Xref: utcsri alt.politics.usa.constitution:12410 Path: utcsri!utnut!torn!howland.reston.ans.net!swiss.ans.net!solaris.cc.vt.edu!uunet!newstf01.cr1.aol.com!search01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: meagansul@aol.com (Meagan Sul) Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.constitution Subject: WL143: Who's Paying Attention? Date: 14 Sep 1994 14:56:01 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 406 Sender: news@search01.news.aol.com Message-ID: <357h01$iec@search01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: search01.news.aol.com [The Wingate Letters] - September 14, 1994 - 2:24 PM - Good Afternoon ... This is the first issue of the Wingate after a very long hiatus. However, simply because the Wingate has not been around in no way decreases its importance. And I make a specific point here. This morning one young man complained on the internet about the Wingate saying that no one cared to hear about my private life. Fine. I can accept that. But what the young man did not take into consideration was that his note to me smacked of the very reason that the Wingate is so very important. To explain this point I relate the following. Having studied the United States Constitution for years I became aware recently of a very startling fact. It was this fact that was to lead me on a remarkable journey. To begin with let's start with a little history. The United States Constitution was first drafted by a small group of people headed by John Witherspoon. This group was called, by the revolutionaries, prior to the War of Independence, as "The Committee". According to several historic texts Witherspoon had carefully studied the Iroquois Constitution and had found that the outlay of their document was truly something to be aspired to. And, on the very eve of the Boston Tea Party a great argument ensued. Several members of The Committee wanted to rush into war with England. Witherspoon realizing that to do this without postulating the position of the colonists would be a grave mistake made the comment that (a paraphrase) "... if we do not postulate our position legally, we shall be looked on as rabble in the confederacy of our times, rather than the brave nation that we seek to be...". And thus, The Committee then drafted the articles of confederation. It was from these articles that the First Continental Congress then later drafted the founding document, the very engine of this nation... The United States Constitution. The sentiment from that one night was echoed again on the very eve of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams had been in a long debate with members from the North Carolina delegation. It seemed that the North Carolina wanted to keep their slaves. But Adams felt that to do so would be to put this new country in conflict with the very notion of what Witherspoon had intended. And the fight was on. By the end of the day, exhausted, Adams met with Franklin. Franklin told him that if he did not relent that the Declaration would not be signed and all would be lost. In tears John Adams did relent. And the provision to free all slaves was taken out of the original version of the Declaration of Independence. The chamber then was cleared to prepare for the signing the next day. Adams remained behind. Just as dark was falling, a wounded messenger stumbled into the chambers. With blood dripping down his shirt, tears in his eyes, he stood there at attention. According to three historical texts of the time the words went this way... "A message for the Congress sir." "Yes.. Yes.. Go ahead.. What is it?" "Ammunition and supplies running perilously low, casualties mounting. Why have you not answered me? Why have you all forsaken us? Is anyone there? We are dying! Does anyone hear us? Respectfully submitted, G. Washington" It has been written of that night that Adams stayed awake the entire night. He thought about what General Washington had written. He thought about John Witherspoon and the events that were to take place the next day. Again, it has been written that John Adams was perhaps one of the only men who understood the true significance of that last message from the commander in chief. Later Adams would, as a result of his commitment to the Declaration and to John Witherspoon, free all of his slaves. And on July 4, 1776 with the heat blaring in the congressional hall, the Declaration of Independence was born. As the nation began to struggle with the fact that it was now not just a collection of rabble waging war, but a new nation, the notes of John Witherspoon were used, along with the articles of confederation to write the Constitution. And the very engine of our nation was born. As I was growing up, in history class I never thought that the Constitution was some work of clowns. To me it was truly the very core of what this nation was to us, and to all who looked in the direction of America. I believed every single word that was written there. And I now also believe every single word. For whether this young man who has attacked me knows it or not, the Constitution is the very document that gives him the right to shoot off his mouth showing everyone how little he knows. The Constitution is the very document that gives each and every American the rights that we all