“Time for TRUTH” seems like a cliché. Perhaps it is a cliché, at least in government. Lots of well-meaning men and women dedicate many hours of service to the United States government. Yet somewhere along the way TRUTH became a nice thought but an unattainable goal, and somehow America started a downhill spiral on a road with no return.
Entrenched in the gutters of “it simply can’t be done,” many representatives of the people insist that clarity, accountability, and accessibility (of bills, for example) are simply too hard to obtain. “Status quo with a minutia of meaningful exertion,” is the mentality that permeates the parliament.
Day upon day, year upon year turn into decade after decade with closets that have not been cleaned and habits that have not been honed. Instead of revitalization and renewal, the republic became the reciprocal for intrigue and IOUs. Instead of active involvement and interaction, deliberation and petition, democracy became the dungeon of denial and isolation, silence and apathy.
How can a Thomas Paine invoke common sense or a Patrick Henry inspire liberty when the people ignore the quest or call? How can a John Adams call for reason or a Thomas Jefferson repeal intrusion if the government resists the duty?
Hence, the troubled state of the shining city on a hill. Hence, the doom that awaits the hapless, hopeless occupants because TRUTH is a nuisance.
When the siege of debt tramples our rights and the lack of honest appraisal annihilates our independence, we the people will be to blame for allowing TRUTH to be an unreasonable goal and allowing our government to run with the wind of whims.
At one time, before the 17th Amendment and the seduction of federal money, the sovereign states were to be the protectors of the TRUTH. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist 26, wrote that “the state legislatures, who will always be not only vigilant, but suspicious and jealous guardians of the rights of the citizens, against encroachments from the federal government, will constantly have their attention awake to the conduct of the national rulers, and will be ready enough, if anything improper appears, to sound the alarm to the people, and not only to be the VOICE, but if necessary, the ARM of their discontent.”
Beyond the states, the ultimate keepers of TRUTH were to be “we the people” — vigilant seekers of accountability in the bills and laws with votes and voice. Yet the indolent populace led to bloated bills producing the fatted laws upon which liberty has been sacrificed.
So as America, once the hope for all mankind, falls into oblivion, the lynchpin will be the acceptance of “TRUTH as a cliché” and “accountability as novice.”
Alexander Hamilton said, “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
I write these things as I trudge the lonely highway with my TRUTH ACT because, to once again quote Alexander Hamilton, “I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be” — though I still hope for things as they ought to be.
The TRUTH ACT
Having members of the legislative branch:
T- limit the bills from Thirty to Three-hundred pages
R- Read the bill
U-Understand the bill
T- Testify under oath that they understand the bill
H- read it in its entirety on ustream so that it may be Heard by the people
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