Respect the Constitution of the United States

Everywhere, people are stunned by the new Jell-O standard for federal law: mold it, jiggle it, condense, dilute, disguise or add tutti-frutti to it; anything but enforce the laws as they were passed. National administrators have become master illusionists: now you see the law, now you don't.

The U.S. Constitution sets Congress as our sole law-making body. The legislators try, but their authority is shafted by bureaucratic regulations. Executive orders become law, and administrative whims to enforce, ignore, or rewrite laws are passed. That's trouble, as America's constitutional republic teeters dangerously on the edge of an ugly monarchy. Helplessness generates the oft-heard question, "What can we do?"

There are ways to foil our constitutional hemorrhage. One avenue of action runs straight to the county sheriff's office.

On Jan. 24 the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) met in convention in Las Vegas. This dedicated group has the authority to make a difference. Invited attendees resolved to insist that national officials obey the U.S. Constitution, with its rights that originate in the "Law of Nature and nature's God." The group reaffirmed the 10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

Those who signed the CSPOA resolution unfurled their standard: abuses of freedom "will not be allowed or tolerated." They will only operate legally, in accord with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, with its Bill of Rights. They insist that the federal government and its agents do the same.

Utah County Sheriff James O. Tracy, president of the Utah Sheriffs Association, signed the resolution and now carries it throughout Utah. He says, "The Constitution must be the foundation for all of our decisions and actions, as law enforcement, to protect the citizens from undue government interference into our liberties. State, county, city, or federal -- no one is exempt."

There is nothing revolutionary or exaggerated in this simple insistence that rightful law preside in our society. Without this safeguard, we inhabit a police state, driven by the whims of those in power.

Eight specific rights under current federal attack are the core of the CSPOA resolution. These issues rarely appear in the standard media, but each, with accompanying verification, is making headlines across the nation in the freedom press.

Concerning our Second Amendment rights, signers of the CSPOA resolution declare the registration of personal firearms will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Nor will they allow the confiscation of firearms without probable cause, due process and constitutionally compliant warrants.

The signers of the CSPOA will protect you, personally, from abuse. The audit and search of any U.S. citizen's person, personal affairs or finances, or his detainment, will be permitted only by lawful means: with probable cause, due process and legal warrants. The inspection of all persons or property will be conducted only under legal means. The arrest of citizens, or seizure of persons or property, is allowed only upon notification and express consent of the local sheriff.

No arrests with continued jail time are tolerated except with charges filed and due process, including public and speedy jury trials in the appropriate court. In response to a growing threat, the CSPOA refuses to allow American military or federal agencies domestic use of federal war powers against American citizens.

The Resolution of the CSPOA concludes: "There is no greater obligation or responsibility of any government officer than to protect the rights of the people. Thus, any conduct contrary to the United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence, or the Bill of Rights will be dealt with as criminal activity."

Abraham Lincoln declared that, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." We currently face attacks against liberty from within. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association has our back. We urge every county sheriff in Utah, and the nation, to sign this document to uphold the law. Thank you!

From Grateful Hearts: Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

America had much to be grateful for on October 3, 1863. Her chief executive, Abraham Lincoln, set his hand to formalize that gratitude in a National Day of Thanksgiving. States had celebrated individually, but the nation as a whole had never offered a unified voice of appreciation.
Among early American colonists, unified prayer, fasting and thanksgiving had often been used. The Pilgrims, who had arrived in the New World in 1620, had successfully pled for relief from a 12-week drought that threatened them with winter starvation. In 1631, the Puritans unitedly fasted to speed the arrival of supplies, and the supply ship, the Lyon, arrived the day the last cornmeal was distributed. They fasted, again, fifteen years later, when, within hours, a sudden, mysterious caterpillar infestation began to devour their summer crop. They received an equally immediate, miraculous end to the pestilence, for which they gratefully offered thanks.

The gratitude of prayer saved colonial British America from French invasion. The citizens of Boston gathered in Old South Church on October 16, 1746, with the Reverend Thomas Prince. The arrival of French Duke d'Anville, with 70 ships, 10,000 troops, and orders to destroy the American seacoast from Boston to Georgia was imminent. Reverend Prince called on God, "Deliver us from our enemy! Send Thy tempest, Lord ... Scatter the ships ... Sink their proud frigates beneath the power of Thy winds!" Sunshine immediately gave way to roiling clouds. A sudden, shrieking wind set the church bell ringing "a wild and uneven sound" in the unattended steeple. The fleet was miraculously stopped, two frigates sank and the remainder were scattered, the men aboard developed a mysterious pestilential fever and the Duke died at his own hand for the disgrace of it all.
President Lincoln had set a previous pattern for national gratitude when he closed the doors of the federal government for a day of fasting on September 28, 1861. National requirement, as stated in the Constitution's First Amendment, was to keep government out of religion. Today, we misunderstand; we keep religion out of government, instead. This prevents us, as a union, from calling down the powers of heaven to help us in times of need.
In 1863, as the United States was locked into mortal North/South conflict, Lincoln focused his Thanksgiving Proclamation on the blessings they had received, despite the war.

 

"In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude ... peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict," he said.
He explained that "needful diversions of wealth and of strength ... to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines ... have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore."
The nation was being blessed and President Lincoln, referring to the "blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies, noted the source of their blessings. "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God ... he should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People."
President Lincoln called upon the nation to join in a national day of gratitude on the last Thursday of each November. He counseled them to remember, "all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged." In conclusion he called on the nation to "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation ... and to restore it ... to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."
As residents of this marvelous place to live, we owe gratitude to the Divine Hand that has overseen our prosperity and peace. As we gather with our families this Thanksgiving Day, let us offer thanks to God who has made all things possible and plead that He again "heal the wounds of the nation."