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Rebecca
O'Dell
Townsend, Esq.
Appellate
Attorney &
Constitutional
Liberties
Teacher &
Speaker
Rebecca's suitcase
is always packed
and ready to travel.
She
has been
a keynote
speaker, sharing the
rostrum with such
notables as
Newt
Gingrich and other
national figures.
Contact:
Freedom is Not for the
Timid
PO Box 76056,
St. Petersburg, FL
33734-6056
727.490.2911.
Or rebecca.odell
@verizon.net.
Important Liberty Links
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[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. - James Madison.
[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the
moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few. - John Adams.
The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call and ignorant believe to be liberty. -- Fisher Ames (speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention,15 January 1788).
 Dear
Patriots,
As
most Patriots know, our form of government is not a
democracy. Our founding fathers believed that democracies were
short-lived, unstable, and unable to protect our inalienable rights.
Instead, they instituted a constitutional republic and sternly warned
us to bind our government down with the "chains of the Constitution."
Unfortunately, it has become a new fad to by-pass our representative
form of government and constitutional restraints by placing
constitutional amendments on ballots that are not proper subjects for
constitutional amendments. In this way, advocates of certain positions
by-pass our legislative process - forcing the majority's will upon the
minority.
Using constitutional amendments, the majority tie our elected
representatives' hands, since constitutional provisions trump statutes
and even emergency contingencies. The majority by-pass the fact-finding
process that allows legislators to weigh the effect that a certain law
will have on all citizens. The (often ill-informed) majority
unwittingly allow legislators to escape accountability by allowing them
to claim that their hands are tied.
Such is the case with the current property tax debacle in Florida,
Florida's failing school system, and a host of other serious problems
needing legislative solutions.
No matter how you feel about a certain issue, you should never vote for
a constitutional amendment that is not the proper subject for a
Constitution. You should never vote for a constitutional amendment
simply because you feel that the legislature has not addressed the
issue to your satisfaction. You probably should never vote for a
constitutional amendment that does not address an inalienable right.
Proper subjects for constitutional amendments are those protecting the
sanctity of marriage and of life. Improper subjects for constitutional
amendments are those addressing taxes, businesses, schools, and health
issues, such as smoking. A Constitutional provision should be reserved
for those things that need to be carved in stone for all generations.
Don't be tempted to shorten the life of our Republic by transforming it
into a democracy. Resist the temptation to transform your pet "issue"
into a constitutional provision.
Let's roll, Patriots!
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