How To Fix America
by
Dickens
Copyright 2011 Dickens, NeuNoiz Studio, Thought Publishing
All rights reserved.
Published for the Internet by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-6154-3799-6
The concept that America is the greatest nation on Earth has positioned its people into a situation of tremendous need to be even greater. Perhaps improvement to “a more perfect union” is required in order to catch our breath of freedom.
Is this the time to reinvent America?
Beyond our fear may be waiting the brave concept that our great social experiment can be made greater, if only we realize there is a chance that things can be better.
Read inside the essays that recognize where the founders might have left gaps in our freedom, yet freedom can expand.
Dedicated to the dreams yet undreamed.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Those fortunate enough to be citizens of the United States of America have much for which to be grateful. For this is the best nation on Earth. This nation’s wealth, abundance of resources, and social experimentation by the governing institutions are by far the best the world has to offer and beyond the simple calling for greatness, ours is a history of success, accomplishments and personal achievements that astound the imagination. Even those people found trapped in America’s poverty, live a better life, are available for and exposed to greater levels of opportunity than those impoverished in many other nations around the world.
The opportunities found in this nation are surfaced on top of layers of yet unseen, unrecognized, and even unimagined fortunes and liberties that are the envy of all the rest of the world. All this stated and even recognized by most of the patriotic followers, the fact can not be hidden that the sum of all our satisfactions have yet to measure up to our own individualized expectations. Many Americans sense, and calculate an erosion of the Common Wealth and the extensions of increased individualize accumulation has taken a serious set back following the Cold War. As if the public expected a sigh of relief to come in the years afterward. Yet we have all experienced greater levels of anxiety with regard to trade, employment, inflation, social balance, internal and external threats as well as actual attacks on our own soil.
The purpose of this book is to identify the constitutional elements that are broken, present ideas that are possible in the short-and long-term fix - and go beyond simple repair and find a sound argument for IMPROVING America. After all this nation in all of its more than 233 years of glory and manifestations of liberty need not explore all the complaints within the public to understand that it is not enough to find satisfaction in this nation’s accomplishments but to also insist that every attempt be made to IMPROVE our freedoms, expand our liberties, forge an even higher standard of living, compound our sacrifice and invested Common Wealth and thus demand the dividends of the Great Social Experiment that this nation can and will do better, and never again will settle on the accomplishments of the past however gratifying to the previous generations. Each new generation should meet the calling to improve. Let the new season of thinking begin, with ever higher expectations - this is the essence of leadership to improve; this is the soul of American hopes, dreams, and pursuits of happiness.
It is not my intention to express the ideas found in this text to be a blueprint to the cliche that everything must be, “my way or the highway.” My full intention is simply to express freely ideas that may come under consideration, be weighed out within the public forum, provoke and promote other ideas to flourish and come forward. For at the heart of all improvement is the steady supply of new ideas, new concepts, NEW SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS that also deserve a chance to live on the surface of the great American landscape. Perhaps one day some or all of the concepts presented in this text will find their way into the mainstream practice of this ever changing world and encourage a more fluid freedom to the future of the Greatest Social Experiment ever conducted by the human race.
Nonetheless, any lesser truth be found than those simply seeking a truth to greater deeds, beyond self service, yet serving the better good for the Common Wealth which in turn serves the unique individual. One thing has proved certain: if we enslave ourselves to any system or bind our lives as patriotic servants, short lived will be our liberty. Our Common Wealth will be redistributed even to the point that we gasp for any breath of economic solace we can find. This is said not to bring out our innermost fears, rather to provide warning that a more responsible governance is required if we are to improve our lives and the lives of future generations. Improvement is essential, it is not utopian. There must be some measure of improvement, even if it is but one inch at a time. Science and technology are examples of improvements that are leaving the Social Contracts in the dust. Perhaps it is time, perhaps overdue, that the Social Agreements improve as well, if there is to be a chance for free thinkers to improve the governing body - that raises the question, “if not now, then when?”
Chapter One: Overview of the Social Contracts
Our system of government is based upon Contract Law, an agreement between member and non-member populations as to how government shall interact with the general population and the business of that population. The agreeable parties shall pursue any interaction amongst themselves within the confines of the agreement or within the boundaries of amended agreements. Basically, a willingness to follow this principle on the part of the public is all that is required: to which the key is understanding, for the burden of understanding the law is placed upon all citizens. The complexity of the words within the contract gaining universal understanding is considered nearly impossible; yet the burden still rests with all parties involved to reach understanding. One thing that is promised from this is that we all understand that there will be less understanding than that part which is understood. The reason is that all humans think differently and are less agreeable than eager to understand. From time to time contracts will be breached, to which reason and rational understanding for the cause of failure, certain questions should be asked: mainly, “WHY was the contract broken from either side?” If government fails to conform to the Social Contract, then also the public should be examined as well as to their conformity to the principles at hand. The public’s duty to reign in government and make it accountable for breaking its side of the agreement. Otherwise those who violate any agreement (and left uncorrected) will continue to ignore the contract as it stands. Therefore, no contract worth following, however misunderstood or understood, results in decay of social order if the contract is violated. A contract that is violated is in need of repair. If no repairs are made, the government of “we the people” will continue to unravel.
Our Social Contracts are based upon two major instruments of written agreements. The first is the Declaration of Independence. The second is the Constitution and its amendments.
Our Declaration of Independence is not a ratified document; it is not a referendum document. Simply put, the people who signed the document were not seeking the total democratic approval of all the people nor did the signers necessarily even think that “of the people,” would throughly understand the document. The signers simply were declaring themselves independent of the Crown of England.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence forged their principles under which they would conduct affairs with the general public. Whether they gained the king’s agreement or not, they felt they had removed the king’s authority over the land.
The Second document of our Social Contracts is the ratified Constitution. The original States after long debate agreed upon and framed their understanding to the document making it the central governing contract of the new nation. Part of the process for any new state to enter the Union was that the state was in effect ratifying both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. After its admission to the Union any state could form its own Constitution to suit its particular localized