Late News From The Front

I’m an active member in the subgroup of a subgroup of the NYC General Assembly of OccupyWallSt. Each Occupy city has a General Assembly (GA) once a night round six or seven, where everyone there at that time votes things up or down. Our group is addressing the convention clause. We’ve all been e-mailing and decided to create a working document. Almost impossible to follow on a cold reading, but if you want to see it: http://piratenpad.de/4zz0uxb4tQ


The following are today’s e-mails/replies after getting back from political activity at De La Guerra Plaza, most beautiful Santa Barbara....

First reply is to someone asking if I was at the Harvard conference:

"Yes Ben, was lucky enough to have attended. More content from more attendees and hope to make a comprehensive documentary piece soon. I came away with the impression that the Tea Party Patriots on the one hand and progressives on the other, both perceive something is terribly wrong about current affairs but would articulate it differently. Both sides want to express our ultimate right as Americans--that of Alter and Abolish. Convoking and convening a federal convention is in essence a three-part national discussion which in and of itself alters and abolishes the status quo. I have complete faith in We The People, that we have the talent to carry off a convention, which with time and ratified amendments, will set humanity on a course different than the one we are currently on."

The next e-mail I responded to was from another newcomer, talking about the ERA:
http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm

My reply:

"Anne, thanks for the link. One thought that has occurred to me is that although the ten year struggle to get the ERA ratified did not succeed then, I believe America would be ready for such an amendment today, and the Article V Convention would be the best way to revive the issue. I imagine that if someone like yourself ran to hold office of delegate, that you might platform your campaign on such an amendment."

The next e-mail asked: “What exactly is the proposal for starting a convention? And what would the concept be and goals of any amendment?”

To which I replied:

"The proposal, based on what we're talking about, would be that this group formulates the salespitch to the NYCGA of why we should redirect all focus to calling for a federal convention; it dawns on NYCGA that in fact it is the right thing to do, and they put the call out to all other occupy cities to begin calling for the Article V Convention. Congress and media will pick it up and the call would be issued shortly thereafter. Once issued the concept and goal of most Americans would be an amendment which prohibits proprietary source code in voting machines, and removes corporate funds from public elections."