monumental pivotal forces that sustain the socio-religious-political life of the American people as one nation. Within the one functional system of government, we find elemental subsystems, which are identified to be (a) the we the people, as the engine of the system (b) the Presidency, the operational actor (c) the Judiciary, the law executing body (d) the Congress, the law making entity. These interrelated systems and subsystems of the government structure are dynamic in their functional relationship frequently lubricated by the transformational oil of perpetual change to upgrade the system and make it function better in its motion toward building a more perfect union. These four are identified the building blocks of the compass we discuss here.

It goes without saying that the ultimate power center are the people of the United States, reckoned in the living constitutional document as we the people. These concept represent an evolving and dynamic force that should be understood and contemplated as an eternal spiritual entity that remains the foundational source of legitimacy of the sociopolitical construct. It is this intrinsic living power of the people that Abraham Lincoln underlined when he said,

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.⁵

This power is then systematically structured and manifested as a system of government with three major branches: the Congress as the elected representatives of the people being the legislative branch, the executive branch endowed with the power to administer the nation’s affair epitomized by the presidency, and the judiciary branch that is responsible for interpreting the law. The intrinsic relationship of the three branches as part and parcel of the one American system of government, and interwoven relationship that exists among the branches is exhibited in the flow of authority, responsibility, and accountability within these elements making up the organic nature of the sociopolitical life of the society. As we try to envision the constitutional destiny of the land and its people through a perpetual cycle that helps understand the temporal and eternal motion of the nation, we identify the four pillars, and hence the four corners of the American sociopolitical grid:

a) North – "We the people represents that spiritual force, and hence the seat of power" representing the ultimate source of power in handling the nation’s business.

b) South –The presidency. The president of the United States is the holder of the office of the presidency, representing the executive branch. The president is the image of power and wisdom of the people as one spirit of the nation who will be setting the operational agenda of the Union to march toward goals as agreed upon by we the people. As the holder of the office, the president is in a way the chief executive diplomat of the nation as well as chief of the Armed Forces.

c) East – "The congress" represents the will of the people that is designed as a bicameral institution, involving the House of Representatives and the Senate, two assemblies of one whole and integrated institution made up of elected representatives who will be legislating on the nation’s business that will eventually become the law of the land.

d) West – "The judiciary" represents the third branch of the US government that interprets and applies the law while making sure its constitutionality. This branch includes courts established under Article III of the constitution by the congress such as the Supreme Court of the United States, US District Courts, US Court of International Trade, US Court of Appeals, and District Courts. One should also note that there are legislative branch courts within the federal court system such as the US Tax court, US Bankruptcy court and others which are referred as Article I tribunal courts. Our focus here is the courts established by Congress as part of the Judiciary branch.

These four poles of the American compass and the four quadrant created therein are reflected in diagram 1-A.

Diagram 1-A: The American Compass

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In this attempt to capture the synopsis of a unique human enterprise like the United States of America through a systematically designed directional compass, we simplify the essence of the nation, without being simplistic, in terms of its a constitutional framework anchored on the spirit of we the people that runs its affairs through democratically elected government with volition to guarantee equality to all citizens under the law. Let the reader note that we take American people for this discussion as citizens of the United States of America, who are represented by their democratically elected government and are empowered by the constitution to be part of the electoral system, thus with the right and responsibility to vote.

As we analyze the systemic relationship of the four directions in the American GPS, we learn that the four sides of the compass cannot be taken each as a stand-alone entity. Rather we see that there is an inherent relationship that exists among them to help us understand the whole American phenomena as one integrated unit rather an amalgam of different parts. The north represents the intrinsic spiritual power that is propelling the motion of the nation. The intrinsic power of the nation lies in the fundamental thesis of we the people. When this power is personified in actualized energy form, we find it represented in the south, as represented by the office of the presidency. In other words, from the voice of the people, we see power flowing downward and hence delegated to the president, as the chief executive officer of the nation, who is charged with ultimate responsibility to provide executive leadership in handling the nation’s business. The other two sides of the government, which are represented on the horizontal axis of the compass, signify the spirit of the nation that defines the working modality as exemplified through the Congress thus reflecting the democratic nature of governance, and the judiciary branch that glorifies the legal face of the land and hence the abiding power of the law in the land.

