CHOOSE “WE” INSTEAD OF “ME”

CHOOSE “WE” INSTEAD OF “ME”

By John Spiegelhoff

Preamble to the U.S. 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.

I had a coach during high school that always said, “There is no I in TEAM.” He was a wise teacher. He knew that the only way to succeedSign saying there is no "I" in team was to play as a team – meaning individuals working as one for the common good and supporting fellow teammates when they were playing poorly or lacked the skill of others. In layman’s terms – “We” had to help one another achieve a goal.

So when I look at the Preamble to the Constitution, I find there is no “I” or “Me”. The very first word is “WE.” Given this most important document in our storied history as a country, I felt compelled to apply it to current issues:

  • Choose publically financed campaigns (we) instead of the onerous Citizens United decision (me).
  • Choose expanding voting rights (we) instead of restricting them (me).
  • Choose a single payer national healthcare system (we) over profits for insurance companies (me).
  • Choose quality public education (we) over privatized profitmaking “education” exploiting our youth (me).
  • Choose tuition-free college for our young people (we) rather than high interest student loans profiting Wall Street banks (me).
  • Choose equality for women in both employment and healthcare (we) instead of financially exploiting them and limiting their freedom to make personal medical decisions (me).
  • Choose clean energy sources that protect our planet for all (we) instead of dirty energy sources that profit a wealthy few (me).
  • Choose responsible regulation to protect our citizens, communities and environment (we) instead of deregulation to increase profits at the expense of all else (me).
  • Choose supporting workers (we) instead of corporations (me).
  • Choose people (we) over profits (me).
  • Choose communities (we) over corporations (me).

Reject the lie that you can only get ahead on your own. The communities we live in do not operate this way. Don’t buy the ideology of the oligarchs. They will spend billions upon billions of dollars this election cycle attempting to sell their version of the world to the rest of us-the 99%. It is up to “We” to stop the madness. Choose “We” (the people) instead of “Me” (the oligarchs).