Practice
for May 9, 2016, and a two-year review ( revised 5/9/16)
1. We are
planning the Third annual Ratification Day celebration. With a complete theory
in hand, we will reach out to the public, so we need all the willing help that
is possible (see below). Please mark your calendar: Tuesday, June 21, 6:30 PM, Bluebonnet Branch
Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70810.
See more details online.[1]
a. We
need a volunteer to help design the personalized-preamble writing-contest[2] and three judges. The object is to write a 2016 preamble the
entrant would commit to and trust for collaboration. Please distribute this
message to people with whom you would like to collaborate for a better future.
The preamble is quoted immediately below.
b. “We
the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.”
c. Perhaps
the primary reason the USA is in civic conflict (e.g., $20 trillion debt for
today’s children and grandchildren) is traditional neglect of the citizens’ contract
stated in the preamble--especially neglect/abuse of personal posterity.
d. The
willing members of our generation can
establish a civic people and it does not have to be the totality hoped for in “We the People of the United States.” Our
goal is 70% of willing people involved by Constitution Day, 2017 (September
17). We think Baton Rougeans can achieve that goal, but one willing person
cannot wait for another willing person to act: the willing must collaborate.
e. The
preamble is intended for everyone who is willing (see below).
f. As
always, the ideas stated herein are born of my weakness (despite the
collaboration that has happened) and represent neither the objective truth nor
consensus of a civic people.
2. Summary after
two years’ collaboration to establish personal use of the literal preamble to
the constitution for the USA.
a. The
first premise of “a civic people” is that integrity (both understanding and
wholeness) is attractive to most informed persons, and that if a well-grounded
theory for establishing civic morality can be discovered, a super-majority of inhabitants
will collaborate for a civic way of living.
b. The
USA began operation in 1789 with dominant religious belief--99% factional (sectarian)
Protestantism--then diversified to 14% in 2016 (see below). It seems
self-evident that religious belief--personal response to private concerns--cannot
be the bedrock for national integrity: safety
and security in civic life[3]. A civic people need a
bedrock for integrity.
c. Theses
two years of collaboration suggest that physics-based morality offers the civic
bedrock.
d. Once a
worthy dream has been imagined, a civic people might make it happen. Yet borrowing
words from Mark Twain, we may be observing “the sport of a beautiful dream.” We
hope and think this potential theory is real.
3. Two
year progress: A cogent theory of a civic people has emerged,
and we feel prepared to interest the public. If you agree, we need a separate
meeting, after the June 21 meeting, to collaborate for a plan of action.
a. We are
a Louisiana non-profit education corporation.[4] Our corporation is prepared
for 501(c)3 application to the IRS.
b. The
overall goal has evolved to private liberty with civic morality
(PLwCM). No one has frowned on hearing it. Jim Callender quietly said, “That’s
pretty good: it requires private morality.” Collaboration like Jim’s informs us
not to think we have the Occam’s razor[5] of political goals, but
with consensus, I’d like to order tee-shirts and other advertising tools.
c. The
logo, both the simple form and the wordy one, has taken some “likes.” While
developed by online discussion, collaboration has never established a logo. I’d
like a tee shirt with the goal on the front and the verbose logo on the back.
d. After
two library meetings on how physics informs 1) abortion and 2) family fidelity,
respectively, plus applications to other issues, like the physics of slavery—chains, whips, abuse, and burdens—we feel
prepared to collaborate for civic morality based on physics.
i. Recognizing
that ethics addresses a particular issue but a people need a system for connecting
first principles, we tentatively use the phrase “physics-based morality” as the
bedrock for civic morality, leaving religious morality a private concern. For example, salvation of the soul is a private
concern.
ii. We
realize that US history has unfolded on opinion-based law, the American Bar
Association adapting Blackstone[6] for government
institutions in the USA.
1. The
upheaval in the early 2000s is a consequence of civil-opinion’s inadequacy to
establish the moral bedrock a civic people can accept. We frequently argue this
point and face either severe, weak rebuke[7] or stonewalling.
2. Some lawyers
don’t recognize their noble opportunity to reform faulty, opinion-based law to
physics-based systems—a civic people with laws that are consistent with physics.
