Foundations are 222 years strong

Although it is not a federal public holiday, schools, religious organizations and governmental entities of all shapes and sizes from local to federal will spend some time on Thursday, Sept. 17, studying and celebrating the U.S. Constitution as well as Citizenship Day.

That day was selected because 222 years ago, on Sept. 17, 1787, various representatives of the original 13 founding states signed the Constitution that begins so famously and humbly with, "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."

The day is combined with Citizenship Day to recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens of this great nation.

As I approach my 57th birthday next Wednesday, I am reminded so poignantly of that day 39 years ago when I turned 18 in 1970 and took the oath of citizenship for the first time at a local fire station in Spokane, Wash.

That was the same day I signed up for Selective Service and fully faced the very real possibility of being drafted for military service at the height of the Vietnam conflict.

For me, a foreign-born naturalized citizen who had spent the first 15 years of my life as a resident of The Republic of the Philippines, I technically had a choice of the country to which I would proclaim my allegiance.

At that time, however, the Philippines was well on the road to civil war; martial law had been declared in several major cities and would soon spread across the entire island nation; then-President Ferdinand Marcos was running for re-election to a second six-year term, and would soon dismantle the country's constitution in order to create a parliamentary form of government that would allow him unfettered powers as Prime Minister.

In short, as I weighed my options, there really was only one viable path, so I chose it.

Others have had to suffer much and sacrifice everything to make a similar choice.

Yet, they do so willingly.

What a great and wonderful country we live in, despite its flaws.

When we concentrate on the good that surrounds us, we can almost overlook the uncivility of a rogue Congressman, U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, who loudly yelled "Liar!" from the audience during a Presidential address on health care reform and the need to end the bickering in order to get down to business.

It is high time for "we the people" to keep in the forefront of our every thought, statement and action those founding principles from 222 years ago that so nobly guided our nation's founders, shapers and leaders.