Topic: Constitutional Issues
Start now to restore the Constitution in your county

To win back freedom we need to show enough Americans how to free themselves and then how to govern themselves locally. This can be done. it is not glamorous, but it is relatively inexpensive. Here is how.
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
(libertarian)
Tuesday, August 5, 2008

About this Project

This is the first Restore the Constitution Project for you to undertake in your county. Using it you can deliver the message that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land.  You will find instructions, sources for supplies and a Proof of Service Form for this project. Other projects, each on its own small site, will follow. Using these, you can serve law enforcement officers with a letter and a copy of the Constitution. If you like, you can also include a copy of "The Proper Role of Law Enforcement," by Sheriff Richard Mack.

The project can be carried out by a small group very inexpensively.  It is the first of a series of such projects. Together, the projects will enable you to restore your county to government by the people, transitioning from the present system to one that is stable and reliable and resistant to becoming uppity.

 The Heritage Association, who is sponsoring the Restore the Constitution Projects, can be organized in each county to do further outreach to the people who you could never get interested in politics. Ordinary people are interested in learning the history of the Common Law and the Constitution using the speeches and other resources provided when it is introduced as a short presentation that includes history and made relevant. Through existing local organizations such as the Lion's Club and your local women's club, we can inject an understanding of how America was intended to work using the Common Law in the hands of the people and the Constitution to rigidly limit the power of government. You can show them how a common law court worked using the model we will provide. They can see how it feels to be a real jury, the kind familiar to our ancestors, that decided on fact AND law.

First broaden understanding into the mainstream, then we will be in a position to take effective action. This can happen in just a few months when accompanied by the opeds and other materials Heritage makes available. Heritage provides a foundation for local organizing; you can use it or another local organization, as works for you.  Please read this and pass it on. 

Thanks,  Melinda Pillsbury-Foster


Restore Constitutional Government to America

                                                                          by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Every day we move closer; every time we open the paper, surf the Internet, it is worse. Left, right, libertarian, green, we know in our bones and hearts that we need to take action. We have been divided along lines of political opinion where we should have been joined to find solutions. We have been cut off from each other, manipulated for the profit of corporations and their cronies. It is bad and when we look into the future there is little to spark hope; The meltdown of the economy and the narrowing of what is permitted us grows daily more frightening.

Like someone trying to restart their car as it rolls towards the cliff, we all face the same crying need whether we recognized that years ago or last week. We need to reactivate the Constitution as the law of the land. That awareness might have grow slowly but it has now reached a tipping point.

It was the Constitution, intended to limit government, never us, and the Common Law that were to stand between us and tyranny. They are the foundation of our freedoms, the tools we need desperately today to check the unbridled greed of those who are caging us in to a perpetual serfdom.

When we get in our cars, when we see a law enforcement officer we feel fear, not relief. It is wrong; it violates the intentions of our Founders and the spiritual direction intended for us as the people who would govern themselves.

We are being pitted against those sworn to protect and defend. This threatens us and also those who follow orders intended to use them as weapons against us. This is the pause point, when action is still possible without violence. Those in law enforcement must be recalled to their duty and to an essential understanding of their oath and the Constitution. It can be done.

We can thwart the attempt to use local law enforcement as a tool to oppress us. To do that we need to let them know directly that the Constitution was not canceled, as so many have been told. This morning I had a conversation with a friend in DC who was shocked speechless to discover that a year ago local police were beginning to lump 'Constitutionalists,' and those who talk about their rights along with gangs. I heard this in a local luncheon meeting of the National Federation of Republican Women from a deputy sheriff who waxed eloquent on the subject. Being a Constitutionalist myself I began to worry.

A few days ago another friend of mine was told by a local policeman that he did not have to pay attention to the Constitution. It was just a piece of paper

Most judges do not sign the oath of office mandated by the Constitution. Like Thomas Anderle of Santa Barbara, they act like they are the law.

When someone, or thousands of someones like those employed in law enforcement, are so seriously mistaken then it is time to take rapid action. In this country today those in law enforcement are being aimed at us, manipulated to do ugly things to us and our neighbors. Those training them are telling them this is what it means to be in law enforcement. It is wrong.

