‘We the People’ Bad Example

I have just been reading about deconstruction (UCI Will Try Deconstructing with Yale Critic,” by Lynn Smith, March 9), and I’m afraid I still don’t have a clear understanding of what it’s about--if it’s actually about anything. However, one thing I understand clearly--that J. Hillis Miller doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says that the “ ‘We the people’ in the Declaration of Independence has no reference in reality, since ‘the people’ did not exist until they were first defined in that document.” That phrase doesn’t occur in the Declaration of Independence. It is from the preamble to the Constitution, which was written 11 years later.

I hope he has only recently been using this example, since I would like to think that at least an occasional Yale student is familiar with these writings.

WILLIAM E. QUADE

Van Nuys