The following was written by Jessica Russell, a Convention of States supporters in South Carolina. Readers may remember a previous article by Ms. Russell, which we re-published from Wikinut a few days ago.
Calling a Convention of States is the solution to a tyrannical government provided by God to those highly intelligent men we refer to as our Founding Fathers. However, an inordinate amount of unfounded fear surrounds this process. The simple fact is, the Convention of States Project is the hope of our country, but unless people can be made to see through whatever is blinding their eyes, our nation will not be saved.
Lions and Tigers and Bears
Those who promote the Convention of States do so based on cold, hard facts. Those against the Project merely offer one “what if?” scenario after another when asked to defend their position. It is sad that they do not see how this line of reasoning is a dark and treacherous road.
For instance, let's consider people who are afraid to fly. At first it seems as if they have legitimate arguments: the plane may crash, terrorists may be on the plane, in fact, the pilot himself or herself could be a terrorist. Can anyone guarantee that those things may not happen? Of course not. However, does that negate the fact that hundreds of thousands of people fly every day of the year without incident? These statistics offer evidence that flying is relatively safe. So what are the odds of the aforementioned scenarios? Pretty low.
Nevertheless, that person decides to only drive. Whoops. The car may have a faulty engine and explode if it is hit. Another person may run into the car and kill the driver. Perhaps our hypothetical friend should stick to side roads. No, that won't work either. A tree could suddenly fall on the car as it passes by and kill him. Better just WALK everywhere. No wait! There may be a lion in the streets. (Well...can you GUARANTEE there WON'T be lions, tigers and bears?)
If these arguments sound a bit silly, then let's clear one thing up right now. All of the aforementioned scenarios are more likely to happen than the infamous runaway convention–the hypothetical scenario feared and dreaded by those who cannot see past their unfounded suspicions.
No Guarantees in This Life
When Bob Menges [South Carolina State Director] and others speak about the Convention of States, they are often asked if they can guarantee nothing will go wrong during the process. These men have impressive lists of credentials and college degrees. Of course they would not attempt to give such guarantees. They can only show the extraordinary improbability of a negative outcome.
No one can guarantee ANYTHING in this life. When Bob is speaking, he cannot even guarantee that the roof will not collapse and kill everyone during his presentation. However, if we looked about the room, we would notice that nobody is scrambling for the door. That's because the probability of the roof collapsing is slim to none. I think what we need here is a bit of instruction on the difference between possible and probable. While almost anything in this life is POSSIBLE, the odds of certain things happening are close to a million to one, and the odds of a runaway convention falls under that category.
Ridiculous Misconceptions
A huge part of the misunderstanding stems from the fact that many individuals apparently believe that the whole process begins and ends with the Convention itself. This is not the case, which they would know if they had taken time away from fearland to educate themselves. All that is accomplished at the convention is the proposal of amendments. The Constitution itself is not amended during the convention.
Once amendments are proposed, they are sent to all 50 states for ratification and 38 states must ratify each amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution. Furthermore, it only takes 13 states to say “no.” If the citizens of this country do not trust that 13 out of 31 Republican states would say no to a rogue amendment that would do more harm than good, then we might as well throw in the towel now. If we cannot trust a bare minimum of 13 states to overturn something that would be bad for us, then we've already lost the war and we may as well all head for Costa Rica tomorrow.
Let's take off the glasses of fear and look at the actual odds of the multiple firewalls built into the process all failing at once. It's POSSIBLE. Is it probable? No. It's about as probable as everyone who leaves for work this morning getting run over by a Mac truck.
Could it happen?
Uh....YEAH.
Is it going to?
No.
Once we solve the riddle of probable versus possible things become a lot clearer, don't they?
Fear Has no Logic
As previously mentioned, there are so many firewalls built into the COS process that the chances of it “running away” are virtually zero. However, our risk of losing our country to an oppressive, tyrannical government is very real. It is already happening right before our eyes.
Things in motion stay in motion. Those who critique and fear a Convention of States fail to notice that absolutely nothing we have done thus far has derailed us from our current fate.
Unless we get knocked off course by something the odds of us losing our rights to live as free Americans are 100 percent. Individuals who THINK they are intelligent should have enough math skills to understand that THAT risk isinfinitely greater than something going wrong with a Convention of States. Yet, that is essentially the naysayers' answer: no to a Convention of States, yet they are perfectly willing to continue to do what has not worked for multiple decades.
Questions for the Naysayers
A few questions that proponents of the Convention of States may wish to ask those who are afraid of this process:
• Can you guarantee the person you elect will not betray you and vote against conservative principles? (hmmmm...)
• Can you guarantee that something other than a Convention of States will derail us from our final destination of a totalitarian government?
• Can you guarantee that what we have been doing for the past 50 years will suddenly start working when all the evidence shows that it will not?
• Can you guarantee that once we have a Republican president everything will suddenly turn around and all the damage of the past years will be undone?
• Can you guarantee that “electing the right people” will suddenly start to have better results than it has for the last five decades? (hmmmm...)
• Can you guarantee that the roof won't fall in?
Insanity at its Finest
It would be different if what we were doing was working, because you don't fix what isn't broken. However, what we are doing is NOT working and hasn't for a long time. Yet we keep on doing it over and over, expecting different result. That is one of the definitions of insanity, folks.
We claim that we want to take back our country, we walk around talking about the travesty of our top-weighted, overreaching Federal government, we claim we want to stop the abuse of power, yet we don't embrace the solution.
One would think now that we are on the verge of a Gestapo (nationalized police force) that anything in our arsenal would be up for discussion, but no: we are still lost in “what if” land. This horrid, bright blindness, the inability to see our fate if we do not use this tool is inconceivable.
I always compare the situation we are in to a burning building and a person standing nearby with a fire extinguisher. No one on this earth can guarantee that the fire extinguisher is not really a bomb in disguise, or something equally as ridiculous; however, what are the odds? Virtually zero. On the other hand, the odds of the building burning to the ground if no one does anything are 100 percent. So I ask you, where is the greater risk? The fire, or the theory that the fire extinguisher itself may be more dangerous than the burning building?
Our broken government is burning to the ground while we watch, my fellow citizens, and the fire extinguisher is the Convention of States.
We have a small but distinct window of opportunity to save ourselves with the solution provided by God to our Founders, and hence, to us. It's time to act, America. The Bible says “Faith without works is dead,” meaning if you say you have faith, yet refuse to act, your faith means nothing. I can't speak for everyone, but it makes me personally angry that we have a solution, but instead of using it, the fearful are allowing our nation to burn to the ground without even giving a Convention of States a CHANCE.
Makes you wonder if they really care at all.