4. People
who want reform must collaborate: It seems to me the preamble is for the willing and always has been. A first
principle: neither impose nor brook
coercion/force. However, the humanly-shared imposition is the inexorable
march of physics itself. Clearly, some people cannot abide the no-force civic principle.
A no-force and no-real-harm way forward might involve:
a. Stay
with library meetings by developing many small groups; use the Internet to develop
A Civic People of the United States.
i. On
future Ratification Day & Constitution Day, conduct conferences
1. Next Constitution
Day celebration is scheduled for Thursday, September 15 at EBRP Main library,
Goodwood Blvd.
ii. Eventually,
feature personal liberty on each July 4th national-liberty day, celebrating,
for examples,
1. Women’s
suffrage
2. Children
protected from institutional labor
3. Civil
rights
4. Private
liberty with civic morality
5. Focus
on posterity.
6. The
preamble to the constitution for the USA
b. Fund collaboration
primarily with volunteered work. Just as a person who does not earn the living they could earn does not enjoy the
personal liberty they’d like, a person who does not collaborate for civic morality
suffers threat and tyranny--insecurity.
c. To the
extent that money is required, use dues from the willing participants. A CPA determines
required funds for real needs, and
annually reports the target dues for willing contributors. (As participation
increases, the target dues should decline.)
d. We
have capital needs now:
i. A
professional logo; two estimates, $3 K and $6-10 K.
ii. Perhaps
a professionally designed website to replace the blog. (Have not explored cost.)
iii. Establish
advertising methods and budgets.
iv. Publishing
and distribution.
v. Fund
educational promotions like the personal-preamble contest
e. To handle money, we need at least
i. A
board, perhaps with CEO, directors, an attorney, a webmaster, a publicist and
social media expert, and a CPA.
ii. IRS
approval as 501(c)3 non-profit education corporation
Items
below report activities during the last month:
5. Responding
to a post, I naturally used “physics-based morality” rather than “physics-based
ethics,” thinking that “ethics” may imply personal thought, whereas “morality”
implies a system. Your comments on preference for “ethics” or “morality” would
be appreciated. Email philrbeaver@gmail.com.
6. Even
though “civic” in A Civic People of the United States seems challenging to some
people, most readers perceive that “social” and “society” imply preference,
class, or imposition—any of which can involve coercion or force. “Civic” in
“civic life,” about which there are books[8], gets close to our
meaning, except that our emphasis is personal liberty--even private liberty--with civic morality.
7.
Some theists and some
atheists objected to my attention to religion. My writing inadequately
expresses that both no-real-harm religions and no-real-harm without religion flourish
under discovered, physics-based morality.
a.
Discovered physics does
not negate the god hypothesis; however, some god theory does not conform to
reality and therefore cannot be accepted as civic morality. For examples,
neither slavery nor murder is moral.
b.
But the no-real-harm
religious/none pursuits are not a civic people’s business, beyond safety and
security in the broadest terms. Salvation of the soul or other no-real-harm
spiritual pursuit, such as personal science (subjective study of what has
emerged from physics) is private. My objection, and hopefully that of a civic
people (you tell me), is
imposition of either religion or other opinion, either one a private endeavor,
into civics, meaning ineluctable human connections. Civic morality is a public
responsibility met by the willing.
c. While
it was unjust for the first Congress to re-institute legislative prayer,
suspended in the 1787 constitutional convention, by hiring chaplains for
Congress, the USA has generously outgrown a previously dominant opinion:
Protestantism.
i. Mainline
Protestant membership has dropped from 99 % of the 1789 population to 14.7 %[9] in 2015. Expanding,
conscientious, free-thought represents human progress toward civic morality.
ii. Broader
conscientious thought shifts moral theorist John Locke’s “safety and security”
in the broadest application to a duty of
the people instead of Protestantism. The chaotic transition is underway,
and a civic people have a plan with the potential for integrity.
iii. The
data show that the traditionally abused minority in America is the 23 percent
who have no player in the theism wars yet suffer the god-wars abuse. (My PLwCM,
as one of the abused minority, drives my work. I hope justice inspires a civic people.)
