Author Carmine Barba considers himself to be an average citizen, albeit one who struggles to keep his head above water. He is dissatisfied with the fiscal quagmire this nation is in, wondering how it will find its way into solvency again. He wonders too if the country and its people are losing their grip on reality and whether they truly believe that we will ever stand tall again and be the masters of our own destinies. In I, the Citizen, Declare ... Barba examines how this can happen-but he cautions that it will only work if we, the people, decide that we want control of the governing reins. The power that lies with the Congress to legislate and spend must be taken out of their hands and given to the people directly. Barba states that Congress has become inefficient and too self-serving and should no longer retain the power it has to pass legislation into law and spend good taxpayers' money. The citizens of this country need to take the power away from them by limiting their ability to deliberate, discuss, and debate issues and expenditures-but not to ultimately vote on their passage. I, the Citizen, Declare ... calls upon all citizens of this good country to make their voices heard.

I, the Citizen Declare ...

How the American Citizen Can Take Back His CountryBy Carmine G. Barba

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2011 Carmine G. Barba
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4269-4862-6

Chapter One

Declaration

First declaration;

I, the citizen declare that I will not support nor vote for any candidate for Congress, who does not first solemnly promise that he will introduce and / or vote for an amendment to the Constitution that will nullify his/her power to vote on any proposed legislation and monetary expenditure.

Second declaration;

I, the citizen declare that I will not support nor vote for any candidate for Congress, who does not first solemnly promise that he will introduce and/or vote for an amendment to the Constitution that will give the power to vote on any legislation and monetary expenditure, to the citizenry of the United States of America.

We can take our nation back by passing two amendments to the Constitution:

One amendment would nullify Congress' right to vote on the passing of all national legislation and spending power on all national expenditures.

The other amendment would bestow the power to vote on all national legislation and all national spending to the American Citizenry.

The other thing we need to do is to decide, as a nation, if we would, could and have the fortitude to govern ourselves. Not an easy thing to do, but I do think that we are faced with the issue of whether we want to be self-sufficient or have Big-Brother and Big Government take care of us, and thus continue to dictate to us as to how we should exercise our freedoms, which would at some point eviscerate our freedoms altogether.

In examining the issue of self-government, we found in our search a number of surprising aspects to it.

There is the aspect of how much power the people actually have and how it can be used for better government; what the source of the power is; how it is bestowed upon man by natural law; how elected officials assume power which is usurped and not rightfully theirs; and why the people should consider self- government.

In reading much of the material, I discovered two fundamental facts; one was how little the founding fathers (particularly Madison) regarded the "masses" of the people despite the Constitution's Preamble, which states, "We the People". Their point of view basically was of a deep distrust and an assumed lack of ability to self-govern, which forced them to weigh-in heavily on representation, rather than direct democracy as the preferred form of government.

Another discovery was; how much power the people truly have, and this by virtue of a divine law or the law of nature- all sovereignty emanates from this, and not from the dictatoriality of man-decreed governments, and it may be prudent that we do today, what our founding fathers saw fit, in their collective wisdom, not to have attempted 235 years ago ... and that is to establish direct democracy.

We, as a nation are straining hard and struggling to remain upright fiscally and economically. We spend money we don't have, thereby mortgaging our children's futures. We have a huge national debt which is heavily weighing down on every man, woman and child in this country. Our trade deficits continue to climb, and we are rapidly becoming a debtor nation.

The power to spend must be taken away from the elite few that sit in congress, for they spend money which is not their own. The people who pay the taxes should be the ones to decide how it is spent

Congress has shown over the many decades that it cannot spend money in a discretionary manner. It wastes half of what the citizens sends it.

The secret deals among the members are written into virtually every legislative action, in the form of pork-barreling, whereby the members' individual constituencies derive benefit rather than the country as a whole. There are far too many political games played by the two political parties and the individual members.

When the people learn how to truly govern themselves is when we can have stability and integrity in the governing process. Government must be taken OUT - OF- THE- HANDS of the few, for it corrupts them when they are given a free rein; when they can spend other people's money abandonedly and without real concern; when senators and congressmen can make sweetheart deals to suit themselves and where careers are more important than the affairs of the people. The country will be in total ruin, if it continues to take a back seat to the arrogance and self–serving few who are in the Congress.

When people rule, every voice is heard, every opinion is expressed, every vote is counted.

Congress cannot be trusted in running the country; for too few hands rule over too many lives. Congress is drunk with power and blind to the fact that the power they hold to legislate and to vote, was given to them by the constitution, which in turn is empowered by the people. It is the people who are ultimately in control and it is their will that must be reckoned with and allowed to surface in a more meaningful way, i.e., in a way which puts them in charge of spending and legislating. In other words, the leverage which is currently held by congress, must be taken away from them and given to the people of the nation. The citizen must be in charge.

At this point in our history, it seems strange that despite the fact that we consider ourselves a free people, living in a democracy, having the right to vote (though a limited right), that the citizen should find himself in such dire straights, where he has so little control over his every-day affairs and where the different levels of government have such an impact on his life. He is shoved about to-and-fro and the best he can hope to do is to stay the course and hold on fast.

The following are just a few of the things which weigh upon him,

Every level of government gets its share of the citizen's taxes;

Congress passes legislation to make his life more restrictive and confining;

Inflation beats him down from another side;

Banks and credit card companies raise their rates;

Mortgage payments are overdue; layoffs and job losses weigh on him for months and even years;

Our national borders are not secured;

Family cohesion has weakened and

We are fighting two wars – the list is endless.

In a word, the average schmo has little or nothing to say about how his life is being tossed around by forces which he has no control over.

Will any of this ever change? If so, when and how? Well, my feeling is that it will change; it must change – and for the better.

I don't think God would give us men like Washington and Hamilton, and the Adamses, and Jefferson and Lincoln, who put so much of themselves into making this a country never before seen on the face of the earth, just to have it taken from us by radical elements, who show no love for it and look to destroy it. This is not what God intended for America. America is at the forefront of the future of humankind. God meant for this country to save itself and lead the rest of the world into a happy and peaceful existence. America is God's hope for mankind and it should be ours too.

Chapter Two

The Power of the Citizen

Montesquieu states, "It is a fundamental law in democracies, that the people shall have the sole power to enact laws.

"The constitutions of Rome and Athens...