Remember the episode of StarTrek where the crew finds a culture that follows some ancient tradition that the inhabitants don't understand anymore? Actually, it's a recurring theme in many genre of literature. Well guess what. We're following a 200+ year old document that never envisioned the changes in society and technology that have occurred. It's about time for us to reexamine what we want our country to be.
In the 1770s when the US was formed, there were 4 million people living in 13 colonies. Today, there are 300 million people living in 50 States. We have had a Civil War and many foreign wars, some we started and some we finished. Technology unimaginable in the 1700s--computers and the Internet, organ transplants, nuclear power, air and space travel--is commonplace. Aspects of government operation that were groundbreaking in 1776 are now of questionable adequacy.
Our Constitution also defines what we believe are basic human rights. In the 200 years since the Constitution was written, many new issues have faced society, including right-to-life, right-to-death, right-to-privacy, welfare, torture, animal rights, gay rights, affirmative action, and many more. We need to define more clearly what the rights of a US citizen should be.
The constitution spells out a process for amendments, so why do we need a Constitutional Convention? Two reasons. First, organizing a movement to amend the Constitution is a huge undertaking. A coordinated process would be more efficient and effective in getting Americans engaged in debating the issues. Second, a Convention will allow effects and interactions of several amendments to be studied. Maybe a Constitutional Convention could be held before 2020, but I doubt it could happen before 2010. It will take a while to identify the issues that the country would want to address and then formulate what the changes should be. But we have to start somewhere. We don't have to know the answers, we just have to commit to finding them in a way that will unite our divided populace before coming to votes in the States.
Many citizens, especially politicians, fear changing the status quo and fear even more what mischief their opponents might make during a Constitutional Convention. But the Nation has become so polarized by abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, and so many other topics, it's time for some clarity. Some issues would be national issues, others best left to the States or even local communities. Some issues might be left as they are others changed radically. One way or another, we need to define what we want the character of our Country to be and remake the Constitution for the 21st Century.
This diary came from a priority suggested for the Obama Administration on The White House 2 site. For more information, visit the site or read Gregory Wonderwheel’s recent diary about the site.
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