And yet, part of me would like to hope that common threads do exist, even if they are buried under 45 years of torture and despair, of crass nepotism and brainwash. A revolution in 1989 tore down few of the walls between us, the capitalism that ensued was rabid and de-humanizing. The current state of affairs is gray and frustrating. A lot of us hang on to the hope that a new constitution might help, that it might galvanize the efforts for change already under way.

State constitutions need not be regal in scope and length, drawn-out texts of consensus and valor, in my opinion. They don’t even need to be unitary documents, but rather compilations of them, gathered over time, with history as proof to their veracity. Having no such text, in my mind, negates the very principles of a nation state, however anachronous this concept is starting to become in our century. The US Constitution and the American Declaration of Independence together draw some parallels to how similar documents might be drafted in our own 21^st century Romania.

Now I admit that having been brainwashed by a different system of education, I hold their truths to be self-evident, but those words formed a bond of common sense and decency between the governance and the population, by seeking some very simple goals: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All else that is encased in these documents deals with these stated principles. The Declaration of Independence, chiefly through its preamble, also talks about a time when “any Form of Government becomes destructive”, and how “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” It also talks about how “all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

My own zealotry for human rights, freedom of the press and of religion aside, I believe this country needs a constitution much in the same fashion as the US one, with clear and stated goals, with checks and balances between the legislative, executive and judicial branches, with fewer senators and representatives, with a parliament or congress of people chosen by name and not by party, with clauses written in blood that protect the consumer and the employee, with respect to minorities, visible or invisible, with freedom to worship, with guarantees on the freedom of speech, of the press, and of property, of people to peacefully assemble, habeas corpus and speedy trials with jury and an independent judge. We cannot change politics, nor can we become enamored of them and their representatives. But we can surely limit their scope to our advantage.

I’m not waving the American flag because the United States is what it is today. I’m simply gazing at a successful system of governance based on understanding human nature and its pitfalls, its dangers and its cruelty. I would like a Constitution that is more than just a draft of a few half-assed, second grade ideas that we have heard about on TV during Communist times, as our current Constitution is in its wretched essence, written by self-interested and Machiavellian lip-servants. I want something that is so different, so liberal, so essentially free of the past that we might call it the beginning of a new revolution, one that might not be imposed from the top-down, but rather find those common threads of humanity which bind us all.