The Oklahoma legislature has passed a resolution validating Oklahoma’s sovereignty and the importance of the 10th Amendment of our United States Constitution. This is powerful stuff being ignored by most of the media. The Tennessee legislature, Texas Governor Perry, and now the great state of Oklahoma have started the ball rolling by raising the 10th amendment and the importance of state’s rights. As the federal government continues to act in an unconstitutional manner these state efforts will grow to stop it. What state will be next? My guess is Wyoming or South Carolina.
These efforts can only grow with a strong educational component. You see our educational system gets an F in civics and history. As Dr. Walter Williams points out in an article today at TownHall.com, 70% of American college graduates fail a simple civics test on the role and structure of our government. I would argue a majority of the American electorate could not tell you the jest of the 10th amendment or any other amendment including the 1st amendment. How do you expect to win an argument about the importance of the 10th amendment if most people don’t even know what it is or what the importance of our constitution is? We must start on many fronts but we must start from the beginning.
I would suggest we recommend to everyone concerned about the current state of the government to read our constitution since it is only 4400 words. We should also be recommending the book; 5000 Year Leap for a very concise summary of our founding principles. I would also recommend the web site Tenth Amendment Center as a start to their education.
We are in a crisis that was predicted by our founders. It is amazing how intuitive these men were. They believed if we forgot our founding moral values we would perish as a free nation. How close we are getting to their prediction but only time will tell. We have and we are in a state of dangerous transition. We must fight again for the minds of anyone willing to listen because the argument of our founders is a simple, logical, and timeless one. The principles of our Constitution are timeless and as relevant today as they were in the eighteenth century.
We must explain it in simple terms like; our tenth amendment simply states that the federal government has a very defined and limited scope; all other issues are left to the states to determine. The closer the government is to the people the better and the less likely it will infringe on our freedoms.
I don’t think state governments are effective either but they are much easier to petition than our federal representatives. Individuals , the family, and community, are much more likely to be served properly by government if that government is held accountable by the people. That is easier to do if you only have to drive to the state house to petition your government than having to get to DC. It also makes it much harder for special interests to operate because instead of one office in DC they must petition 50 states. That is a really good thing for the tax payer.
So although we only have three states so far expressing the importance of state sovereignty and getting back control of our government, the movement is significant. The more people we get to read our founding documents and the more effective we are in making the case for reducing the power in Washington, the freer we will be. Free to live a life that has the greatest potential for every individual in this country, not just the future of the people most connected to DC and the Federal trough…
True knowledge of American history is necessary to insure the future of the America we love… This is an important time in our country's history. We must be wise and measured as we choose our leaders going forward.
1 comment:
Excellent posting Rich. Hopefully, more states will follow suit.
APH
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