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| Mendocino, CA 4th of July, 2018 |
I love this country and always look forward to the 4th of July, a day that most of us could share to celebrate common virtues of democracy and freedom, of which the Mendocino 4th of July parade is an annual idiosyncratic example. It started me thinking and led me to write this letter which was published in the July 12th edition of the Fort Bragg Advocate News.
"Deeply troubled by the state of our country, I did something this Independence Day: I read the Constitution. It is a document of few words, so we should pay close attention to them. I conclude that the current President deserves and needs to be impeached and removed from office. This goes beyond consideration of his stances on immigration, taxes, tariffs, women’s rights, world affairs, etc. about which there may be sincere and strident argument. Here is what I found.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 determines the Presidential oath of office to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The current President has demonstrates ignorance of the constitution and agitates to undermine it with frequent attacks the free press, the rule of law, and guarantees of due process
Article II, Section 3 states the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. He actively works to sabotage and subvert laws of the land such as the Affordable Care Act and environmental and consumer protections.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 is the Emoluments Clause; “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State”. It was inserted as a way to prevent sitting leaders from accepting foreign gifts or payments, in order to ensure complete neutrality from outside influence and to prevent even the appearance of corruption. He fails this test too.
Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 describes judgement of impeachment as “removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States”. The Founding Fathers assumed that holders of national elected office would be people of honor and trust. The current President is neither honorable nor trustworthy.
As a spokesperson for the First Lady recently said, “there are no hidden messages” in this administration. It may be that 40% of the voting public will never see things this way, but if 60% are united and steadfast, I hope we can bring force to this or the next Congress to do their job under the Constitution."
This led to my "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" moment, a resolve to send letters to all 441 members of the US House of Representatives expressing these thoughts. I could not believe how many hours it took me but I felt compelled to do this, and have always heard that overwhelming direct contact through mail of by phone is something that has a chance to influence some elected officials. Perhaps others independently are taking a similar action. I am not naïve enough to believe that this will turn the tide, but I am enough of a hopeless optimist/ex-Boy Scout to believe it is worth it.
The Office of the Clerk of U. S. House of Representatives conveniently provides mailing addresses for all of its members in a downloadable list formatted for printing labels, found here:
http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/
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| AT&T Park, A's vs. Giants, July 15, 2018 |
