Most Americans don’t know beans about The Constitution. This unknowing is perfectly logical. The public education system isn’t interested in the work of a bunch of dead white men. Most Americans don’t know that The Constitution was created in 1787. They don’t know that it was not ratified by all 13 States until May, 1790, a full seven (7) years after the war with Great Britain ended in 1783. For those seven years, there was no Federal Government. The States were sovereign. The newly freed citizens of the new nation weren’t exactly thrilled about the prospect of a Centralized Government. It’s no wonder. They knew all too well what it was like to live under the heavy, oppressive boots of a King. That’s why ratifying The Constitution was no slam dunk. In fact, in March, 1788, Rhode Island actually held a popular referendum to gauge how the rank and file viewed The Constitution. The vote was 237 In Favor and 2708 Against. Two years  later, the vote in the Rhode Island legislature was 34 In Favor and 32 Against. Many of the other States had similar squeaky results.  Americans of today still don’t know that the Americans of yesterday had big misgivings about the reality of a Federal Government. Their concerns were well founded. Because today the States are sovereign no longer. States exist simply as functionaries to a Federal Master.. Unfortunately, too many Americans of today stupidly don’t care about local sovereignty. Americans of today don’t even know that the States were intended  to run their own affairs with very little oversight from the newly formed Federal Government. That intention crashed in the 20th century, hammered continuously by the imperious arm of the SCOTUS. Today, people foolishly don’t know or care that their States have completely subjugated themselves to the Federal Government and have allowed their own citizens to be ruled by the Washington Beltway Club.

Something else oblivious Americans know nothing about is this — they are not governed by The Constitution — not as it was written. Instead, they are governed by what is known as the “Annotated” Constitution — thousands of pages of impressions, assumptions, suppositions, opinions, speculation and interpretation — rulings handed down by the autocratic Supreme Court — a self-important committee of individuals who, in direct violation of The Constitution, gave unlimited power to the Federal Government, rendering The States irrelevant. But, whatever you do, don’t overlook “the rest of the story.” The States have a bulletproof trump card, no pun intended. The Founders didn’t trust central authority. They rightly predicted the emergence of excessive Federal power. Ingeniously, the Framers decided they would not allow the Federal Government  to develop into a dictatorship — without providing some type of corrective remedy.  So they gave America — the people — Article V.

Article V gives the States of America true Absolute Power to put handcuffs on the Federal Government. The move to do just that is now underway through the Convention of States Project (COS). The COS million-person army has mobilized. The battle is being waged in every State. The weighty questions are these:

Will lawmakers in 34 states have the guts  to act?

Will 34 States invoke absolute  power?

Will the States  honor the original Constitution on behalf of a free people?

Are the Americans of today worthy of the Americans of  yesterday?

Another school shooting. Tragic, yes. Surprising, no. Certainly by now you have come to expect and anticipate the next homicidal eruption and can only nod with sadness when it happens. Peculiarly, the nation’s broadcast media seems astonished by youth on youth butchery. In predictable knee-jerk fashion, outraged “journalists” and entertainment celebrities excoriate the Federal Government to torpedo the weapons industry. Yes, you refer to that same Federal Government that so efficiently and honorably dealt with Ruby Ridge, Waco and Benghazi. No one can calculate the pain associated with the murder of children. Parents, relatives and friends can find no earthly succor. Not now. Not ever. You can understand why Big Media concentrates on death. Death is big news. Seventeen deaths is calamitous news — so calamitous that NRA haters place blame and demand a solution. But while politicians and talking heads pontificate about the horror of Parkland, 63 homicides in Chicago have zero sensational appeal. The 20 murders in the past 30 days in Baltimore are of little consequence to anyone — except for the victims’ parents, relatives and friends who can find no earthly succor. Every day, in case you’re interested, teenage blood flows on the streets of St. Louis, Detroit, Hartford, New Orleans and dozens of other cities. But you won’t hear CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX beat the drum and demand a solution. It’s just as well. Because there is no solution. There is no solution because there is no reversing the relentless decline of America’s culture. The unassailable fact is this — gratuitous violence is a fundamental tenet of what has become a dissolute culture. And that violence begins — where else — inside the walls of the All-American family. No one needs to draw you a picture. On a daily basis, parents and children alike entertain themselves with TV vulgarity and video game barbarity. Perhaps you haven’t kept up with that entertainment. Here’s a small sample, only 8 of dozens, courtesy of Complex.com:

Mortal Kombat — A classic, MK upped the bloody ante by adding realistic finishing-move fatalities, including the ripping out of hearts, heads and spines.

Manhunt — Trapped in a snuff-film-style reality show, you kill enemies in increasingly gruesome ways, using everything from plastic bags to crowbars to pickaxes.

Thrill Kill — With . . . creepy S&M themes, the planned PlayStation fighter makes Mortal Kombat look soft.

Chiller — Even by today’s standards, this torture-themed, light-gun game is gruesome and nasty.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG — Inventive? Demented? Either way, (this) freeware game is as un-P.C. as they come, inspiring V-Tech Rampage and other bad-karma, homemade shock-fests.

