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We the People...or we the sheeple?


I posted this at wtpnet.org also. I'm very concerned at the state of this country, and not just for the obvious reasons that we are all fighting against. My concern is this. Our country and our world is in an unprecedented crisis. What with the wars, the economy, escalating violence both here and abroad, the continued loss of liberties, the obvious corruption and Constitutional violations of our government, including war crimes, not to mention the continued embezzlement of money from the people by the criminal corporations.

Our country is in a downward spiral, the people are being bled dry, yet very few of us are willing to talk about the obvious. Or rather there is plenty of people talking about it, but there is very little confidence in any solution. Our system is failing, and no amount of running around trying to plug the individual holes in the levee of our society is going to prevent the inevitable from occurring. We the People must get serious about reform and we must do it now if we hope to have any future whatsoever to leave to our children.

Most people feel trapped by the system. But what they don't realize is that the founders of this country left us the legacy of sovereignty over our government, whether they intended to or not. The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of this country and it sits under glass at the National Archives attesting to it's venerated place in our mutual history. It declares to the world that

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness....But when a long train of abuses & usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, & to provide new guards for their future security."

This document means exactly what it says. The common mistake of most people is the assumption that the Constitution exists to control society at large, and that is mostly incorrect. While establishing a few societal foundations such as exist in the Preamble, it's main focus remains the design and functioning of government. It states

"WE, the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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 fact remains that even with the creation and acceptance of the Constitution, we never gave up the fundamental right to alter or abolish our government as declared to the world in the Declaration of Independence. We the People never gave up that right. Read the Supreme Court decision of Marbury v. Madison (1803) to verify this for yourself. The Chief Justice was John Marshall, an individual with a long government service history, and associate of such individuals as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson among many others.

This is not a call for conventional revolution. No. We need to achieve our futures through different means. If the use of violence throughout our history has taught us anything, it has taught us that violence only begets more violence. A Universal Law, if you will. Basically, you get back what you put out. That includes violence. No, this is a call for people to exercise our sovereignty over government, to organize a Peoples Constitutional Convention.

What I and many others propose here is not easy by any means. I mean who's kidding who, right? But that does not make it any less necessary as we struggle for ways to head off the disastrous future we are certainly tumbling towards as we speak.

I ask you to consider the possibility that exists with a well thought out campaign for a Peoples Constitutional Convention, a real grass roots movement with the firm goal of strengthening and protecting the rights of the people as well as the Constitution from future assaults.

Think of the rippling effect through our bloated legal system and prison-industrial complex that would occur if we say incorporate the UN Human Rights Declaration and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into a new gender-inclusive Preamble. Sound good?

Then through Amendment we can establish a mechanism to enforce the Sworn Oath of Office on government employees, as well as strip corporations and other fictitious entities of the rights that can only exist for living beings, human as well as all other life on the planet. We should never take a back seat to corporate greed.

And while were at it, we must end the self-destructive ban on the most useful natural substance on the planet, the industrial hemp and medicinal marijuana plants. Our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are printed on hemp paper by God. Many people in our early revolutionary history grew it, and probably smoked it as well.

So what do we do with this idea of a Peoples Constitutional Convention? How would you get something like this off the ground?

Well we might start by educating ourselves about the true nature of the peoples sovereignty. Not so a bunch of racist people can try to claim some right to act like gunslinger cowboy days, but to realize the truth that already exists, and to empower ourselves with this knowledge as a means to inspire and organize amongst ourselves the vision of a new and brighter future into reality.

I don't really know how it should work. Maybe though, perhaps, we could elect all new delegates as the people who will be representing us. That would help weed out the cronies. These delegates would first have state conventions, followed by the national convention to produce a new Constitution that would be voted and commented on by the people at each stage of the process. This last step being approval by the people insures the integrity of the final document.

This is not a disrespect to the many hardworking people in government service. This is also not an attempt to overthrow our existing government people in any way. We are only stating the obvious, that the system is broken. It is our duty to fix it. The Declaration of Independence gives us clear authority to act. We are only demanding that people who have committed heinous crimes against the people be held accountable, without anybody resorting to violence to do it. That, and we the people want some real, honest change.

This is not a disrespect to the many hardworking activists throughout the world either, only an encouragement to re-examine ourselves in the light of some of the things that have been shared here. In terms of lasting effectiveness and depth of reform, no better nonviolent strategy exists for our people than this very tool of Convention that was left to us.

We are only asking other Americans to help us exercise our duty as the holders and protectors of our tattered legacy, now at serious risk of destruction. This is a tipping point in our history. The time for positive action is now. And if we the people do not act decisively and expeditiously, the destruction of our futures will be at the hands of an unstoppable and ever-increasing corruption in our "peoples" government. A militarized-government dominance, both on our streets with the militarized so called "peace officers", and with our children being sent to foreign military "theaters" where they are not acting, and the blood is all too real.

It's time. Remember like we were taught in school? Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country. Behind the glass marked "To protect the legacy of generations past, and to ensure the legacy to generations yet unborn, Please break the glass! And help organize for a Peoples Constitutional Convention!"

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One of the big challenges which comes with a "People's Constitutional Convention" will be the task of accurately and thoroughly educating the American people concerning exactly what the Constitution is, why it even exists, and the unique leverage it provides when it comes to dealing with our government.

