Dual "unions"

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell
******Standing Together

The idea of a group in independent states or nations coming together to form a "union" is an opportunity for something special to happen.

In 1787 the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA came together to form "a more perfect union.

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 history of the European Union is of much shorter duration. And the beginning paragraphs of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty establishing the EU stand in contrast to our beginning words:

By this Treaty, the High Contracting Parties establish among themselves a European Union, hereinafter called "the Union".
This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen.
The Union shall be founded on the European Communities, supplemented by the policies and forms of cooperation established by this Treaty. Its task shall be to organize, in a manner demonstrating consistency and solidarity, relations between the Member States and between their peoples.

Tags: constitution United States European Union history. My "topical post" today at South by Southwest is about the choices we have in the face of bad news.