The Darkness II — If guns and environmental kills weren’t enough for you, The Darkness’ tendrils offer . . . brutal executions throughout the course of the game.

Grand Theft Auto V — one sequence is so violent we . . . acknowledge it separately: a torture scene. It includes water boarding, electrocution, knee breaking and more.

Postal — The title reveals the premise–a merciless killing spree.

You don’t need to be a psychotherapist to suggest that the average teenager has become inured to Death. But, for now, put aside the shooting, stabbing, raping, dismembering and chainsawing. The love of violence is just a symptom of deep decay. The American family is in tatters. Divorce is an easy fix for  adults — the kids don’t count. Fathers are MIA. Single mothers invite live-in boyfriends. Teen promiscuity is pandemic. Killing babies is big business. Rampant drug and alcohol abuse enters the best of homes. Profanity is peachy. Immorality is cool and Christianity is cornball. Meanwhile, Parkland  plans a march on Washington to cast blame and demand gun control. Blame the politicians, blame the NRA, blame gun manufacturers, blame gun-toting American citizens, blame the free enterprise system, blame the Church, blame Trump, blame God. But whatever you do, don’t blame your parents, don’t blame Parkland’s Mayor, don’t blame local law enforcement, don’t blame the FBI, don’t blame the Parkland School Board, don’t blame the officials of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, don’t blame Hollywood, don’t blame Television, don’t blame vulgar rap music, don’t blame substandard public education, don’t blame unfit teachers, don’t blame the drug culture, don’t blame Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, and definitely don’t blame yourself. Blame anyone and everyone. Take away the guns. And while you’re at it, take away individual freedom. Then, as the massacres continue, you may have to concede, however reluctantly,  that American culture has a fetid sickness. And it has nothing to do with guns.

The term Crusades is popular. The second they hear the word, people imagine devout armies of God, heroic men, clad in white tunics with red crosses bisecting their chests, mounted on equally heroic steeds, willing to die to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Give the warriors credit. They fought Four Crusades and lost. But the effort bought Europe precious time. Scholars agree the crusades “slowed the advance of Islamic power,” suggesting that Western Europe otherwise could not have escaped conquest. Popular history says Europe fought The Crusades to save Christianity in Jerusalem, but realistically what they saved was Western Europe — from certain Islamic subjugation.

You have to laugh. All that sacrifice. All that spilled blood. Now Europe is overrun as it throws open its doors to Muslims by the millions. Reminds you of the board game World Domination. In the real world, it never ends.

Now, centuries later, you have embarked on your own personal crusade. But your campaign has nothing to do with Sharia Law or bloody carnage. You don’t want to dominate anyone or anything. Just the opposite. You simply want to help prevent the continuous desecration of the U. S. Constitution by a continuously domineering Federal Government. In human terms, the Federal Government is morbidly obese — a grotesque monstrosity — the kind of obesity in human beings that forces confinement, requiring a phalanx of 24-7 care and resources. Unfortunately, this particular glutton demands ever more obeisance, ruling with an obscenely bloated appetite. Most of the people you know complain about this abuse of dictatorial power. Day after day, month after month, year after year — educated people in social settings, in civic conferences, on radio and television, on social media — protest, criticize and bellyache that America cannot sustain the assault on freedom — can no longer tolerate corruption and bureaucratic excess and overreach. They dissent, grumble and shake their heads in dismay — then go home to more important considerations like doing the laundry and taking out the dog. In their nightly exhortations, some may pray for a White (or Black) Knight to swoop down and save the day. Some think Trump (The Donald) is their Big Fix. Finally, they believe they can rest, trusting that he will force the Fed to relinquish power, submit to a crash diet and visit the gym.  They believe he will restore the Balance of Powers created by  “old” white men in Pennsylvania in 1787. So help him God, he will see to it that the Fed spends less and less, and decides to return most of its unauthorized power to the respective States, as commanded by The (Original) Constitution. These people — the ones who believe Trump can shrink The Beast — have a theme song. It’s entitled “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” The refrain lyrics sum it up perfectly — “for dreams are just like wine, and I am drunk with mine.” As Trump said recently, “Americans are dreamers, too.” Only he didn’t have you and other Crusaders in mind. He might well have reminded you that the first dreamers on this soil were the Founders, themselves. He could have reflected that the Crusaders gave birth to America — that this America would not exist today without Crusaders. He might have told thoroughly oblivious U.S. citizens that the States created the Federal Government. Surprise! That The Constitution (written by the States) gave the Federal government specific, narrow, enumerated powers. He could have reminded an ignorant public that the States were Master and that the Federal Government was Servant. And he could have pointed out the obvious — that today the Fed is Master and the States are Servant. Everybody complains but nobody does anything about it. Why? Donald can answer that question,  too, if he would. He would say the people don’t have a clue that the most powerful political arm in America is The States. Not Congress. Not the Supreme Court. Not the President. The States have absolute power to act, if they will. Originally, they acted to create the Federal Government in 1789. They can act today to stop the madness in Washington, if they will. Only the States have that power. That means you and you and you. Like the Constitution says: It means “we the people . . .”

www.conventionofstates.com