When the system is this far out of line you need to make sure they get the message. But that message must be non-violent; most of those in law enforcement are not rocket scientists and they, too, are at risk. Law Enforcement officers who violate their oath can and will end up in jail, lose their pensions, and be bankrupted by civil actions. And if they do not draw back that is what we need to make sure happens.

But it is far better for all of us to send them a word of caution and advise now.

So this is what we propose.

In every county in the US we need to serve everyone working in law enforcement with a demand letter requiring that they read the Constitution and be bound by it. We need to spell out the consequences for ignoring that demand, for their sake as well as our own.

If you have read Richard Mack's book, "The Proper Role of Law Enforcement," or heard him speak you know about his story and how he was awakened to his obligation to follow the Constitution while he was still a cop writing traffic tickets. One day while writing a ticket he was struck by the fact that the woman had done nothing that endangered anyone or anything. He could not continue writing. Turning away, his mind in a tumult, he went into the station house, found the oath he had signed, and read it carefully. Mack said of that moment, "In the oath I gave my word and promise to protect and defend and obey the U. S. Constitution and the Utah Constitution as well. I had never read either and knew virtually nothing about them." It changed his life. He began to study the Constitution. When Richard Mack became a sheriff himself he insisted each officer carry the small book with them. Those officers began calling it, "Mack's Bible."

That moment of insight became the moment that turned back the threat of the Brady Bill, creating the Supreme Court Decision that affirmed the right of the sheriff in the local county to uphold the Constitution. The issue of that moment was the 2nd Amendment but the larger issue was the obligation of the county sheriff to uphold the Constitution despite orders from Washington D.C.

We need every officer to confront the choices they will be asked to make before harm is done. We can do that now.

We have put together a simple set of instructions and some resources so you can gently remind law enforcement in your community that the Constitution of their duty and the danger they may face if they fail to choose honorably. You can find that site at Constitution Your County.

Although the future looks bleak we actually stand at a point in time that makes change more possible than you might imagine.

Americans are the people who fought to establish for all time the right to govern themselves.  They fought and died to pass on to us that wisdom. The wise understand that hope is a place on the horizon towards which they look, that draws them to become greater than they imagined possible.  The future looks bleak, but it can be wonderful, if we make it so.  This can become the launch point for an America that takes us back to hope and on to a vibrant reality we live and leave our children.  Together, we can make it so

©2008 Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Melinda Pillsbury-Foster only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Melinda Pillsbury-Foster is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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Reader Comments:

Posted By: Jake, the champion of the constitution
Date: 2008-08-05 17:32:34

Melinda - this is a great idea. if i lived in the US, I would definitely take this on. maybe 5 years ago, i once gave a policeman near bryce canyon the same thought when i was traveling 70 mph in a 55 zone with no other car in sight except for the cruiser hidden behind a rock. it seemed pretty silly to be driving around scared of police officers even before i had read the constitution - Jake

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Posted By: David S
Date: 2008-08-08 08:33:45

If police abuse of the constitution is a problem in your area you might strike a chord with this approach. Where I live we don't seem to have a problem with that. But I think the US has a problem with abuse of the constitution by the executive branch. W has a nasty habit of labeling people as enemy combatants and throwing them in jail indefinitely, without regard to habeas corpus, the due process requirements of the 5th amendment, and without the a trial as required by the 6th amendment.

He also has taken a serious bite out of the 4th amendment's requirement for search warrants. And congress helped him on that one.

But the American people seem to be blissfully unaware of any of that. If you talk to someone about it, you get a blank stare. In fact the American people are largely unaware of the constitution and the protections it provides. Most Americans don't give a rat's butt about the constitution. That is the problem! Nothing will change until the people come to understand the constitution and realize how important it is.

In my opinion things will have to get worse before they can get better. The American people will have to feel the jack-booted foot of government on their own personal necks before they begin to understand. When they, or their family members, end up in prison without charges they will start to understand. When they discover the government has searched their homes and removed private property without even telling them then they will begin to understand. When their guns are confiscated without cause then they will begin to understand. Until then they could care less.

 

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