d. The
USA started operations in 1789 with 6 % of free inhabitants (82 % of all
inhabitants[10])
able to vote. Whereas the land was colonized by five factional-Christian kings,
using African slave trade, free-citizens were 99% factional-Protestants, 1%
Catholic and a few non-Christians.[11]
e. Today,
with 100% of non-criminal inhabitants able to vote, 29.4 % of citizens are
non-Christian with 5.9 % other religious believers. The 70.6 % Christians,
formerly the majority, are far more factional than in 1789, with 25.4 %
evangelical Protestant, 20.8 % Catholic, 14.7 % mainline Protestant, 6.5 %
black church, and 3.2 % other Christians. This is not to slight people in the
29.4 percent such as Jews; Buddhists; philosophers; and more; each person
counts.
f. One
other factor is dominant: the civil-rights achievements of 1964 and 1965 are readily,
perhaps erroneously, credited to black church.
i. Overlooked
in the success is the disruption, extreme violence and civic destruction during
the 1960s—whole communities destroyed.
ii. Overlay
liberation theology and the Congressional Black Caucus (1969), and we have the
check-cashing-chaos we see today.
1. When police
are brutal to a non-black person, most people who learn about it both object
and lobby for reform.
2. But
police brutality with a black person results in rioting, violence, and
multi-million dollar law-suits.
3. Many
blacks claim that a black person cannot be helped by a white person. This claim
creates brick-wall obstruction of PLwCM.
4. Yet
mitochondrial DNA has informed humankind for three decades that everyone alive
is kin. Everyone alive is a descendent from one woman, perhaps with more than
one mate, who lived about 140,000 years ago. There is no excuse for racism.
5. Divisive
President Obama calls slavery “America’s original sin,” and many people[12] condone his support of
black anger instead of mtDNA kinship, known to humankind now for three decades.
His use of religious terms and promoting ignorance that slavery was imposed on
colonial settlers by Christian first principles many of them rejected, for
example Quakers, is reprehensible.
iii. It now
seems that formerly peaceful events in Baton Rouge suffer systematical, staged
violence, inviting perhaps unprofessional reactions by a policeman. Are there
dots to connect?
1. Traditionally,
Baton Rouge has publically faced racism without influencing its youth to take
risks.
2. However,
the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., on February 19, 2015 at Southern University
seemed to tacitly encourage young people to take to the streets led by black
Jesus.
3. On August 1, 2015, Mark Hunter and the Advocate
published the article, “Leaders unite in prayer against crime in cities,”[13] and its companion
article, “Speakers rally crowd with fiery political rhetoric.”[14] The brave article seems
replete with quotes of sedition. See comments to Baton Rouge leaders.[15]
4. On April 17, Earth Day 2016, several
violent incidents produced a controversial police action involving a young
person.[16] It is difficult to relate
to black-parent solidarity with child-perpetrated violence.[17] "Adults are
encouraging young kids to come down and fight and posting those videos
online," said District Attorney Hillar Moore. "We'd like
for the public listening to this to let us know who it is who is
encouraging this type of behavior to our young kids and to call Crime
Stoppers." [18]
5. A civic people want the police to have the monopoly on force.
iv. Enmity
based on skin color must end, and that assertion must not be suppressed by a
civic people. Everyone alive is kin.
g. But the
chief and often resisted reason for widespread change is discoveries in
physics—energy, mass and space-time from which everything emerges.
i. Some
religions, rather than adjust to accommodate discovery, resist, for example,
evolution, and thereby lose civic efficacy for believers. People may resist
science, a study, but physics ignores ignorance, and eventually the people
favor physics over religion.
ii. Religious
institutions that deny evolution are seriously hurting believers. Humankind
takes DNA, a first premise of evolution, for granted and mtDNA has been known
during the same three decades.
iii. In the
worst cases, religions resist securing personal safety.
h. To
establish a national culture of PLwCM, perhaps 70 % of members of every real-no-harm
social group might collaborate to establish a civic people.
i. Physics-based
morality in civic connections with private religious morality offers common
ground for integrity.
ii. Serenity in the private pursuit
of religious morals relieves the tendency to doubt neighbors who hold diverse
conscientious concerns or belong to factional, no-real-harm cultures or merely
look different.
iii. Understanding
the past helps each person appreciate that the civic trust and commitment
stated in the preamble to the constitution for the USA is and always was
intended for him or her, regardless of factional cultural identification.
iv. We are
working on practical proposals to solve real problems, using education rather
than violence.
1. The
income inequality this country suffers.
2. Medical
marijuana-derivatives provided over-the-counter.
