Opining on Amending the Constitution and the Current State of the Union

I do thank Mr. Z at the Bloviating Zeppelin for giving a look at the things going on that people want to Amend the Constitution over! Dear me! Everyone wants to make something at that level so quickly to redress something by that truly belongs to the States. Needless to say things like marriage and the flag really are pretty well out there... marriage is wholly a States issue and handing it to the Federal Government via Constitution would just be *another* power handed to them.

And they do *so* well with the ones they already have, don't they?

And as for the flag... well, the flag has an actual definition as to shape coloration, spacing, proportionality and every such thing. Its colors are defined and within multiple spectra, to boot! So making a flag desecration or burning would require that an *actual* flag of the US is burned... not a mere replica!

I can see the commercial now:

*Scene starts... backyard barbecue... evening sets... father sprays lighter fluid all over the barbecue... it bursts into flames... and the flag nearby catches fire! *

*A nosy neighbor calls the police and the father is put away for a felony 10-20 years*

*Narrator Voiceover*
Yes you, you the patriotic public are at risk at simple display of the flag!
But this wouldn't have happened if they had used an Old Glory Flag Replica!

*cue to flag replica*
This replica flag uses coloration just slightly different from the official ones....
Note that every Old Glory Flag Replica comes with a full guarantee to protect your rights to use our flag in any way you deem fit...

*view shifts back to the father in jail*
Narrator ominously: Unlike THEIR flag!

*shift back to two flags flying side by side*
Narrator: Our Old Glory Flag Replica is backed by a team of color experts...

*view of people working in a scanning area showing the actual color values of the flag*
...and these folks will appear in court to testify that an Old Glory Flag Replica is NOT an Official Flag...

*camera pulls back as the folks in the lab stand up and put their hands over their hearts*
...and beyond that we keep a full suite of Constitutional and Legal experts on retainer...

*cue up multiple shots of lawyers and scholars smiling and waving to the camera, hand over their heart*
...each of which we will fly out and pay for at the expense of Old Glory Flag Replica Company's cost to establish that any Old Glory Flag Replica is *not* any old glory flag but a genuine REPLICA!

*cue back to the flags flying side-by-side*
...because...

*pull back to see the staff of OGFRC standing beneath the two flags*
...We stand with our products and YOUR RIGHTS...

*dissolve to the father in jail*
...unlike THEIR FLAG... ours comes fully enabled BY THE CONSTITUTION to meet all of your free speech and patriotic needs!

*dissolve to a large flag on a flagpole during stormy weather*
Narrator: Our Old Glory Flag Replica lines include this doozy that is part of our Duralast line with a Duraplant flagpole, guaranteed to withstand 220 mph winds without tattering or we will replace it FREE OF CHARGE. You have your choice of either Kevlar or Tyvec and NEITHER is an OFFICIAL STANDARD for the REAL AMERICAN FLAG... THEY can't offer you this, but we CAN!!

*dissolve to a flag flying on a flagpole with spikes pointing downwards*
Narrator: And our Duraplant flagpole also comes in the Damned Tarnation line that is theft resistant...

*dissolve to large sized car of expensive make losing traction as it tries to push up the flagpole*
... and guaranteed to resist 10 tons of force applied to it! Or we will come out and replace it FREE OF CHARGE for the rest of your natural life!

*dissolve to an OGFR being burnt on the steps of some important looking building*
Narrator: Our EZ Burn and EZ Smoulder line of flags are specially impregnated to either disappear with no fuss or put out smoke as it slowly burns away...

*dissolve to Old Glory Flag Replica scientists looking at charred remains in plastic bags*
...and our forensics specialists will verify that only an Old Glory Flag Replica was used as we have special nanofibers and nanoparticles that are unique to each and every Old Glory Flag Replica of ALL of our lines... you show us proof of purchase and we will verify that you did NOT burn a REAL FLAG but one of OUR Replicas!

*dissolve to the first scene, but this time the father pulls out the sales receipt and police call to confirm it was an Old Glory Flag Replica*
Narrator: Because we CARE about all of your rights to use the flag in any way you want... unlike THEM.

*dissolve to an Old Glory Flag Replica waving in the wind*

Ah, Capitalism!

