The Carpenter's Foundation

The house was built on law. The carpenter replaced it with sand.

Every house needs a foundation. The American house was built on documents — old wood, flawed wood, but wood that had been tested, reinforced, amended. Twenty-seven times the carpenters returned to strengthen the frame.

The new carpenter does not believe in foundations. "I don't need the law," he says, and the walls begin to lean.

Greenland for the taking. Panama next. The carpenter draws plans for rooms that don't exist, in houses that belong to others. The blueprints say "mine" where they should say "theirs."

In 1939, other carpenters gathered at the great hall in the city. They hung their symbols next to the old general's portrait. They too believed foundations were optional. We remember how that house fell.

The historian warns: the new carpenter is using the old blueprints. The same nails. The same hammer. The same promise that this house will be greater than all houses, if only we remove the foundation first.

We file this regret. The carpenter builds on sand. The walls lean. The house will fall.