3. Reform
from legislative prayer to civic morality.
4. The
complete timeline of slavery (covering 3800 years) to allow understanding of
what has been accomplished and avoid repetition of past error.
5. Relief
from Chapter XI Machiavellianism: the politician-priest partnership tyrannizes the
people who have personal gods.
6. Use of
mtDNA to relieve any doubt that the people living today are related—need civic morality
together.
8. Referring
to the April 9 report,[19] I
could not confirm hearsay of a removed New Orleans statue of Rev. Dr. Leroy
Abernathy, but did find reference to a removed statue of Rev. Avery C.
Alexander.[20] Anyone
who has information about an Abernathy statue, please share.
a. The
report features an interesting, divisive, hypothetical by Mitch Landrieu: “I
began to envision myself as an African-American man driving down the street
with my little girl behind me, approaching Lee Circle . . .” I would end the
story differently—focused on whites convincing whites that certain Bible
interpretations are wrong according to physics and concluding that people should never use religion to start a
war.
b. Landrieu,
who is Roman Catholic, does not seem to realize or perhaps care that 1860s
white Christians in the South were indirectly defending 1500 year-old Catholic
doctrine that slavery was instituted by the Catholic god for the benefit of
both slave and master. (It is not acceptable to me to attribute such erroneous
thinking to an entity with a capital “G” even though churches, politicians, and
the media do it with apparent impunity despite Exodus 20:7.)
c. Nobody
cited in the article seems to care that evolution (mtDNA) informs us what some,
for example, Thomas Paine,[21] suspected in colonial
America: everyone alive is human. But now, we can say kin, because we descended from the same ancient woman.
d. The
loudest portion of black America plus sympathetic whites seem focused on
check-cashing, obstruction and Marxism rather than human integrity. Human
integrity seems a favorable path forward.
9.
Many
public events in Baton Rouge cry for the use of physics-based morality, and many
problems stem from propriety respecting a
faction rather than integrity
respecting a civic people. Many people practice factional stonewalling.
a.
The
Advocate reported a local black conference.[22] I contacted sponsors
including Raymond Jetson, minister, and Lori Martin, LSU, to offer these ideas.[23] The conference was
announced online.[24]
WAFB featured it on April 12.[25] I found some photos[26] and notes[27] about the conference. But I cannot find follow-up reporting by The
Advocate or other hometown news. Help would be appreciated.
b.
The
Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge posted in The Advocate the quarrel, “Black
Lives Matter” (BLM). The BLM movement blocks roads and turns cars over (after
some police actions, at Trump political events and even at one Clinton event).
When I objected to the UCBR article, my posts were treated as unqualified—no civic
propriety. Also, since UCBR has a fifty-year history of quarreling, my reaction
is unwelcomed. [28]
The reasoning is rather comical. I hope persons from UCBR will join a civic
people of Baton Rouge.
c.
I
attended Together Louisiana’s meeting with Gov. John Bel Edwards.
i. Ending a cheerleading
part of the introduction Rev. Shawn Anglim,[29] New Orleans, asked us to
hold up a clinched fist. Here is a man armed with ministerial spiritual-rectitude
that promises treating other humans with “respect” until they fall in line with
his opinion. I understand the clinched fist to be a violence-expression[30]--a threat that if you don’t
fall in line you’ll face their organization for violence. Perpetrators might
claim it’s a warning. I wonder if I am being subjected to tactics from college
campuses like the University of Missouri[31] buffaloed by its football
team. I know Black Liberation Collective may have been written by students, but
student disruptions come with consequences, often not good for civics.
ii. Legislative prayer
itself is tyranny. I doubt anyone in the room thought black-church god is
aligned with Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Catholic god. Minority that I am, I don’t
imagine I’m the only civic participant with that heartfelt concern, but I
wonder if anyone else in the room was lobbying for civic morality to make way
for their particular religious morality. I speculate most feel their god will
eventually conquer the others.
iii. However, Quaker
practice, stark, collaborative silence,[32] might allow constructive civic presence--the perception of civic morality
in the room. But publically praying for private hopes of legislators or people
prayerfully lobbying for legislative attention is imposition of
opinion--coercion. When black church accuses white church, it should make
exception for Quakers, who were colonial abolitionists.[33] The Quaker god probably has
neither skin nor skin-color.
iv. In his speech, Gov.
