9/12 and the 912ers

9/12 and the 912ers
By Andrew Kashmer

On this, the day after September 11th, we still remember the tragic terror attacks on our home soil. But one group remembers the national rage we felt on September 12th, 2001. They call themselves the 912ers, and their leader is Glenn Beck. And their latest public demonstrations are not at tea party protests, but town hall events. They are not at every town hall protest, but when the insurance industry incited mobs quiet, you can hear the 912ers speak. “I want us to go back to the Constitution!”, “The Founding Fathers didn’t want this!”, and “I want my country back!” are their cries. My question to them is, “Do you know what that means?”


We would have to throw out the Bill of Rights. Even Hamilton objected to the Bill of Rights in the Federalists papers. Although, his argument was not against the rights themselves, but that the bill suggested they were the only rights. Further, they were not ratified until four years after the Constitution. That means no freedom of the press, assembly, speech, or religion. No right to a trial by a jury of your peers or to protect you from unlawful searches or seizures. However, the 912ers do make one exception for the Bill of Rights. The only amendment to the Constitution that the 912er’s website supports is the second (the right to bear arms).

Minorities and women were not given the right to vote until decades later. African Americans would still be considered property, and even if they had managed to obtain their own emancipation they wouldn’t be able to share the same drinking fountains, restrooms, schools, office spaces, or platoons with their white countrymen. We would be left with a slave-owning state where the vast majority of the population had no right to vote.


There would be no more five day, 40 hour work weeks, which gave birth to the concept of a “weekend”. There would be no minimum wage, unemployment insurance, or overtime rights. No protections against prejudice, harassment, or wrongful dismissal. Not to mention we would still have child labor.


Write off our national parks and national highways. Those were part of a vast socialist agenda, as were your local police and fire departments, public schools, public transportation (including Amtrak), Social Security, and Medicaid/Medicare. For good measure let’s imagine a country without the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which forced power companies to deliver electricity to all of those flyover states. And in 1949, they extended that law to include phone lines. Don’t forget an Act passed in 1933 that encouraged the federal government to “Buy American” whenever possible. And there goes the United States Postal Service, whose roots were passed into law in 1792 and remains largely intact today because private contractors will not deliver a letter to rural Wyoming for 44 cents.


The spiritual aspect of our nation that we take for granted would be lost. We would no longer be “one nation under God” as the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t written until 1892, and we would not trust God either. “In God We Trust” was not made into the national motto until 1956.


We would eliminate the CIA and the FBI. The Defense of Marriage Act would disappear and Idaho would be forced to acknowledge legally wed gay couples from other states. The PATRIOT Act would be gone and we could go back to checking out books at our local libraries without worrying about the FBI tracking our reading history, but then again public libraries weren’t in the Constitution either. Telemarketers would love to see the Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003 repealed. And we would be one step closer to Beck’s fear of marital law, because the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the military from carrying out police actions, would also disappear.


I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the 912ers would probably support the repeal of the 16th Amendment, the right of the federal government to tax income. And it would also mean the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, and all other regulations against business and industry.


Which of these laws are the 912ers really after eliminating? Are they upset that we have a half black President, and wish the 15th Amendment was repealed? Are they striving to hit the reset button after what they see as a corrupt system spiraling out of the control of the people? Or is it more of a case that after eight years of the Bush Administration, the American voters have put the Democrats in charge of 59% of the House, 60% of the Senate, and the Presidency? Thankfully, the Founding Fathers were smart enough to put an amendment process into the Constitution because they knew that the document they drafted was not perfect. Instead, they were trying to seek a “more perfect union”. Furthermore, they wanted an organic system of laws that would grow as the country and the world changed. So, on September 12, 2009, let us remember those we lost, fight to keep the system honest, and continue to grow as a nation.


***** Reproduction and distribution of this blog is authorized and encouraged by the author. *****

2009 Labor Day Parade in Fremont, OH

My video production of the Labor Day Parade is on my website at http://www.everydayproductions.biz/Parades.html

Please let me know what you think.

Dan Henning

The Work, The Cause, The Hope and the Dream

The Work, The Cause, The Hope and the Dream
By Shari L. Veleba

Late last Tuesday night in Massachusetts, U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy passed from this life into the next. It was a transition that was not unexpected due to his terminal illness, but it was sad nonetheless to hear the news during the waking hours of early morning Wednesday reports. He was 77 years old, and served in the Senate for nearly 50 years.

Today – Saturday – in Boston, he was eulogized by family and friends and even by President Barack Obama, at the Mission Church. This evening, he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of his brothers John, and Robert. The night before, his body lay in repose at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, also located in Boston. Colleagues from Congress and family spoke about his life.

Five years ago, I stood in that very same presidential museum, perused the history within its walls and embraced the outside view of the harbor and the ocean. I tried to see as far as I could that day, because I had never before set my eyes on the Atlantic. I remember the short, white painted posts connected by links of painted white chain hanging in scallops. It was as close as I had ever been to the ocean. Up until then, my only references to large bodies of water had been the Great Lakes, and Lake Erie in particular, various rivers and streams, and the rare crossing of the Mississippi.

I recall that poignant quotes are etched into the marble walls of the museum. It is almost a sacred space, and those who tour it do so in quiet reflection upon the instances in time when the Kennedy family history and the history of the United States merged into one narrative. That, of course, happened on more than one occasion, and twice at the hands of an assassin.

I was reminded, through the news coverage, of a speech delivered by Senator Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City. While he did not receive the nomination for the presidency as he had hoped, his speech lives on as a reminder that fighting for the poor and the issues that beset them would remain his calling in the Senate.

He said:
“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

People need to hear things like that, and I believe we need to hear them even more than we think we do. It’s good for a nation to know that people in high level leadership positions are aware of the plight of the poor, because more often than not, the voice of the poor does not have a megaphone, or microphone. The spotlight, instead, is tilted toward the rich, and the needs of conglomerates that gain time with legislators through hefty monetary donations that the poor can never equal or afford.

Not only do people need to hear and read that legislators understand and care, but average citizens need to be able to believe what they hear and read from their elected leaders. Not just on a superficial level, but on a personal, real level.

When that happens, the wheels of democracy more easily move forward. People wake up on Election Day, go to the polls and vote. They call a legislative office and leave a message either for or against pieces of proposed legislation. They testify before legislative committees. The people participate, and feel that they matter, that they count. Communication and collaboration improves. The seed of inclusion is planted and grows, and tells everyone that government really is of, by and for the people.

Setting one’s sights on the streams, rivers and Great Lakes is wonderful. Those territories need to be watched over. But once a person has seen the ocean, horizons broaden. I believe that Senator Kennedy, in his decades of service to the country, helped us to see in a new light the oceans of problems that plague our country and the oceans of possibilities that exist to solve them. He helped set the course toward solutions that have the potential to help everyone stay afloat rather than flounder.

Because we have lost the voice of one senator who was extraordinarily passionate and vocal about social justice and other issues, we have a task before us. It is important that we, the people, find that same passion within each of our lives and rededicate our efforts toward being a help, and not a hindrance to a better and more inclusive nation. In doing that, we will move forward and progress. And what shall be our guiding light? The eternal flame, of course. It illuminates and keeps alive the work, the cause, the hope and the dream.

*****
Shari L. Veleba is a writer based in Columbus, OH and is a former, long-time resident of Fremont, OH.