IV. INTRODUCTION -
“We the People” – AMENDING FENCES
Tectonic forces were scraping against each other as 2011 dawned, but little did Americans know that there were earthquakes about to shake a society that had shaken the entire world 224 years before. The majesty and greatness of a nation that, through the true grit of her people, had risen to prove "Man could rule himself" was being replaced with new, unflattering words and phrases like "decline", "once great", and "failed". Once great words like "free enterprise", "entrepreneurship" and capitalism" were being defiled.
The clamors for something else to replace those revered ideals were everywhere. The forces and traces and faces of Socialism and Marxism and Communism where splashed on signs in the market square and marching with other signs that proclaimed “global governance”, "one world order" and "workers of the world unite". The leaders of these movements were ubiquitous in Washington as they did everything they could to seize control of power and especially in the executive branch. Not surprisingly, the noise was pitched, and so were the messages.
In the year 2011, the chasms were great among many categories into which people could be classified:
Blacks and whites
Citizens and the "undocumented"
Wage earners and wage payers
The employed and the unemployed
East and west
Rich and poor
Men and women
Democrats and Republicans
Socialists and capitalists
Federal and state
Narrowing-- and closing-- these gaps seemed impossible, but just like a jailed dissident in South Africa could rise to be its President, closing that proverbial gap seemed impossible - - - until it was done.
Now, in 2013, the gaps are becoming much smaller, peace and harmony and common purpose are starting to return, and while men and women are still different, at least the opportunity for similar paychecks is more widely available.
What could have brought Nelson Mandela’s observation about the seemingly “impossible” to fruition on such a large scale? What could have bridged so many chasms in such short order? Did a country founded on Divine Providence get a sweeping miracle waved across its fruited plain? If you are looking for a short answer, it may be this --and if you want to attribute it to Divine guidance, brotherly love, and/or the Golden Rule that’s a good starting point:
A nation that decided “to greet each day with love in its heart” (see Chapter 12 and Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World) underwent a major makeover, and with faith and hope and charity and determination, restored people’s belief in being good to each other. Even more importantly, they decided to limit its government, and then paved the way to UNLIMIT every individual’s spirit and ability to excel, achieve and to reach for heights never dreamed possible. The plan and the details went viral across the web of technology and culminated in the first ever National Constitutional Convention that proposed the plan in a sweeping 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
The tool that the founders had reserved for “We the People” to rule the government and themselves through the constitutional amendment process was right there where it always had been-- in Article 5 of the Constitution. “We the People” initiated a comprehensive 25-year plan and specific changes demanded by two-thirds of the States at it’s proposing (34 of 50 states) followed by the affirming votes of three-fourths of the state legislatures at its ratification (38 of 50 states).
This 25-year plan which began to work right from the beginning to harness the beliefs and desires of all individuals to better themselves, their families and their futures and to work in partnership with those above and below moving on the ladder of life. It was a plan that recaptured the verve, vitality, spirit and imagination that had been the hallmark of a formerly great nation.
It restored faith in the Creator -- and a belief in the validity of the spiritual needs of man. It was a plan that gave the people a bond and a reverence with the founding fathers and their principles, an appreciation for the vast complexities of the present and the tools to master them, and a framework steeped in liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the freedom of expression to meet any challenge of the future.