have. This is true, whether any of us choose to accept it or not. One day during this last spring, as I was reading over the Constitution, I noticed something very interesting. I noticed something that would start me on a very long and lonely journey. Before I go into this point of law let me elucidate you to a very sad fact. When I discovered this aspect to the Constitution I then began to see if I was right, or just a fool. I made 75 calls to attorneys around the nation. I called federal attorneys, state attorneys, and even called members of the ACLU. In 74 calls to 74 different attorneys, not one single one of them knew what I was talking about when I mentioned Article 1, section 6, and it's relevance to the First Amendment. Not one! One attorney, a federal attorney said, "... The Constitution! I don't even use it anymore...". Those were his exact words. And like this young man who has shown how stupid he is, so did these attorneys. Finally, after calling the Justice Department, I found that they were not even aware of the relevancy of Article 1, section 6. However, when I pointed out what I had seen there they were in complete agreement with me. This was a serious breech of constitutional law, regarding the rights of the people of this nation. They then directed me to a young attorney here in Ohio. This young man, not more than 35 years old was the only attorney in the nation, out of the 75 I had questioned who knew the relevancy of Article 1, section 6, to the First Amendment. And, in his word... "... Hehe... You are really going to open a can of worms with this one you know.". He knew. But most of the brilliant legal minds of our nation were so stupid that they had no idea of how important this point of law was to the First Amendment. And, I might add, that this young man who has openly attacked me will try and tell you that he knew it all along. However, when I questioned him about this he could not respond. This of course proves that he does not know the relationship of these two very important parts of the Constitution. Thus, if he tries to tell you that he does know about this point he will be lying. I, as a matter of fact, from studying this document about two hours every single day for the past several months, do understand this point. To begin with, the Articles of the Constitution deal with how the government is set up, and what elemental rights the citizens of the United States have, pursuant to the government of the United States. The Amendments are specifically the rights granted to the people, which are defined separately from the Articles. The Articles give us our rights respective to the government. The Amendments give us our rights as citizens. Try and keep this in mind as I now share with you the significance of the relationship between these two aspects of this document. Article 1, Section 6, reads as follows, [...] Section 6. [1] The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. With this in mind, I have discussed this article with two assistant chief justices. This article does declare that we, the general citizenry of this nation, are, in point of fact, the employers of the government. We are the ones who employ the members of our government to run our government. This of course as a result of the fact that taxes are collected to the treasury and that out of the treasury the monies are being paid to the members of Congress for their salary. By the way, the current payroll for Congress, *not* including their PAC money, honorariums, perks, and other benefits is that each member of the House gets $250,000 per year, and each member of the Senate gets $260,000 per year. Well, this money then can be extended to a total cost (for the payroll alone> for the entire Congress of $27,040,000.00 for the Senate (for 104 members), and $109,000,000.00 for the Congress (for 436 members - 1994). That's a total cost, for the payroll alone of $136,040,000.00 that We the People spend on just paying the salaries of only the senators and congressmen in Washington. That's a lot of money. Keep this in mind as I now explain a very interesting point of law. The First Amendment reads as follows... [...] Amendment I [1791] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Now please notice that in Article 1, section 6 it says specifically that anything that any member of Congress either debates, discusses, or talks about in the halls of Congress that they do not have to answer questions about these things in any other place. Yet, at the same time, by virtue of the First Amendment we, the people, are given the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Now this is very interesting. I thought that this just didn't make sense. I mean, we are the employers of the government. And yet we are not given the right to expect an answer to our questions, or to have accountability for the actions of our representatives in Washington. Now before all you legal jerks get started, I called the Justice Department about this very point. Three assistant chief justices researched this point of law. It has been confirmed to me that we, the people, are in point of legal fact, the employers of the government, by virtue of Articles 1, and Articles 2. Further, it is true that by virtue of the First Amendment we are also given the