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"Nation" Is Related to Governance

Nation: the word

"Nation" was born from a word that meant "to be born'' came to mean "breed" or "stock."

It next came to mean ''that which has been born,'' that is ''a breed." But it soon came to refer to s species or race.

"Way down yonder in the Indian Nation" is a refrain from an old song which got me to thinking as an America am I of a race or a racist, or both or neither? It seems that most Indian tribes fit the meaning of nation more fully than we do.

Race

So according to the dictionaries, "nation" came to refer to a race of people.

"A race of people" people implies a strong blood or genetic relationship.

History

Our blood and our history seem to have strong effects upon us. A word's history is carried with it, much like your history is part of you. A word seems pretty bloodless, but once one gets into our mind it can get pretty bloody.

Very recently in our history we started to use ''nationality'' and ''nation" in reference to our country of origin and meanings, if not become confused, certainly began to change for many of us. "Nation" has been taken over as a political/legal concept of nation as ''an organized territorial unit.'' by this notion the United States of America can be called a nation.

Webster dictionary

My Webster dictionary uses the words birth and race as part of an ongoing part of the meaning of "nation." It goes on to say that nation refers to a group or aggregation of closely related persons. Closely related persons form a "we." How do we form a we? Can co-operation and communication do the job?

Culture

A common culture forms a we. A culture is learned even though much of that learning is not consciously done. We can learn. It's possible to learn together.

Are we willing to learn together? I think that we create and maintain a more perfect union when we want to. It just takes some doing.

Community

Another dictionary says that what we have come to call a community of people of one or more nationalities and possessing amore or less defined territory and government, is a nation. I can't remember the exact nature of a community just now. I does seem like this dictionary is trying to describe us. How are we describing ourselves these days? Dictionary compilers keep trying to give a realistic definition to a word we have twisted out of shape.

Language

Another modern dictionary tried this. "A nation is is a people, who share common customs, origins, history, and often language." This seems a good try at defining what many people now mean when they use the word, nation. This culture, union.

Legal and Political Actuality

Another more modern dictionary seems to lack heart and feels less congenial to me. It says, a nation is a rather large group of people under a single, usually independent government. Looking at the reality it may be a try at the actual reality, but it is not very attractive.

Country

Well, many of us feel that we have a darn good country. We can be on our way to deciding or remembering who we are and what we are. A country seems an Ok start.

Still, nation, does have a nice ring to it. Could the Navajo nation or Iceland be examples to take a look at. They may be good

examples for nations, but not the right ones for us.

Thanks for reading.

Word Power to you.

rcs

A Few Quotes: Por algo Sera.

A lot depends upon how one interprets them

"The philosophy in the classroom today is the philosophy of the government " by Norman Williams

I am not sure this is true. I believe that parents and citizens are responsible for their schools and that which is taught in the classroom. When they abdicate that responsibility Children and youth begin to suffer. They note promptly that something is not right in school or classroom. They usually do not like it, but usually figure "that's just the way things are, and go through the motions as best as they can. Later many of them figure "there is a reason for this" and the begin to consider the nature of the reason for the way things are. Is it teacher? Student? Those above teachers? Above students? Just who is responsible for the way our public schools are?

"The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world."

by George Orwell

I think that our concepts of honesty, experience, and good evidence could take up a lot of slake. I Orwell meant by ''the world," people. Things like truth fade out of people. I bet there is a reason for that.

"The public will believe anything so long as it is not founded on truth."

By Edith Sitwell

This seems an exaggeration and not quite true. It seems that most of our public is educated in our public education systems. It seems that the public is made up of the ones responsible of our public education systems. What happens when they fail to honor their responsibility. We may believe lies or falsehoods, but that is usually not a favorite doing of ours.

"Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea"

That is republicanism and democracy and the idea that governance is in the hands of the citizens and is their responsibility. When they do not uphold that responsibility the fall into ignorance. What was the reasons for your parent's and your grandparent's reason for the way they governed. What was their understanding of republicanism? democracy? What was the reason for their way of governance? A republic was not to be governed by a small elite, nor by a church. A democracy was the abundant participation of the people in their own governance. The more people the better. The people have usually been considered to be citizens of the state. It was considered by many that the governance practiced be the people was better than rule by a king, most of the time.

by John Gunther

What do you think? Who is responsible for you and yours? Who is responsible for your neighborhood? Your health? Your organization. Your county? Your co-operation? Your education?

rcs