We the People Network The People's Network for Change

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!"