Recipe for good government

The below was written by Fran Hudson, an NC Native committed to preserving constitutional rights.

If you are like me, you can remember tastes from your childhood. As I write this, my mouth is watering just thinking about my grandmother’s squash casserole, great grandmother’s sweet tea, great aunt Mary’s pound cake, and cousin Mitt’s pickles. They made their creations based on memory and had no reason to write the recipe down because they “knew it by heart,” as we say in the South. These matriarchs were the providers and caretakers trusted with that knowing.

This is much like the people who wrote the founding documents in the beginning of our state. There was a knowing, a deeply ingrained understanding of the way society and government was intended to be. They had recently severed the connection with the British and knew that wasn’t a recipe they wanted to recreate.

By reading the 1776 version of the Constitution, one can easily see the writers were not simply throwing things in the pot and hoping it made a delicious stew. They put into writing the principles they knew were the correct ingredients to secure the rights of the people. These words, along with Halifax Resolves and the Declaration of Rights, were deliberate.  They led the way to the formation of our state and had an impact on the documents that formed our nation.

One essential ingredient they included was Section 44. It was that special sauce that took it up another level and gave the people what they wanted and needed. It reads: “That the declaration of rights is hereby declared to be part of the Constitution of this State and ought never to be violated on any pretense whatever.” Those who wrote the versions in 1868 and 1971 continued to follow that part of the recipe. They included the Declaration of Rights within the new constitutions themselves as Article I.

The way the government operates today is more like making a mud pie than a lemon meringue. The critical ingredients that are intended to make up the current government equivalent of culinary art have been long forgotten. It is as if people view the fundamental law as an old, faded, crumpled recipe with tattered edges on the back of a hardware store receipt that is no longer legible. They begin at the instruction of putting it in the oven to see what turns out, without knowing the ingredients, preparation, and temperature required to make it visually appealing and palatable. Also, without first taking The People’s order to ensure the dish created is what is delivered to their table.

The knowing of ingredients, how to combine them, and where to obtain them has been lost over time. The source of authority, quality of duty, flavor profile of obligations, and how they must culminate into something that serves ALL people appears to be forgotten. The people rely on government to tell them the recipe. But they don’t even know what shelf the cookbook is on, and the people don’t know either. Many start at the end, assuming the required instructions to achieve best possible results are just a chance culmination. Yet, without that wisdom, they will never meet the expectations of the people and could even produce something that would make them sick to their stomachs.

Many people who run for office are like actors in commercials that show people enjoying a meal and pretend to take a bite with elation. If you know anything about marketing, you know the real food does not look like the commercials. Those Hungry Man dinners are pretty disappointing, aren’t they?

Tactics are used to make you believe what they are selling will be everything you imagined it would be, and more. During the campaigns, politicians promise things like “responsible growth,” “connected greenways,” “reduced traffic,” “better services,” and “more recreational opportunities” instead of the base ingredients that make all that happen by default. Ingredients like the characteristics of honesty, integrity, character, perseverance. These were well known to the writers of the “original recipe” and ensured government would serve us well if followed.

Maybe the recipe is presented by someone who doesn’t know the language, or they are holding it upside down. Reading words backwards and upside down is very difficult if not impossible, especially when the writing is the ornate script created by quill pens and ink wells. The beauty of the old parchment and the contents it holds are invaluable.

The documents that reflect the ingredients of good government have been preserved because of their importance to all North Carolinians. The people must know the recipe, just as those at the founding knew it. Our school system needs to go back to the basics and first teach the North Carolina Constitution in its entirety. The children of our great state need to know what it means, beginning with the Declaration of Rights guaranteed to be protected above all else. The current curriculum has the students compare the state constitution to the federal and analyze how society’s changing values impact the modern constitution. This is the equivalent of comparing a grandmother’s recipe to a modern chef’s.

The table that holds the flavors of history and freedom presents such a wonderful aroma and will create memories for future generations to reminisce upon, as happens with those delicious meals from our own family’s past. We still have the beautifully scripted recipe, and it is our responsibility to require the government follow it correctly.
 Fran Hudson is a North Carolina native and dedicated system administrator with a deep fascination for the fundamental principles of law. In her professional life, she ensures systems operate with precision and integrity, mirroring her personal commitment to seeing constitutional rights upheld according to their original intent.

Fran Hudson is a North Carolina native and dedicated system administrator with a deep fascination for the fundamental principles of law. In her professional life, she ensures systems operate with precision and integrity, mirroring her personal commitment to seeing constitutional rights upheld according to their original intent.