| WTP Mission
Statement
The mission of the We The People
organization is:
- To protect, preserve and
enhance the unalienable rights, liberties and freedoms of the
people.
- To teach people that under
our system of governance all power comes from the people and all
government is limited by our written constitutions.
- To help people become
better informed about the history and meaning of every provision
of the Declaration of Independence and their State and federal
constitutions.
- To help people become
better informed about what is really going on in government.
- To help people become
better informed about how to confront unconstitutional and
illegal behavior by those wielding power in government at all
levels.
- To institutionalize
vigilance by the ordinary, nonaligned citizen-voter-taxpayers.
Mailing Address
We The People
2458 Ridge Rd.
Queensbury, NY 12804
The We The People
organization
The organization includes two
separate corporations which are connected by a mutuality of
purpose:
1) the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, which
is an educational corporation that cannot engage in political
activity and is supported by tax-deductible donations; and
2), the We The People Congress, which is a membership corporation
which can engage in political activity and is supported by
membership dues.
What we see, more and more, is that
the way the government is operating is in sharp contrast to the
way it was designed to work. The situation continues to
deteriorate. The country appears to be rushing headlong into debt,
dependency and decay. Notably, the judiciary is not the
independent, co-equal branch of the government that it was
designed to be. Instead, the record shows that when it comes to
challenges to governmental behavior, by ordinary, nonaligned
citizens, the judiciary is likely to cooperate with the executive
and/or legislature in a collective decision, even if that decision
denies to the citizens their unalienable rights.
To make matters worse, the departure from an essential,
fundamental principle in the one instance becomes a precedent for
a second, that second for a third and so forth, until, as
Jefferson warned, "the bulk of society is reduced to be mere
automations of misery…."
We have also learned is that when
it comes to confronting uncivil and unjust government (as when
government steps outside the boundaries drawn around its power by
the written constitutions), education of citizens, by citizens,
will often be for naught unless that education is coupled with
demands on the government by a critical mass of concerned
citizens. As Frederick Douglas said in 1849, "Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.
Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found
out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed
upon them; and these will continue until they have resisted with
either words, or blows, or by both. The limits of tyrants are
prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress."
The extra-governmental processes
available to the general citizenry to help governments at all
levels return to a genuine allegiance to the federal and state
constitutions and to govern in conformity with their requirements
are, basically, popular education and political activism. Under
our circumstances, one without the other is of no avail.
The need for popular education has
at least two causes: first, the failure of the public schools to
teach the history, meaning, effect and significance of every
provision of the founding documents -- the essential principles;
and, second, the need for the citizenry to always be vigilant and
conscious about their right to intelligently, professionally and
rationally confront unconstitutional and illegal behavior by those
wielding governmental power.
The need for political activism
becomes apparent as we realize that constitutional governance is
simply not possible through existing political and governmental
processes due in large part to the control and influence the major
political parties have over the selection and behavior of our
legislators, governors and judges and the influence various
special interests and monied institutions have over our political
and governmental leaders, creating a virtual impossibility of
reform.
A citizen-oriented pro-constitution
movement in New York State settled upon two organizations, one (a
Foundation) to fulfill the need for popular education and the
other (a Congress) to fulfill the need for political activism.
Both were incorporated on November 24, 1997. Their Certificates of
Incorporation were amended on December 15, 2001 in recognition of
the fact that as of 1999, their activities were no longer confined
to New York State.
Join the Congress
We
The People Foundation for Constitutional Education
The We The People Foundation
for Constitutional Education has been established to
fulfill the need for popular education including more information,
awareness, and knowledge about the Declaration of Independence and
every provision of the federal and state constitutions, about the
sovereignty of the people whose will the constitutions are
designed to express, and about the government they are meant to
control through their constitutions. Its educational program works
to inform the public, increase awareness, and encourage
appropriate government reform through constitutional processes.
The Foundation is designed to carry
out the broad scale educational program required to counteract the
public ignorance and apathy we see as hampering the development of
citizen vigilance and the acceptance of popular sovereignty
essential to the proper governance of our constitutional
democratic republics. The Foundation is an organization devoted to
the a-political, public interest, teaching of civility "content"
and the expression of the Jeffersonian ideal of a way of life
rooted in constitutionality and civic action.
Conceptually, the Foundation
exercises philosophical leadership in the total program.
Eventually, combining a highly professional public education
program with the penetrating analytical and legal activity and
advocacy of a public- interest law firm, the Foundation is a
source of vital information and education, supportive funding and
professional legal undertakings on behalf of situations and
individuals suffering from non-constitutional governance, all
aimed at "the re-invigoration of constitutional constraints on
government."
Donate to the Foundation
We The
People Congress
The We The People Congress
has been established for the purpose of developing in the public
forum, from the ordinary, non-aligned citizenry, a constituency
committed to what Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
referred to as a "militant, non-violent, mass-movement" with the
goal of achieving substantial reforms in the structure and process
of government, through political activism.
The Congress is designed as an
advocacy organization, to carry the message vocally and
politically to the people and to the various legislative and
administrative organizations of government, seeking to influence
attitudes of the body politic and legislative actions. This is an
organization separate from the Foundation, institutionally, but
connected by a mutuality of purpose.
The Congress will, by rational,
intelligent and professional means make it difficult for those
currently wielding political and governmental power to continue in
power with a "business as usual" approach and lead the people
toward significant improvements in our system of governance. We
recognize that the acknowledgment of popular sovereignty as a
social and political force is a fundamental need. The Congress is
committed to achieving its purposes by all possible means short of
violence.
The Foundation and the Congress
recognize that the requirements for changes in governmental
structure and process will include, but not necessarily be limited
to: the clarification of the federal power to tax; the teaching in
our schools of the history, meaning, effect and significance of
every provision of our founding documents; increased
accountability, ethics and efficiency; the clarification and
strengthening of public-debt-limiting restrictions; the
clarification and strengthening of the prohibitions regarding the
gifting of public funds for private purposes; legislative reform
including the strengthening of representative democracy and
participatory democracy; a reduction in and control over the cost
and secrecy of the legislatures; easier access to the ballot for
independents and party insurgents; weakening of the power of
political parties and of government in general; weakening of the
desire of special interests to influence legislative bodies;
non-partisan elections; a judiciary that is more independent and
accountable; and, laws which do not favor public education over
private education.
Join
the Congress
Certificates of
Incorporation and By-Laws
Certificate of Incorporation for the Foundation, as amended Dec.
15, 2001
By-Laws of the Foundation, as amended Dec. 15, 2001
Certificate of Incorporation for the Congress, as amended Dec. 15,
2001
By-Laws of the Congress, as amended Dec. 15, 2001 |