right to petition any single member of Congress for any grievance that we might have, regardless of district. But, to the complete surprise of all three of these very highly paid constitutional lawyers, we, the people, do NOT have the right to expect an answer to our questions. We are not guaranteed that right by any aspect of the Constitution. Now isn't this interesting. My actual remark to the last assistant chief justice that I spoke with was ... "... When was the last time that you paid out 136 million dollars and didn't give a holy damn what the people did with the money?" The Assistant Justices agreed with me. This flaw in the Constitution is a major mistake. The Justice Department firmly believes that the intent of the founding fathers was to *give* the American people the right of accountability from their legal representatives. Yet, there is no single provision for this in the Constitution. Further, after questioning six constitutional lawyers, only one was aware of this flaw. But they all agreed that this was a point that would have to go before the Supreme Court. That it would have to because what we are talking about here is that we, the people of this nation, are the employers of Congress, but we, the people of this nation, have no right of accountability over the people we employ. Thus, in the case of Orin Hatch, who happens to belong to the Mormon church, a church that has come out time and time again against the Jews of America, this point is further brought to light by understanding that Good old Orin is required, by virtue of the Articles, to represent the constituents of his district equally. But if there are Jews in his district how can he represent them when he belongs to an organization that is dedicated to impeach their rights? Or how about good old Jesse Helms? He's been photographed with KKK members. How can he be associated with them, and at the same time represent the Jews of North Carolina. Why do I bring up this point? Well, according to the Constitution if a member of Congress does not debate even one time for a particular type of constituent in their district this action could be viewed as the congressman sanctioning the government taxing that type of person without giving them equal representation under the law. Thus, the condition of taxation without representation would then exist. But the right of the people is that we have no right to expect an answer to this question, should we ask it. Or rather, we do have a right to ask the question, but in order to get an answer we will have to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Now please, all you legal morons out there, don't rush forward to refute me. The foregoing has come to this issue of the Wingate from the very custodians of the Constitution, the Justice Department, who's specific duty is to protect the rights of the people of this nation. And, in their opinion, this point that I have just brought out is not only a valid point, but one that they have encouraged me to pursue through the courts. Now who's laughing at me? Everyone's got answers these days. The conservatives will tell you that they know it all. The liberals will tell you that they know it all. From almost every single religion in the nation there is some jerk who is willing to say that they alone have all the answers from God. What people don't have is a working knowledge of the very document that gives them the right to shoot off their mouths. We all can stand out in the middle of a crowd and scream about how smart we are, and how much we know. But the point of fact is that when I questioned the best minds in this country, not one single of them was aware of this very significant point of Constitutional law. And what does this say about the caliber of intellect that we have running this country. We pay out 136 million dollars a year to a group of people who don't have to account to anyone. Sort of like letting the fox guard the hen house isn't it? And what about the rights of the people? You know, the people of the United States of America? We're the ones that are supposed to have equal rights under the law. Yet, with the special interest groups that pay millions to these representatives we have a congress that is more graft ridden than the gangsters of prohibition! Like I said, I may be a woman, but I am not stupid. And anyone who dares to say so had better be willing to back up their words with some fact. Like, why is it that none of the 75 lawyers who I questioned knew about this provision in the document that gives them the right to practice law in this country? What's the matter... doesn't anyone care anymore? I have never said that I was a genius. And I'm not. I'm quite a bright lady. But I'm no genius. Yet I sit here writing these very words. I write words that we all should be aware of. Yet, I seriously doubt that many of you even understand the full import of what I have just written. The fact is that because of Article 1, section 6, we, the people of the United States, have virtually no rights regarding making Congress accountable to us. Further, because of this one subsection there is no way to guarantee that equal rights will be granted to all Americans, as is defined by the other articles and amendments. Thus, this major document in our nation's history has become little more than a new way for people like Senator Dole, Nunn, Helms, and the rest, to cheat us, use us and to lie to us. And that's just what they are doing. