Patriots For America - Blog
-
March Meeting Summary
I'd like to start with a big Thank You to everyone that came out for the meeting today. We covered several important subjects in an amazingly brief time.
***
We started with discussion of the West Tennesse Tea Party. Fred Joyner read Jenci's blog post at the West Tennessee Discussion Group to make sure we were all on the same page, and pretty much everyone there said they were going to attend the Tea Party. We are planning on setting up a booth of some sort (even if it's just a card table) where people can come get more information about who we are and what we stand for. We are also planning on having two very important petitions available to sign. More on those later.
***
Next, Mr. Boyd addressed the GIVE act (you can read it here on the P4A Bill Tracker), and more specifically, the mandatory 'voluntary' service portion. This becomes a very simple NO when viewed against the backdrop of the preamble to the Constitution:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union. establish Justice, Insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, 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.
Mandatory Service for our children is exactly the opposite of a "Blessing of Liberty" for our posterity.***
With immediate issues addressed, Mr. Boyd moved into the meat of his presentation, an overview of how the definition of 'citizen', with full and equal rights, progressed from the time of the ratification of the Constitution to today. To begin, let's set the backdrop and focus of the Founders: They were freshly free from what amounted to a feudal system, in which there were very few personal property rights. Recoiling from the injustice of that system, protecting property rights was very important to them. Basically, when the Constitution was first ratified, only about 8% of the population had full, equal voting rights. Article I, Section II, paragraph III states
"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."
In most jurisdictions to vote you also had to, among other things, be male,at least 21 years of age, own at least 80 acres of land, own a certain $ amount of livestock, and pay poll fees. under this system Slaves, Women, and Indians were categorically denied the right to vote, the right to own property, and the right of inheritance.***
The first reform of this system of determining eligibility came through the election of Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson won the presidency running on a platform of opening up the voting pool, by dropping the '80 acres', 'livestock value', and 'fee' requirements. This more than doubled the number of eligible voters, and became the new standard for many years.
***
The next major reform came in 1865 when the 13th amendment was ratified. It states:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".
(rabbit trail: tie this back to the GIVE act referenced above.) This act purely and simply abolished slavery, semi-'freeing' the slaves. The problem was, it didn't do anything to change their status as far as voting and other rights were concerned.***
The first attempt to correct this injustice was the 14th amendment, ratified in 1868. Section 1 states:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Section 2 addressed the Census and voting rights in light of this new development:"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
This, in theory, guaranteed everyone that was male, over 21, and not an Indian the right to vote. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly work as planned.***
The 15th amendment was ratified 2 years later, in 1870, to finish what the 14th amendment had started. It says
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Problem Solved.. at least for black MEN. Women still had no rights, and neither did Indians.***
In 1887 full citizenship rights were given to Indians through the Dawes act, though at a cost of over 2/3 thirds of their land.
***
It was thirty more years before women were given the right to vote by the 19th amendment.
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
At long last, the injustice of treating people as property (as in the Dred Scott case) had been reversed for once and for all... or had it? Do we still have a group of people of people that are classified as property?***
The answer is Yes. We DO. In the 1973 Supreme Court case "Roe vs Wade" the majority ruling held in Pt 3
"State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother's behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy."
In plain English: before the child is born, he or she is property of the mother. The day will come when this is looked back on with as much abhorrence as slavery is today. It should be viewed as such today.***
So how can we most effectively fight to free these final slaves, and abolish the concept of people as property? The most direct way is to confer upon a baby 'citizenship' status AT CONCEPTION through a Constitutional amendment. The odds of success at a federal level in this effort are slim, so we need to focus on the state. If such an amendment were passed by ANY state, it would immediately be challenged and the state sued in Federal court; this is exactly what we want. Such a lawsuit would force the Supreme Court to confront the issue head on, instead of dancing around the edges on technicalities as they are so prone to do.
***
The Patriots for America have decided to create a petition to force a ballot referendum for an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution to define a child as a citizen at conception. I am hoping to have it completed, reviewed, and approved by a Constitutional Lawyer (so IT can't be thrown out on a technicality) before the Tea Party on the 24th of April. I will make an announcement when it is ready with more information so anyone that wants to help collect signatures, or sign it yourself, can do so.
***
We will also be putting together a petition to amend the Tennessee Constitution to enact Term Limits for all elected officials. Stay Tuned for more information on both of these projects.
