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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 7/18/09

How America Can Become a Truly Good Example to the World

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We do not have any of those rights now. Not really. In fact, our rights have been diminishing, and there is no politician in our country right now who will establish those rights. Even Barack Obama cannot, because that would be impossible as long as we perpetuate the present partisan political-economic system. We would only continue to be either winners or losers in the competition for power and control, and the conflict and division would continue. And power in the hands of the wrong people would continue to corrupt.

I believe that to establish and secure our God-given universal rights, even while ensuring that government is secular with a wall of separation between religion and government, the people should adopt a revised Declaration of Independence to re-state our rights, and demand a Constitutional Convention to adopt constitutional amendments that will ensure those rights.

After all, Article V of the Constitution of the United States provides that "on the application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the States, Congress shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments..."

The Founding Fathers of the nation recognized the importance of providing this means by which we, the people, could initiate amendments to change and or clarify the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land.

For a long time most politicians have felt they would not profit from doing that, because they like the status quo whether they are Republicans or Democrats. And they apparently still feel that way, even though the Constitution was ignored and essentially brushed aside by the Bush Regime, and even though political and corporate corruption has become very damaging to our national well being. No Republican or Democrat has even mentioned the need for Constitutional amendments to correct the situation.

But many politicians in the past have favored a Constitutional Convention, including such notables as Republican Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In his first inaugural address, March 4, 1861, Lincoln said: "Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself..." "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." And Lincoln added that "to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others..."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower also supported an Article V Convention saying: "Through their state legislatures and without regard to the federal government, the people can demand a convention to propose amendments that can and will reverse any trends they see as fatal to true representative government."

President Eisenhower warned against the growing power of the Military-Industrial Complex when he left office. But, as I have said on the page titled Little Known American History, Eisenhower's warning was not heeded. In fact, the Military-Industrial Complex not only grew and became more corrupt, it became the Religious-Military-Industrial Complex in 1980, and has become even more so in the last eight years. But it is religious in name only, and it has not served God or humanity. It has served Mammon and the wealthiest few, and it has proven fatal to truly representative government.

Even if Barack Obama is able to make significant improvements as president, as long as we perpetuate this system, another right-wing demagogue could rise to power waving the flag, thumping the bible, and rattling his sword.

Even as it is now, with Barack Obama as president, the U.S. Religious Military Industrial Complex continues to grow at an amazing pace.

In the private sector, huge industrial corporations are essentially indoctrinating people with propaganda, using the power of their money through television ads to create the impression that they are our beneficent friends and should be free to operate with business as usual. But, unfortunately, as has been proven time and time again, some of them are not our friends. Some of them merely want to continue raking in incredibly huge profits at our expense - especially oil companies, military contractors, banks, predatory lending companies, other financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, other insurance companies, credit card companies, forest products companies, etc.

In the public sector, with complicity by the Pentagon, much of the US. Military has been and even now is being taken over by proud, militant right-wing "Christian Evangelicals." The Air Force Academy is practically run by them. The military chaplain corps in all branches of the service is being taken over by them for the purpose of proselytizing, in spite of the fact that chaplains should respect and serve members of all religions. And the military is moving into our public schools. All across America the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are recruiting more than ever, and even opening new schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes. And, not surprisingly, they are targeting the poor and minority communities in the inner-cities, which have declining tax bases and growing unemployment. The exploitation is shameful.

There is even a "Super-Christian" group in America whose members call themselves "The Family." They regard themselves as an "invisible" association, although the leadership of its membership has always consisted mostly of powerful public men. In fact, among its membership there are a significant number of Republican U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives. Many members also belong to the right-wing Federalist Society, and many members are also involved with or identify with The Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

The organization has been around for quite awhile, and has always regarded themselves as the real, true Christians. However, today there are many branches (or cliques) of younger members in the U.S. Military who simply call themselves "Believers" because they think the term Christian has become too broad and watered down. In their minds they are the true "Army of God."

For a long time The Family has held regular prayer groups in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and they have strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries, and other corporate military contractors. They maintain a closely guarded database of the group's associates. However, it has no membership cards. It collects no official dues, and its members are asked not to speak in public or to "outsiders" about the organization or its activities.

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