People's Amendment - Introduction

INTRODUCTION

People’s Amendment
Copyright © 2008, Indigo Rising Productions LLC

We urgently need to wake up to our potential and our responsibilities if we are to survive.

The People’s Amendment is a proposed series of Amendments to the US Constitution. It provides a common sense, nonpartisan approach to the overwhelming problems we all face. It is a collection of specific principles and changes we must make to restore a balance to our relationships with the earth and with each other. It is also a tool, a work in progress, and an attempt to light a fire before it gets too dark to see. It is above all a road map to our survival as a nation and a species.

We have a long history of mismanaging our presence on this planet. We have destroyed forests and jungles on every continent. Since WWII, virtually all our arable land - and our food - has been poisoned with successive generations of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Our topsoil is seriously eroded. Our food lacks nutrition and is toxic.

Our rivers are clogged with pollution, industrial wastes, and sewage. We have compromised and nearly depleted our groundwater. And acid rain from a polluted sky has rendered a large percentage of our lakes too acidic to support life. Our polluted, over fished oceans are dying. In the last 50 years we have extinguished an unknown number of animal species. And while we continue to poison the environment, our elected representatives deliberately alter or suppress the work of the very agencies created to mitigate the catastrophe.

Significantly, the lion’s share of these crimes against nature have occurred since the 1950s. On our watch.

Naturally, with disaster impending in every direction, politicians continue to find abortion, gay marriage and an intimate inspection of our luggage the most important issues of our time. Alarmingly, the inconvenient truth of this election year is that Democratic candidates rank global warming as only the 12th most important issue; Republicans rank it 15th.

Historically, the Constitution never intended corporations to have the rights granted individuals. Corporations were quite rare in 1776. The Constitution has not changed, but 230 years of Supreme Court rulings and Congressional legislation have buried the logic and intent of the original document. Tragically, corporate interests have taken over government in their own greedy self-interest. Federal agencies charged with the regulation of these industries and corporations have been co-opted and become extensions of those very same industries and corporations. And because we have allowed this to occur, we now have government of the people by and for corporations.

In fact, we have practically become an oligarchy: an estimated 75% of existing federal law and regulation was dictated by federal agencies, and not by the Congressional vote clearly required by the Constitution. Our system has slowly morphed into a chaotic collection of laws and edicts eliminating rights and freedoms; and more significantly, the checks and balances against fascism, oppression and dictatorship that were of primary importance in the original document.

Our elected government has abandoned its responsibility for protecting the rule of law.
We have permitted the creation of a system that seeks not to serve, but to dominate; a system actively hostile to honest, moral or well intended people; a system that rewards the greedy and the morally pliable. The results are obvious: A blatant and deliberate disregard for the health and welfare of the planet and every living creature on it. Rapacious privatization and destruction of the commons. Unnecessary and unprovoked wars. We have achieved unprecedented levels of poverty, and disease. And “We the People” have become just another exploitable resource, little more than a feedbag for government to serve corporate America.

And while corporations boldly fight to increase their strangle hold on the commons and our lives, government continues its assault on our fundamental freedoms. We are forced to watch a compliant Congress consistently and repeatedly aid and abet the corporate effort. It has gone so far that Washington even feels free to experiment on us. And official response to the rampant diseases resulting from our chronic toxic poisoning has so far been only to limit corporate liability. In short, we have turned gold into lead and rewarded the perpetrators.

Our “opinions” are formed by an endless flow of spin, disinformation and distractions from Madison Avenue and corporate media. We must change this vision by dusting off the Bill of Rights and updating the Constitution; and by remembering we share this planet with billions of other living creatures, never forgetting it is our responsibility to leave it just as clean and undamaged as we found it.

The stakes are greater than ever: its no longer “just” a matter of our freedoms. The lives of our children and our very presence on Planet Earth will depend on what we do next. We must re-establish our old ideals. We must also update our perspective to include new standards for the 21st century.

It’s not as difficult as it seems. We have the necessary knowledge, technology and resources to make the transition. We need only change the way we govern ourselves; change rules that encourage corruption of those who govern us; change our laws to value our health and our planet over corporate greed and power. It’s that simple.

The People’s Amendment may prove to be an unbeatable campaign platform. There are still good people out there; people genuinely interested in serving us and our planet. Tell your Senators and Congresspersons that you demand passage of the People’s Amendment. Tell them in no uncertain terms that this is the world we want. If they hesitate or find reasons that “it will never work”, you will know they serve the dark side. Replace them.

While an old Chinese curse allegedly says: “May you live in interesting times,” the Dalai Lama has stated “To us is granted the privilege of being on hand to take part, if we choose, in the Great Turning to a just and sustainable society.”

We believe the People’s Amendment reflects the intention of the Constitution and can take us toward “a just and sustainable society.” It is nonpartisan and reflects the idealism and freedoms we’ve been taught all of our lives that America stood for.

The Iroquois Indian elders – from whence our Constitution – saw their responsibility not only to their tribes but also to their ancestors and to the next seven generations to come. We can do the same.