***
Sources:
Constitution and Amendment Text: http://usconstitution.net/
Dawes Act: Wikipedia.org
Roe vs Wade: http://womenshistory.about.com
All emphasis in quoted text mine.
-
Meeting Change
Mon. Jan. 05, 06:27pm EST
I'm sorry for the late notice, but our guest speaker had something come up on the 17th he couldn't avoid so we have changed the meeting to the 10th of January. Time and location are still the same.
~Josh Boulée
tags: patriots for america meeting -
Act Now to reject a Constitutional Convention
Sat. Dec. 20, 12:47am EST
I may be the last to catch on to this possibility, but did you know that there is a real effort to call a new Constitutional Convention going on right now? Can you imagine what would happen if the crew we have in Washington right now were given the authority to re-write, or totally replace, our U. S. Constitution? 34 states have to call for a convention, and 32 are on the record already, including Tennessee. Ohio appears to be the target of the latest efforts, and neither New York or California have signed on yet, so this could really happen. From what I have learned from the Chuck Baldwin article at http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin480.htm, we need to be calling anyone we know in Ohio and work to stop their state legislature from passing a resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention.
In light of this possibility, I would like to call for a couple of actions from our members.
- Call all of your friends and family in Ohio and inform them about this.
- Read the article linked above and find out if your state is among those that have already called for a convention.
- Research the current status of your state's call for a convention.. it would appear some have rescinded thiers, but that may not matter.
- Get back on here and respond with what you have found in your state, we need as much information as we can get!
I have found some contact information for the Ohio legislature:
- To leave a phone message for either a Senator or Representative: call 1-800-282-0253 (M-F, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern time)
- House of Representatives Website: http://www.house.state.oh.us/
- State Senate Website: http://www.senate.state.oh.us/
- If you know the name of the official you are trying to reach, you can find their direct phone number here: http://ohio.gov/phonedir/query.aspx
I will try to update this as I learn more.
~Joshua Boulée
!! *** UPDATE 12-23-08 *** !!
Thanks to Mike at the After thePorch blog (http://stevescomments.wordpress.com), I have more information for you on this.
- Article V of the U.S. Constitution sets the rules for calling a Constitutional Convention.
- 32 out of a required 34 states have called for a Constitutional Convention already. Some have rescinded their calls; however, there is NOTHING in Article V allowing calls to be rescinded, so they COULD be counted anyway.
- The Ohio legislature is trying to be the 33rd state as you read this. The vote was delayed in the House on HJR8, the resolution calling for a convention there.
- The Ohio Senate is still pushing to pass the resolution on their side, SJR9.
- This effort is being pushed by the Republican members of the Legislature, on the misguided idea that they can limit the convention to adding an ammendment to require the Federal budjet to be balanced every year. The Democrats are opposed to it for the same reason.
- Once a Constitutional Convention is called, no one can limit it. The original convention was called STRICTLY to ammend the Articles of Confederation, and delegates were sworn to that by their respective legislatures. The first thing they did was vote to hold all proceedings in secret. The second thing they did was to completely SCRAP the Articles and start over.
- The ratification requirements can be changed by the Convention. They did it last time, from 100% approval to 75%. They could make it 50% if they wanted to.
- There is no requirement that any state be represented. Congress has total power over appointing delegates; they can appoint anyone they want, from anywhere, or delegate that to individual states.
This is very real, and very dangerous. Here are some more links where you can get further information:
Modern Day Constitutional Convention Not A Good Idea
(Mike's post)
U.S. Now Only 2 States Away From Rewriting Constitution
(WND post, includes Obama's stance on the Constitution)
Original American Policy Center Action Alert
(Dated December 10, includes Ohio House contacts)
(Dated Decembet 12, includes both Ohio House and Ohio Senate contact information. Contains many questions raised in the comittee meeting)
Principled Policy Blog Ohio Con Con Series
(6 part series on this by the vice-chairman of this Ohio public-policy think tank, one of the most vocal opponents in the House Judiciary Comittee meeting. The series is posted with the most recent first, so you'll need to scroll a bit to start at the begining)
That's all for now, I am still learning and will continue updating.
-
Some useful Patriot resources
Mon. Nov. 17, 10:45pm EST
Today I received an e-mail from Chuck Baldwin advertising a new resource he has put together, THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. Here is a partial description from his mailing:
Included in this remarkable volume are documents such as The Mayflower Compact, The First Thanksgiving Proclamation, the complete text of Patrick Henry's immortal "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death" speech, The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms, The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, George Washington's Farewell Address, and so on.
