The quest for individual liberty has not ended. For ten historic days in November, 2009, from the 11th to the 21st, delegates from forty eight of the fifty states met in St. Charles, Illinois to discuss the unconstitutional usurpations of the federal government of the United States of America and peaceful methods available to hold accountable those responsible for constitutional violations. These were ordinary people for the most part, not professional politicians, not rich elitists, not well known activists, but ordinary middle class folk from a variety of backgrounds as diverse as you could find in any community in this great melting pot we call the United States of America. They gathered together because, like most of us, they have come to the realization that something is wrong with this nation of ours. They, like many of us, wish to do something to correct the problem, something that does not involve violence. The Continental Congress 2009 looked to be a solution worth attempting. There’s nothing wrong with demanding elected officials obey the laws they swear an oath to uphold and until and unless we the people raise up and apply the pressure necessary the abuse will continue and nothing will change.
There are some in this world who claim the Constitution is irrelevant, that it is an old document meaningless in the modern world. They claim that it’s a quaint, passé relic written at a time when technology consisted of horse and buggies, sail ships, manually operated printing presses and breech loading rifles. They claim that in the modern world men have too much freedom, that individuals need to have their rights “attenuated,” that individual rights should be surrendered for national security reasons and the general welfare. They even go as far as to claim that the current financial problems we face are a result of freedom rather than government intrusion. These people wish to surrender their own power, along with everyone else’s, and entrust it to some nebulous, unaccountable bureaucracy so that they can wrap themselves in an imaginary security blanket and relinquish all personal responsibilities for their lives to the surreptitious surrogates merely claiming to know best.
To those who would argue such points I answer “Bullshit!” The nature of man has not changed despite the advancement of technology. Men and women still try to exercise power and force their will upon others, even those others they do not know and have no empathy for. Who does anyone think they are to tell me how I should run my life? Who does anyone think they are to tell me how to best conduct my business affairs? And then to have the gall to force me under threats of violence and imprisonment to pay them to manage my life, an activity I think I could have done a better job at for free? You can’t have too much freedom and no one else’s will should ever be forced upon another in such a way. Such monopolies are inherently repugnant to freedom loving people. Our forefathers who moved to this continent seeking freedom and better lives for themselves understood this, but somehow in the ethers of time we seem to have forgotten these principles which make the spirit strong and we became comfortable in our servitude.
There are others in this world who claim the Constitution is irrelevant because it either allowed the present tyranny or was powerless to stop it. I would remind those people that of course the Constitution is powerless to stop corruption, just as laws against violence are powerless to stop violent crime. The Constitution has no power, the people do. Words on paper have no power to do anything except convey ideas from one mind to another. It is up to those minds to develop methods to implement these ideas. It is up to human beings to exercise the powers inherent in their nature to take control of their lives. It was not the Constitution that allowed the present tyranny to develop, but the people who ignored it or questioned its relevancy. It was not the Constitution that was powerless to stop the present tyranny we experience today, but the people who refused to enforce the ideals it expressed and remain true to its principles.
The Constitution is but a tool to constrain those who wish to engage in government service to the people of this nation. It is a tool to be used when those serving begin to believe they are better than the rest of us and wish to laud power over the masses. The hammer will do nothing to the nail that sticks its head up from the board until someone picks it up and uses it to strike the nail. While it might be true that there have been occasions in the past where some have tried to nail down the federal government using the Constitution and failed, that doesn’t mean you throw away the hammer. The more often the hammer is swung, the more likely that the nail will be struck.
So it was when over a hundred delegates from forty eight of the fifty states gathered together in St. Charles, Illinois for ten days last November. These delegates decided to take up the hammer and use it. These were average Americans from all walks of life selected from members of the “We the People Foundation” who sacrificed their time and set aside their lives for those ten days because they felt that honoring the Constitution and trying to hold elected officials accountable to do the same was an important enough cause to commit to such a sacrifice. They are not asking anyone else to do nearly as much.
These men and women gathered together and worked their butts off to create the documentation that details the constitutional abuses and usurpations that government, and federal government in particular, has engaged in. To me it speaks volumes that so many ordinary people can see the growing police state, the encroaching socialism, the loss of individual liberty and the collapse of our constitutional form of government and wish to reverse course. Things did not run as smooth as silk at the conference and there were many boisterous and contentious moments of disagreement as to all that should and shouldn’t be addressed in the document. The document they created can now be found at http://cc2009.us as a pdf file.
It is now up to the freedom loving American people to do the rest. Please make an attempt to read the document. If you agree with it and the principles it expresses, please show support for the document and those behind it. Even if there are parts you disagree with, but agree with most of it, as is inevitable with some people, show your support for the work and provide feedback. If you believe in the concept of holding elected officials accountable for their actions, making sure they adhere to the Constitution, or would simply like to see the growth of government stopped or reversed, your support for this effort is important. If you think government is too big, too coercive, and/or too intrusive, your support for this effort is important. If you’re angry about the path this nation has taken and would like to see some real change, your support for this effort is important. This has become a game of numbers now. The more people who voice their opposition to big government solutions and support efforts to shrink government, the more pressure can be put on politicians to make these efforts into reality. We can show them that we are not a nation of collectivists like communist China, the former USSR and other socialist countries, but a nation of individualists who still honor the ideals put forth by the founding fathers.
There is much work left to be done, in my opinion, and this is only the beginning. I don’t believe this document went far enough in its demands on the federal government, but it is a good start. There are likely many who would agree with me. If you would like to get involved, then support this document and the groups that sponsored it. Provide them with feedback. Unlike the federal government, they will listen to you, show due consideration for your ideas, and appreciate your involvement.
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