Whereas the Congress is the assembly of the representatives of the people in a bicameral structure that involves the senate and the House of Representatives, the Judiciary branch is responsible for the interpretation and hence the implementation of the law of the land. The judiciary branch, symbolized by the Supreme Court, comprises all legal bodies of the land ranging from the federal level down to the lower courts. Let us first discuss the two axes, as power grids of the compass, to get a basic understanding of the source of power, and its manifestations, which underlies the whole fabric of the sociopolitical dynamics of the nation.

A)   The power Axis as source of energy

As we can see in the compass above, the major power grid is the vertical line that is identified as the Constitution of the United States, which is the living document known to be the supreme law of the land. A simple definitional description of the constitution and its elements is in order:

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The first three Articles of the Constitution establish the rules and separate powers of the three branches of the federal government: a legislature, the bicameral Congress; an executive branch led by the President; and a federal judiciary headed by the Supreme Court. The last four Articles frame the principle of federalism. The Tenth Amendment confirms its federal characteristics. The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in eleven states. It went into effect on March 4, 1789. The United States Constitution can be changed through the amendment process. Constitutional amendments are added to it, altering its effect. The first ten amendments, ratified by three-fourths of the states in 1791, are known as the Bill of Rights. The Constitution has been amended seventeen additional times (for a total of twenty-seven amendments). Principles of the Constitution, as amended, are applied in courts of law by judicial review. The Constitution guides American law and political culture."⁶

An evolving document that has been prone to a lot of improvisations in the form of amendments (27 amendments in total to date), the constitution defines the spirit of the nation, the system of governance, and the modus operandi of the relationship between the different branches of government. For this reason, we put the constitution as the source of all legitimate powers in the land as it is demonstrated to represent the vertical axis of the compass. The source of power in the constitution is then glorified in the North, like in a gravitational magnet, by the real source of the power it represents, which is we the people. This power of the people is personified and projected into one spirit through the president of the nation as he is the one to represent the land in one voice being its chief executive officer. In light of this maker up, the constitution is drawn as the vertical power grid with two nodes: a.) We the people in the north pole of the compass, and b) the presidency as the tip of the southern pole. Let us briefly touch base with these two pivotal forces of the American design:

a) The seat of power: we the people

The potent phrase we the people represents the eternal actors, the owners, the spirit, the power, the presence behind the constitution of the United States as a living document of the land on which hinges every aspect of the nation’s existence. This phrase is the invisible, operational and spiritual force and hence the essence behind the living document that has sustained this great nation for more than two hundred thirty years. For this very reason we tap we the people as the power base of the American phenomena thus poised on the North pole of the power grid in the American compass, reflecting that the people of the nation are the ultimate source and seat of power for the American system of government to function as the founders envisioned it.

Of course, it is this powerful phrase that we find in the opening sentence of the constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.⁷

Framed on the north pole of the compass we thus contemplate on this spirited concept as the source of power we reckon herewith. In other words, the phrase We the people of the United States is considered as the most potent frame of reference to the operational value of the document reflecting that the supreme law of the land from which stems all legal parameters draws its total strength and hence binding spirit from the people of the nation. It is this intrinsic power of the people defined in the form of the constitution that is represented in the vertical line of the compass glorifying the foundation of the nation as a sociopolitical construct whose existential meaning is to be defined in terms of the will of its people.

As a keynote speaker in the 1976 Democratic National Convention, which followed in the aftermath of the impeachment case against President Richard Nixon, Barbara Jordan, a prominent congresswoman from Texas, had made a strong case to show that real power as represented in the constitution of the United States belongs for the we the people as she argued,

We believe that people are the source of all government power … A government is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding common good. A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation … Let each person do his part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each of us.⁸

A prolific speaker whose thundering voice remains a living testimony of her conviction about the document, Ms. Jordan defended the power of the people as the foundation of the constitution. It would embolden our case further if we also listen President Ronald Regan in his farewell speech underlining the fact that the source of power for the government lies with the We the People:

We the People tell the government what to do; it doesn’t tell us. We the People are the driver; the government is the car, and we decide where it should go,and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which We the People tell the government what it is allowed to do. We the people are free.

The constitution is indeed the source of power and energy for the nation and its people to hold the constituencies together in the ongoing effort to create a better social construct where the citizenry live peacefully, enjoying their God given right. In contemporary America, this concept, we the people, represents all the people of the nation as citizens of the land, both natives and new legal immigrants alike, who flock from the four corners of the world to find their newly found home as their country thus exhibiting the fulfillment of the destiny of the nation as reflected in the banner E pluribus Unum to mean out of the many, one or from many, one.⁹

While the constitution provides the all-encompassing framework to govern the nation, with the