UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The primary purpose of this site is to help facilitate a renewed sense of true social populism within the people of this country and to realize a renewed sense of community with all of our global brothers and sisters. We are all human and we all share the same biosphere. We need to realize that we are all on the same boat. Every single one of us. If we can accept that basic premise, then it makes no sense to continue isolating ourselves from the rest of the world.
As far as I see it, we have one Earth. We are all one people who share this Earth. We cannot as a species afford to hold on to outdated notions and world views. Nationalism, in the sense of US at the expense of THEM, is an outdated notion and world view, and has to go the way of the dinosaurs.
This site hopes to contribute to the conversation in part by being a place for sharing understanding of our mostly forgotten American history, and how that history, with all its flaws and abuses, has within it the keys to our own salvation.
One of the biggest misconceptions in our country, is that the Constitution is the authority that governs we the people. Not true.
Think about it. The Constitution is a framework for the operation of government, nothing more. We the people created the Constitution in order to keep our newly created government from recreating King George, or even a King Trump.
Think about this. Our authority as popular sovereigns was declared to King George and the rest of the world in the Declaration of Independence, which makes it our true founding document, and that which ultimately governs the actions of we the people.
Now I hear many arguments on the left and the right against embracing a Constitutionally-based or "founder"-based ideology. And the reasons are all sound. After all, these documents were all drafted by rich white men looking at keeping themselves that way. No one's arguing that, or the fact that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are far from perfect.
But we can repair the Constitution. And in allowing our biases to control the debate, we miss one vital point. It doesn't matter why or who wrote the Declaration of Independence. What matters, is that it exists. The mere fact that the Declaration of Independence sits enshrined under glass at the National Archives is evidence enough to show the document for what it is, our country's founding document, and our original, enduring authority.
Remember, the Constitution does not govern the people. The Constitution is the document that WE created to control the activity and scope of government. Nothing more.
Many will argue that the mere fact presence of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution somehow equates to a list of rules defining the behavior of the people. A strict reading of the Declaration of Independence refutes that premise. However there is further evidence supporting the position that the people, not the government and certainly not the corporations, hold primary authority in this country.
The Federalist Papers were written by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison but they contain many of the arguments that the delegates to the First and Second Constitutional Conventions engaged in. The agenda item of most concern to these "Founders" was the prevention of tyranny and preservation of freedom for the people. So the Bill of Rights do not define or limit our behavior as many assume. The Bill of Rights were only inserted to remind our created government not to overstep its delegated authority.
The Declaration of Independence
The American Constitution of 1787
Many of the real problems we have today could be more effectively addressed, with more lasting results, by going after their root. Most people might agree that the corruption of government, excessive corporate power and influence, and fundamental flaws in the political process are the main issues that lie at the core of all of our other problems in this country. The game is rigged in favor of those that can pay to play. Instead of an inclusive process that would promote active citizen participation, we get domination and exclusion by monied interests.
The real breakdown in moral and ethical governance in most of the worlds societies, America included, is borne out of an insatiable thirst for power and wealth for a select few on the backs of everybody else. Obvious. We all know it. And all this has resulted in continued and likely perpetual war and gross inequality among all people resulting in poverty for most, subservience to masters for most, and eventual catastrophic collapse for all. Again obvious. Preaching to the choir.
Much of the problem as conveyed by many American people and people elsewhere in the world, Trump supporters included, is this issue of globalization. It seems to me that the main problem with globalization, as it has been playing out, is that the economic system that follows globalization is not being carried out on an even basis. That creates situations for jobs to follow cheap labor. If it were to instead be carried out on an actual even basis, true fair trade, that might be different in a way that might just benefit everybody.
Jobs wouldn't be shipped overseas if every worker was treated equally. Think about it. If a factory worker in China, Mexico or anywhere else made the same pay and benefits as the equally skilled factory worker in the US, there would be no incentive to move jobs overseas in order to exploit a cheaper labor force.
Not only would this be true fair trade, this would encourage expanded educational opportunities as well as spur innovation and creativity, for everybody.
It is possible to hold on to cultural and regional diversity in a world with more-open borders. It's not even about the borders. We do not have to give up our values or sacrifice our cultural identities in order to become citizens of the Earth. And we are citizens of the Earth!
This isn't about One World Government, New World Order, or no local control. It is about learning how to live within our means, and to live within the means of the planet We All Call Home. But most of all, it's about learning to listen to one another.
We are really all on the same boat. That's a good thing too because we're all going to need each other like we never have before so that we can work together to weather the storm that's coming.
And I know that We the People cannot, and must not, rely solely on the politicians in this country for government reform for one simple reason. It will never happen. Not without a unified movement of the people behind it that is!
That is why I advocate for the People's Constitutional Convention that would bring a series of People's Amendments to the Constitution. If we the people can get organized and focused enough; if we can put aside our differences and realize our commonalities; then We the People can create a different future for ourselves, our families, communities, and our world.
And given recent events that the GOP is exploring the idea of calling for a Convention not to help the people, but to subvert the Constitution, and take away our rights. We the People need to get involved and make sure that any Constitutional Convention that occurs, occurs from, by and for the People.
Under the Constitution, it is true that only Congress can call a Constitutional Convention. However, you should understand that the Constitution was created by We the People, that would be us, in order to create a framework, a structure, for our government. We wanted to define how we wanted our created government to operate, to behave, and how to define the limits of their authority.
The Bill of Rights, while extremely important, was inserted after initial drafting to essentially remind the government that there were certain inherent rights and necessary conditions in order to have a free society. The Bill of Rights presence in the Constitution in no way limits our rights to those stated in the Bill of Rights.
Our rights are firmly stated in the Declaration of Independence, our original founding document, and our original evidence of our sovereignty over government. Not so that we can run around lawless. That wouldn't serve the peoples interest. The reason it's there is so we can push the reset button. It is so that when all else fails; when every avenue of redress has been taken and forsaken; "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,". It is so that We the People can restructure our Constitution, our government, our peace, our happiness, our security in a manner that we see fit.
"So what..." you say..."that was original authority. We don't have that any more." Well I would say read the Declaration again. And the Supreme Court in 1803 under Chief Justice John Marshall would also disagree with you.
In the decision of Marbury v. Madison (1803) Chief Justice Marshall writes that a law that is repugnant to the Constitution is void, as well as verifying the requirement that elected officials honor their Sworn Oath of Office.
Read the last three pages of the decision that begin with the following passage:
"The question, whether an act, repugnant to the constitution, can become the law of the land, is a question deeply interesting to the United States; but, happily, not of an intricacy proportioned to its interest. It seems only necessary to recognise certain principles, supposed to have been long and well established, to decide it..."
The Preamble of the Declaration evidences our sovereignty over government. That government is our creation, and therefore subject to our interpretation. That the people have all natural rights, and the government exists on privilege to act on our behalf.
This privilege is granted by the people and can be taken away, when the people deem it necessary.
###"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate & equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable 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.
Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries & usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world."
###The We The People Network has the potential to add much needed fuel to the fire of a non-violent, populist, Constitutionally-lawful radical reorganization. The pen and non-violent direct action are our sword, and the Constitution is our shield. Our authority is the Declaration of Independence. Please add your voice.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness for all is the most fundamental bipartisan, human right issue. In pursuit of that discussion and more, this site hopes to encourage open communication across cultural and political boundaries. We will attempt to provide extensive and diverse resources to educate, organize and hopefully inspire. You can help, and please do, by contacting WTPNet.org.