We have also included several letters written between John and Abigail Adams as well as letters written by General Robert E. Lee. Do you remember the poem about Paul Revere's ride? Well, it, too, is included in this compilation. Also included is the letter written from within the Alamo by William Barret Travis to the people of Texas. Of course, the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are also there.
This giant compilation includes more than 50 documents, over 170 full-sized pages complete with a spiral ring binding for easy copying, and a professionally designed color cover. This volume is must-reading for every American patriot! Many people are buying multiple copies as special patriotic Christmas gifts.
FOR THE PRICE OF A COUPLE OF PIZZAS, YOU CAN HAVE THE GREAT DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR.
The price is $35 for a single copy, or $25 each if you purchase two or more, plus $5 each for shipping. Simply mail your check or Money Order to:
Chuck Baldwin Live
P.O. Box 37070
Pensacola, FL 32526
You can order online as well, a table of contents and ordering directions can be found at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/products.html
Another resource I looked at Saturday was "The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution Of The United States" introduction by Pauline Maier, a Bantam Classic, copyright July1998 You can buy this new from Amazon for less than $3.00! It includes all of the amendments, it's not just the original documents. http://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independence-Constitution-United-Classic/dp/0553214829/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226978998&sr=8-6
Sherrill Belew recommended a couple of books on the forum at PatriotsforAmerica.net, so I'll include those in this post as well. They are "The Patriots Library" including important documents in our history from the Mayflower Compact to Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech. (I don't know who the author/editor is). The other is "Black Belt Patriotism" by Chuck Norris.
If you know of any other good historical resources or commentaries, please add them to this list!
-
November 15th meeting notes
Mon. Nov. 17, 10:05pm EST
Thank you to everyone that came to our meeting in McLemoresville Saturday evening. As usual, we started with an opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance . Fred and Shirley played a moving audio recording done by C.W. Holland (drummer for Johnny Cash, among others) honoring the American Flag, then Ricky Boyd, our special guest speaker, began teaching.
He spoke on the Constitution, the Framer's intentions, and how they differ from our modern practice in government. Reading parts of George Washington's Farewell address (which was never actually given), and excerpts from the Federalist Papers (a series of essays written in New York newspapers to convince the state legislature to ratify the Constitution), Mr. Boyd showed how political parties were seen as detrimental to government, and warned against by the founders. He also argued that the language giving representatives 2 year terms and Senators 6 year terms was originally intended to mean total years served, and not just time between elections. How does that affect us practically? Well, with the way things are now we do not have equal representation. Our level of representation, practically, is dependent on several things:
Is your party in the majority? (do you have majority representation or minority representation?)
Is your senator or representative senior enough to have any influence?
How many people have 'bought access" to your representative and are ahead of you in line for his or her ear? This could be in the form of lobbyists or campaign donors.
The best way to start to equalize our representation is by imposing term limits on all levels of our government, and it would be much easier to accomplish this on the state level than the federal level. This would eliminate the "Seniority Inequality" as well as limit the influence of lobbyists since they wouldn't have long histories with our elected officials. Elimination of political parties is probably impossible, but it is still important to understand the changes they have brought to our government. For instance, there is talk every Presidential election cycle about changing or eliminating the Electoral College, and on some levels it makes sense. I mean, isn't it un-democratic?How can a system where one candidate wins the popular vote and another wins the office be fair? If you look at the electoral college in an environment without political parties however, it starts to make much more sense . The founders envisioned hundreds of candidates running, possibly hundreds in each state. Suddenly you can see how the electoral college could allow there to be a clear winner on the first round of voting, instead of needing a never-ending series of run-off elections.For more information Ricky Boyd strongly recommended reading George Washington's Farewell Address, which by the way was proofread and edited by John Jay (our 1st Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison (who was known as "The father of the Constitution"). These three men were the authors, under one common pen name, of the Federalist Papers. Federalist Paper # 10 explained their stance on political parties and 'factions', while #57 addressed the hows and whys of the House of Representative elections.
I hope you could follow that, I couldn't write as fast as Mr. Boyd talked and so most of the above is a summary of my disjointed notes. I would like to thank Jenci for bringing P4A buttons and stickers to help our 'brick and mortar meeting' members find our new web presence, and the creators of P4A for being so gracious as to provide them. I am looking forward to a mutually beneficial relationship between P4A and PFA.
~Joshua Boulée
Public Relations Officer, Patriots For America.
