I know you are only one person, but if you are going to take the time to raise awareness of the problems and related symptoms, why not set aside equal time to discuss the solution? Fortunately, because of the aforementioned project, you don’t even really need to spend time on the latter.
Allow me to explain: Last year steps were taken to get a federal lawsuit to the Supreme Court in the form of a writ of certiorari. The evidence in the suit was the congressional record, a public record, and it showed that more than 500 state applications requesting a national convention had been piling up all these years, and one Congress after another had simply ignored them.
The suit brought this to the attention of the court and asked whether Congress shall ever call a convention. The court denied cert and this allowed the lower court ruling to stand, which had somehow erroneously determined the convention call was a political question; that it was discretionary, not ministerial, as the framers had clearly intended it to be.
The call is based on a simple numeric count of applications with no stricture on them whatsoever. Why? Because the framers knew folks in power at some later date might try and quibble about why they didn’t need to listen to the electorate.
When our suit failed to prompt the courts to rule that Congress must carry out its constitutional obligation, it was upsetting. But after some time it was realized that this was not a bad deal at all. In fact, it meant we no longer needed to go through the long, arduous process of rallying states to cast further applications (almost impossible today when MSM would presumably want to thwart such an effort as it might result in the break-up of its monopoly, and/or the re-institution of a Fairness Doctrine).
The denial of cert, and the ruling that the call is left to the discretion of Congress, only means that we’ll have a convention as soon as we bring together a tipping point majority of Americans all saying the same thing: We have a right to it, a need for it, and we want it now.
Following the defeat of the suit, serendipitously, it turned out that the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy had commissioned a former state supreme court judge to update a paper he had written years ago about Article V and the convention clause. In the process of doing that he found out about our project, and with a few e-mails we set up a new group: Friends of the Article V Convention. We now have over one hundred members and are growing -- students, homemakers, doctors, professors, writers, artists, activists, and at least one fire captain -- all Americans who understand corruption has become institutionalized, and that it’s time to dust off the Constitution and put it to work.
With the news of the past few years, and taking into account the ability of the MSM to disinform the public with a bunch of half-truths, one asks, what can I do for my country? The answer, unequivocally, is to take a few moments to sign up as a Friend and declare yourself a Conventionist. In fact, that’s what American politics have come down to today: either you’re Conventionist or Anti-Conventionist. And if the latter, not only is the position irrational, it perpetuates a status quo that has this great nation headed towards a nasty conclusion. A convention will not wipe away the status quo, it will simply break it so it can be reformed; it will simply reset the course.
We need a Fairness Doctrine, we need electoral reform to reduce the points of failure, and the Congress seems to be headed in the opposite direction. So please take a few moments to review the site FOAVC.ORG, and add your name to the list of Americans who have already signed up.
If we do get a convention, and you had time to be a delegate, I can’t think of a better person to represent the great state of New York. If you have any concerns or thoughts about how to best bring this cause to the aid of the country, feel free to contact me. Otherwise I wish health and happiness to you and yours.
Sincerely, John De Herrera
John De Herrera is a writer who resides in California.
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