Still, that said there is a serious side to this and that requires copy and paste of my commentary, of which you will now start to get it. The following are my words, as said, although the damned formatting may get FUBAR some, all spelling and syntactical errors kept for your reading befuddlement:

I would not endorse a Constitutional Convention for much of anything, save the fact that the current Government is no longer adhering to the current Constitution in which the Federal Government will take to protect all the States in the Union. That was the agreement of 1787 and is codified by giving the Federal Government the capability to have a National Militia with support from the States so that All the States may be protected and no single State to hold the burden of defending itself.

To protect this Union the States were given rights of autonomy within the Union save for those few things that were held in common to All States. In return for those powers, the Federal Government agrees to be held accountable by the States and the People for its activities on their behalf. And by the rights and powers and balancing of same within the Constitution, States have the capability to change many things and to directly go to the Federal Government and tell them: "You shall either protect us or declare the Constitution to be ended". Of course there are many things that can be done via responsible means short of that. But, if I were a governor or part of the Peoples in States no longer afforded protection and Sovereignty as People within an autonomous State within the Union, I would press heavily for that accountability all the way to that major question on why the Federal Government has reneged on its agreement held since 1787.

This Government no longer protects National Sovereignty nor the Sovereignty of its States, does not use the diplomatic means at its disposal to hold other Nations accountable for their actions, encourages the diminishment of the common welfare by not enforcing the Laws of the Land and, in that doing, no longer provide equal Justice to All of the People.

For flags and marriage, that is a matter for States. For protecting the Union... either do so or declare the Government incapable and withdraw support from it and open a new State's Convention for a new Constitution. Apply all other pressure FIRST, but if those cannot be done properly and the Government remains unaccountable to its role as Sovereign Protector of the Union as a whole, then it must be ended.

The Constitution is *only* a guarantee if it is looked at and used as such. When responsibilities are abdicated and the Union used to mere partisan or ideological goals, then it is subverted in whole in that doing as those do not account for all of the People. The Federal Government was formed to *govern* not *rule* nor *reign*. And its first duty, above all, is to protect the Union.

After we are the People of the United States we are then a UNION, even before Justice and the common defense. That is the priority we are given and agreed to since 1787. I adhere to that as all Citizen *must*: it is Our Duty to do so. And that comes before any mention of *rights* in the Constitution, so it takes precedence as a responsibility and those rights must be *used* to uphold that responsibility.

Or the Union, as we know it, ends.

And so endith comment one by me!

Now I proceed to comment two by me, and let that number be the second of the counting:

To turn the Nation requires One, just One Governor to step up to this plate and ask that the State be protected by the entirety of the United States being so protected.

One People with their State may reach a new accord so as to forcefully protect their State and then hand all invaders over as INVADERS and DEMAND protection.

And in either case the warning is: "Protect this Union or a new Convention shall be called by my State so that a Government that CAN protect us shall be formed."

One fine Shays away from the depths of the pit.

And if the choice is put of destruction of the Union by inaction or the possibility of a ledge we could fall upon on the way down into the abyss... who could say that such a ledge is not a better place from certain loss of Nation?

A Republic could easily withstand these tribulations. It did so in the 19th Century and We the People became stronger for it.

What we have today cannot withstand these problems and so will collapse into ruin, either by piece or whole, but wholly undermined unless the old and stable structure is found within the mass of additions and those additions lost. Try to keep it all and all is lost as the structure pulls firm ground down with it.

Lose much of the shambling structure now and the basis of liberty is saved and can move forward from such loss as it is on firm ground.

Each generation is challenged with the Loss of the Republic. Each has said so in its papers and memoirs and writings, and we scoff at them at our peril. They built hard to ward off such loss, but kept to the main structure... by adding on useless parts on unfirm ground we now find the entirety sinking... and can either watch in horror...

Or remain Citizens and say that much of what has been added on is folly and should be lost so We the People can re-assess what is absolutely *necessary* to have a government that *governs*. In welfare, health care, social security, agriculture, business administration... it has proven worse than useless. A Republic does not *do* these things... unless 'Socialist' is in front of it... and the United States was not formed to be that creature that devours heart and soul and lives and gives abject poverty to all.

And thus endith the second comment of the counting.

Basically it boils down to this: arguing about marriage and flag amendments is truly discussing about the need to get mosquito netting as one's leg is being gnawed upon by a grizzly bear. Perhaps of some distant interest, but there are more important things that now need addressing in life.