Tuesday, May 25, 2004
We the People...in order to form a more perfect union.....
The citizens of the EU are going through one of the greatest exercises possible. They're debating how to establish their constitution.
This piece in the Boston Globe discusses the struggles and stresses as the European Union tries to come together on a body of law.
I'm a major US Colonial History fan. I love to read about the founding fathers and their passion for putting our nation together. Their foibles and struggles have always fascinated me. Their love of country and their extreme devotion to the American experiment was always been so moving to me. Today as I read this section of the piece I actually got tears in my eyes. It gave me such a pang for our nation...especially considering the circumstances of where our nation is right now....
The bitter debate is over big issues still on the table such as the legal force of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the voting weights for EU countries, and whether or not nations will have veto power in such areas as taxation, foreign policy, and EU funding.
There are other deeply emotional issues, such as whether or not the preamble to the constitution should include a reference to ''God" or to Europe's ''Christian tradition," as has been proposed.
So far the preamble has no mention of God or Christianity, and the fiercely secular French government is insistent that to have any such mention would violate the separation of church and state.
Italy, Spain, and Poland -- Europe's most Catholic countries -- have been adamant that Europe's history of Christianity be recognized as part of what binds these countries.
But the most profound battle lines in the debate have been drawn between London -- which seeks to temper and tone down what it sees as too much integration of the countries and a loss of independence -- and Paris and Berlin, which want closer cooperation among European countries in fields such as tax, social policy, and justice.
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison have to be smiling....
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This piece in the Boston Globe discusses the struggles and stresses as the European Union tries to come together on a body of law.
I'm a major US Colonial History fan. I love to read about the founding fathers and their passion for putting our nation together. Their foibles and struggles have always fascinated me. Their love of country and their extreme devotion to the American experiment was always been so moving to me. Today as I read this section of the piece I actually got tears in my eyes. It gave me such a pang for our nation...especially considering the circumstances of where our nation is right now....
The bitter debate is over big issues still on the table such as the legal force of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the voting weights for EU countries, and whether or not nations will have veto power in such areas as taxation, foreign policy, and EU funding.
There are other deeply emotional issues, such as whether or not the preamble to the constitution should include a reference to ''God" or to Europe's ''Christian tradition," as has been proposed.
So far the preamble has no mention of God or Christianity, and the fiercely secular French government is insistent that to have any such mention would violate the separation of church and state.
Italy, Spain, and Poland -- Europe's most Catholic countries -- have been adamant that Europe's history of Christianity be recognized as part of what binds these countries.
But the most profound battle lines in the debate have been drawn between London -- which seeks to temper and tone down what it sees as too much integration of the countries and a loss of independence -- and Paris and Berlin, which want closer cooperation among European countries in fields such as tax, social policy, and justice.
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison have to be smiling....
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