Most Americans are completely unaware of the set of powerful intentions and solemn commitments which lie within the Constitution (particularly the six solemn commitments which are clearly spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution), and because of this ignorance, the solemn commitments of the Preamble -- such as "promotion of the General Welfare" -- have ruthlessly violated and betrayed by almost every Presidential administration and every session of Congress since the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

Now, we see Americans who've lost trust in government as all of the institutions of government which they depended upon (and, to a certain extent, took for granted) are collapsing before their astonished eyes, and now ... after decades of political apathy, Americans are waking up to a reality they never thought they'd ever face -- they're scared that the country they grew up in isn't going to be the country their children and grandchildren grow up in. A sure-fire remedy for this is getting the American people to fully understand what the Constitution is all about, in order for the American population to fully participate in the "People's Constitutional Convention".

Lastly, a "People's Constitutional Convention", while certainly a worthwhile project to be acted upon, will only be the beginning of the process of taking the nation back from the fools, charlatans and thieves who are robbing the nation and its citizens blind. The American people must be ready and willing to make a serious commitment to the making sure that the distant future will be much better than the present through the re-creation of a nation which upholds the Constitution, and the six solemn commitments upon which it rests.

This means that the American people will have to decide what will become their top priority -- embarking upon a national mission to develop the capacity to become properly inspired about man's future by being willing to boldly test the frontiers of the imagination with great projects, or we can continue upon our present course, which includes spending $7 billion betting on the Super Bowl, $32 billion on video games and DVDs, and $62 billion on illegal drugs, not to mention the $23 trillion+ in bank bail-outs which will insure the speeding up of the process of scientific and technological stagnation, along with the ever-increasing oppression, suppression and repression of our citizenry, of which we're getting the merest foretaste.

Ultimately, the fate of America is up to us, and what we choose to do about it. If we refuse to choose a higher destiny by being willing to think about the distant future and what we can do today to insure that the distant future will be better, a national destiny will be chosen for us, and the destiny which will be chosen for us will most certainly not be the destiny which we imagined.

Stephie,
Thank you for your clarity. You are one of the few people on this site I can count on for a rational response. And you are absolutely right. A convention of this sort would only be the beginning.

Most people unfortunately are afraid of change, either good or bad. They must therefore be educated to the potentials of a truly free society, as well as to the consequences of inaction.

Thank you again.

Paul Fisher
We the People Network
http://www.wtpnet.org/
mail@wtpnet.org
But please don't roll over like sheeple,
because we are the We in We the People!
Support the Peoples Constitutional Convention!

The Constitution was written by the richest men in America to preserve their property and to institutionalize government by themselves and their buddies. They kept their slaves; women were excluded from the vote. We continue to have government by the predatory capitalist, for the predatory capitalist, and of the predatory capitalist.

it is through the rule of laws rather than men

which means fixing other problems in the constitution that have not already been fixed, and enforcing it

unless someone has some other idea they've kept secret from the world

While the Constitution is a valuable document, it needs to be examined from time to time in order to correct those things within it which no longer apply to our society as it is now, while still maintaining its integrity, preserving the six solemn commitments of the Preamble, along with the intentions of the Founders which are the foundation upon which the Constitution rests.

The Constitution is supposed to be a "living" document, and as such, it must maintain its "life" through Constitutional Conventions, in which "We, the People" are active, involved participants, who deliberate upon each section with calm, reasoned thought, and make decisions on what amendments should be added, what should be changed, and what should be preserved.

After all, keeping a republic isn't supposed to be a spectator sport ...

godistwaddle, sadly you have completely missed the point. Your response unfortunately reflects a pervasive and debilitating attitude in this country. You really have no understanding of what it means to have a written constitution as the foundational framework for any government, let alone ours. Ask the people in any other country in the world that lives under a totalitarian regime what they would do if they had such a tool at their disposal. Because in reality, that is all we are talking about here is a tool, the people's tool. These people would lay down their lives for such an opportunity, as many already have.

Everybody knows about the ultimate character of the men who fashioned our Constitution. Who's fooling who, right? But if you can't get past that and realize the underlying potential that exists with such a document in place, then you have already lost, and so have we.

It does not matter who created the document or why. The only thing that matters is that it exists. And to fully understand the importance of our own Constitution, you have to fully understand the importance of our people's, our country's actual founding document, and by that I am of course referring to the Declaration of Independence. If what I am saying to you still does not make any sense, I suggest you read the Declaration right here, right now. Here is a convenient link.

Still don't understand? Read it again, and again if necessary until you do. The written Constitution of this country, or any other country that is lucky enough to have one, exists solely to define and control government. And in our country when that ability to control and define government slips by the wayside, it becomes incumbent upon all of us to come to it's defense. Our duty to each other and to our succeeding generations is quite clearly spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness....But when a long train of abuses & usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, & to provide new guards for their future security."

The point here is, if the Constitution does not create the type of government the people need, THEN CHANGE IT. We have the authority and the duty to do that very thing, and do it we must. This is the call we must answer. This is the sum of all the voices of our past crying out from beyond the grave. If you cannot hear these voices, then you must pull your head out of the sands of ignorance.

Paul Fisher
We the People Network
http://www.wtpnet.org/
mail@wtpnet.org
But please don't roll over like sheeple,
because we are the We in We the People!
Support the Peoples Constitutional Convention!

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