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going to take this lying down. I plan on calling these illustrious boobs that we have in Washington on this very point. And, if need be, I'll go directly to the Supreme Court, which is my legal right under Article 2, to fight for all Americans to have the right to expect answers to their questions, unless the question has to deal with national security. These people who earn so much money should be required to be accountable to the American public. And right now, according to the best legal minds in the nation, they are not. Not unless the court requires them to. And that's been a battle, so far, that has been very hard to fight. When I asked the brain trust (mostly men) at Case Western Reserve University about this point of law what I got was blatant disrespect. I was laughed at, called stupid, and totally ignored. When I pressed for an answer not one of the so called smart boys at CWRU could answer the question as to what relevance the subsection 6, under article 1, had to the First Amendment. What they did was to evade the question. This did this because they were too stupid to answer, and they didn't want to be embarrassed by the question. So what they did instead was to laugh at me and call me stupid. They did this because they were afraid of how they would look when they could'nt' answer the question. And for proof, I have a tape recording from the head of the law school at CWRU. His words were that he had no idea what the relationship of article 1, section 6, was to the First Amendment. No clue! What I'm saying here is that I don't have the time for people to write me and complain about what I have written. If you think you can prove me and the Justice Department wrong for what I have written... have at it. Otherwise why not just close your mouth and realize that our founding document of law, the very engine of this nation is in trouble. Or need I remind you that every single day, every 15 seconds another woman is being beaten, abused or raped (FBI - 1993). And every single day every 30 seconds another child is being beaten, abused or killed (FBI - 1994). While we pay out 136 million dollars for our representatives to work for us, what are they doing to protect us? What are they doing to earn their money? According to B'nai B'rith anti-Semitism is at it's highest level in the U.S. in the past 13 years! And this is going on while we pay out millions of dollars to a government where we have no right to expect answers to our questions. That's the law folks. That's what our tax dollars are paying for. And for those who think that this is funny, just remember that the same rights of mine that are being impeached are yours as well. Laugh too hard and you might find that you have less rights than you thought. It is my sincere hope go into much more depth with the Constitution over the next several months. It is obvious to me that many of the so-called know it alls of our nation know little about the very core of what gives them the rights they declare so loudly. The same document that gives Rush Limbaugh the right to hate Jews is the same document that gives the Jews the right to expect protection from such hatred. Or hasn't anyone thought about that yet? Next week I will go into more depth regarding the actual parts of the Constitution and how it works. I intend on showing the general public a great deal more about what rights they have, and how little we all know about this very significant document in the world. It is my hope that all of us, including me, will be better world citizens as a result of this journey. Now... How many of you are willing to walk with me? How many of you are willing to go back to the Constitution and actually read it? The next time you argue a point of rights, stop and think about the fact that men died in order to bring this document to light. It was no game then. John Witherspoon may, in point of fact, be one of the unsung heroes in our nation. For it was from his loving hands that this document has been preserved. Until Next week.... God Speed My Friends... And be well... Always.... Meagan Wingate Sullivan (c) Jupiter Wingate - 1994 Volume Number: 143 Master File: WINMSTR.MST Time Stamp: 9/14/94 - 2:24 PM Distributed via the telecommunications network links of the account of Meagan Sullivan (aka Maurice Maschke III) with their full permission and support. Permission is hereby granted to copy and use this document, or any parts herein, freely; Providing that such use is based on a "not for profit" basis. Should a circumstance present itself, such that use of this document, or any part herein, could be construed as being based on a "for profit" basis, the terms of this copyright then revert to the status of; "All Rights Reserved", as defined by the U.S Patent and Copyright Office, pursuant to all existing international conventions, and their provisions for computerized publishing and copyrighting. INTERNET ADDRESS: ----------------- America Online: Meagansul@aol.com Land Mail Address: ------------------ Meagan W. Sullivan P.O. Box 602696 Cleveland, Ohio 44102 USA