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The Constitution does not belong to anyone – not to any group, or interest, or party, or class, or interpretation.

Or, to put it more widely, it belongs to everyone, to the people with whom it is concerned and to those others who hold this document to be a model upon which to build a just society.

Such a society which carries the name of ‘Republic’, is maintained by law, protects individual liberty, is influenced by each member of that society through a process of representation, and establishes a government to carry out these functions.

This government seeks to maintain the rights of All.  While recognizing the great diversity of view that exists within a large nation, it nevertheless seeks to maintain these rights within the confines of harmony and peace, so that those who carry divergent points of view may find a forum in which debate and discussion remain possible. 

When the Constitution is taken to be a document that can be solely interpreted or understood by an interest group or faction, however large, in contrast to its interpretation by those who are duly appointed to represent the people as a whole, such usurpation must be rejected by the body politic in favor of a higher need, namely, that the Constitution continue to represent the Republic as a whole, through the process of representation that lies at its heart.  

Interpretation, in its highest sense, combines the faculty of reason and understanding with the deeper layers of insight and inspiration that wed mind, heart, and spirit.  A document that concerns itself with values as the basis for law, no matter how plainly it is stated, is still open to a variety of views as to how these values may be applied in any given situation.  In order to discover the deepest layer of truth that such a document contains, both government and individuals must seek such truth within themselves through a process of reflection, contemplation, and the pursuit of inner guidance.

A Republic which is founded in law, cannot allow itself to be dismantled by those who seek to reject the laws upon which it stands.  Nor can it allow those who claim a selective or partial interest in such law, to speak for the whole.

In all cases, the foundation of law must seek to represent the entire population, not just the sentiments or views of the majority, lest the Constitution, itself, become what it has, in its very core, been guarding against from the start – an instrument that fosters the tyranny of a majority and denies the rights of a minority for reasons it claims to supersede these rights.

The dual protection against tyranny by an excessively strong government  and tyranny by the majority against a smaller portion of the population, is central to the intent of the framers of the Constitution, and central to the concept of Republic and the foundation upon which it stands.

No person, group, party, movement, or organization may take from others their right to hold their own points of view if these do not restrict the same freedoms for others.

No person, group, party, movement, or organization may accord to themselves the sole right to interpret the Constitution, except that this person or group be duly elected or appointed as representing the people as a whole and given this authority.

The right to disregard the process of representation through which government is established and maintained in the name of a higher cause, whatever that cause may be, is strictly rejected as ‘factionalism’ by the framers of the Constitution, and stands as one of the primary reasons for which this document came into being in the first place.

It therefore behooves those who seek the public good, who desire to protect the rights of All, who aim to maintain harmony and peace within a nation that thrives on peace and is beleaguered by strife, to find a way of coming together in Unity when disagreements arise, assuming that the honor of honorable men and women will allow them to seek the same ultimate ends of peace, justice, freedom, and harmony. 

Such Unity lies at the core of a Republic.  It is not a Unity of points of view, for these may differ.  Rather, it is a Unity of trust and of respect for the essential love and concern for the public good that lies within the deepest heart of all.  It is also a Unity which houses an understanding that the sacred life of each one, given by the Creator of All, must eternally be respected.