We have a great country. That was proved on November 8 when millions of us - more than twelve million - went to the polls and, by a goodly majority of electoral votes, we effected a bloodless revolution. Now we have to deal with the future.
What can we do to truly Make America Great Again for all of us? From where I sit, there are a few things that would go a long way to not only making America stronger than it was, but keep it stronger for our future generations.
One YUGE thing popped into my awareness yesterday - our Constitution. It's been assaulted, again, by our own government, by someone who took an oath of office that declares, in part: "to uphold and defend the Constitution".
Secretary Kerry and President Obama signed a treaty with the United Nations that could, realistically, undermine our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. This treaty is intended to prevent the trade of arms "across state lines". The UN, at least publicly, says those lines belong to nation states. However, it is not at all difficult to extrapolate that "state line" component into individual American state lines.
This angers me. It angers me a lot because I happen to understand the brilliance of our Constitution.
It's a guideline, not a rule book, and it can be - if decided upon by the majority of American citizens and American states - be modified. However, and it's a big HOWEVER, it is not supposed to be something that can be undermined or weakened by a simple swipe of the pen by one person or a small group. Changes to the Constitution, such as gutting the Second Amendment, require ratification by thirty-eight of our fifty states.
Therefore, from where I sit, one challenge is how to guarantee that our Constitution and our sovereignty are protected from any such treaty in future? Simple, but not so easy:
Amendment Thirty-Four: No Administration, Department or Agency shall enter into any treaty that weakens or directly affects, negates or offsets any of the Amendments to this Constitution without achieving a two-thirds majority vote of the legal American electorate.
That wording is not as elegant as the preceding thirty-three amendments, but it covers the bases. It makes it harder for any Secretary of State or President, to sign away our sovereign rights to another entity - like the UN.
We've already had our First Amendment threatened. Earlier this year, the US gave up its control of the internet DNS - Domain Naming System - to the UN via the ICANN treaty. We haven't seen the change, yet. However, if the UN decides that internet "things" are getting out of control, what prevents them from shutting it down, or modifying the DNS access we currently enjoy to something unusable?
As it is now, if you type in a domain name, the DNS recognizes the link between the name and the IP address and directs you there, without you having to remember the TCP/IP string of ###.##.##.## which is convenient. However, let's say the UN's group that oversees the internet decides it doesn't like me and others like me who say what we think. Not all members of the UN like free speech. If they're in power, or heading up the internet group, what's to prevent them from meddling? This is something that should not have been turned over to another entity.
Going farther, because of the changes in society over the past two-hundred fifty years, we need to think hard about our approach to things. We need to look back and take measure of the best parts of the character and ethics of the men who wrote this document. We need to weigh their morals and values against ours (which, in my view are weak, at best). When it was written, they approached governance of America from the standpoints of:
The greater good - what is good for ALL of the citizens, not just for them and their cronies? There weren't lobbyists and the buying of access and power then as there is now.
Justice for all had meaning. It meant that the laws that affected the people would apply equally to them. There would be no different strokes for different folks as there is now - think of Hillary Clinton and her cabal. Do you really believe that if any one of us did one-one-millionth of what they've done we would get a pass? Hell no! We'd be tried and convicted in half-a-heartbeat and the key would be thrown away for good.
The Founders asked themselves under what guidelines and laws will ALL of us live? They expected to live by the same rules and regulations imposed on everyone else. They never envisioned a state of affairs with one set of rules for We the People and an entirely different set for the rich, the powerful and the politically connected. Congress, for instance, doesn't fall under the sway of Obamacare. Some unions and states were given a pass on it - they didn't have to buy into the exchanges and weren't subjected to the rules.
Service to America - not dictatorship. When the Constitution was written, the people who would serve in Washington expected, and were expected, to serve for short periods. They would be elected, go to Washington, do the work, get the job done, and go home again. They never expected to be career politicians as we have now. These career politicians are the people (vermin) who have done so much damage to our country. Donald Trump's term limits proposal is exactly what's needed.
I also think that it's crucial that we re-institute American History courses in our schools. Not just one year, or two, but year after year. Teaching needs to go back into the decades that preceded our withdrawal from British rule, without revision or parsing. It must be true to what happened.
What made us want to leave? How did the Constitution and Bill of Rights come into being? (It wasn't just a bunch of guys sitting around the dinner table one night.) What were the effects of those documents on the men who formulated and signed them? How high a price did they pay for demanding to be free? How did the Revolutionary War start, and how was it fought?
None of our kids - none of the #Snowflakes running around, screaming their heads off - know these things. They do not know the brilliance and the beauty of our Constitutional form of government. THAT, among all the rest of it, is the biggest crime of all.
So, those are a few of my visions of what will Make America Great Again. There's a lot more, but if these things get started, I'd sleep better at night.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
No comments:
Post a Comment