Edwards appealed to Together Louisiana to persuade church members not to oppose
reduction of credit for federal itemized-deductions to 50% for state purposes,
because that level does not significantly threaten “the tithe” or church
income. I’m in the minority that does not want church income to be tax exempt.
I’m in the minority (you tell me if I am
in the majority) that does not want ministers to have tax favor over small
business owners.
v. Rev. Teron Jackson,
Civic Academy, presented the four elements of LA Tax Structure for 2013 in
dollars per capita, but with numbers not too different from what I found:
1.
Individual
income tax, $592 or 17% of total (below)
2.
Corporate
tax, $55 or 1.6%
3.
Sales
and excise, $2000 or 57% and
4.
Property,
$849 or 24.3% of $3496 total.[34]
vi. The analysis above
encourages the thought that corporate tax is not carrying its fair share of LA
taxation. I imagine federal-tax redistribution per capita should be brought
into the debate, but I do not know how to accomplish it. Also, I would like to
know LABI’s opposition and will seek it. Regardless, I do not want to pay more
income tax, sales/excise tax or property tax. And, I doubt the white
Legislators Rev Jackson singled out were coerced by his biased presentation.
vii. Gov Edwards correctly
said, “The state cannot guarantee outcomes.”
viii. The meeting itself was classic
Chapter XI Machiavellianism.[35] That is, state and church
partner and the partnership does anything it wants to the people. Many people in
the meeting cheered.
d. I
witnessed as taxpayer before a senate committee, stating that if there will be
a commission for oversight of Louisiana monuments, let it develop event-timelines
from which overall history, with Catholic-Church and Protestant
responsibilities as well as African slave trading, can be discerned. The
Senators had no incentives to consider the comment—their minds were already set
and the public hearing was a sham. Nevertheless, the slavery timeline shows
that the American Civil War was inspired by a “more erroneous religious
belief,” quoting the declaration of secession.[36] A civic people must not
let religious opinion cause another war, whether foreign or domestic.
10. I
follow emails from Kevin Kane, president, at www.pelicaninstitute.org/ . On
April 29, he released a 2 minute video Louisiana Reentry Courts Are Smart On Crime which reports 15,000 views. It talks about a program created in
2014 by Louisiana judges to train prisoners to be employable on release. I like
that it does not seem to mention programs for religious indoctrination for
which Burl Cain is so famous. The judges’ website does not list sponsors.[37] Since
this is 2016, the promises are promises.
a.
The term “Smart on Crime,” has
a history which includes a conservative-led Washington D. C. think-tank.[38] Their
multipart series, “Smart on Crime,” was uploaded on youtube on March 15, 2011.[39] I’ve
watched some of the videos and like the idea but don’t trust some phrases. For
example, “justice as fairness,” is John-Rawls’ political theory I do not agree
with; it proposes forever sustaining error rather than helping people gain
personal autonomy. It’s the kind of thinking that leads to courts asserting
that a male is she.
c. Googling
Smart on Crime gives the first and second URLs
addressing Eric Holder’s initiative dated August 12, 2013.[41] It
leads to the President’s task for report, May 2015.[42]
Interestingly, it does not recommend police cameras.
d. San Francisco DA Kamala Harris’s ghost-written book, Smart on Crime, 2009, is rated 4 stars
by 20 people on Amazon. She made a bid for US Attorney General.
e. Older background is available online[43].
Can someone on the
distribution advise A Civic People of the United States, BR, about the origins
of “Smart on Crime”? Smart on Crime seems worthy, because it comes from
law-enforcement authorities.
11. My daughter, home for
Mother’s Day, objected to current NYC hot ideas (from 2001) that George
Washington was not the first president of the USA.[44] [45] Review including an
urban-rumor opinion[46] inspired suspicion of
proponents of the idea. As always, a timeline helps the student know the facts:
a.
Boston tea party in 1773
b.
First Continental
Congress (delegates from all but Georgia) 1774
c.
Declaration and Resolves
of the First Continental Congress (cites “immutable laws of nature” naturally
omitting “nature’s god”) 1774
d.
Shot heard round the
world 1775
e.
Declaration of
Independence (of thirteen states, introduces “Nature’s God”) 1776
f.
Articles of
Confederation Ratified March 1781
g.
British Defeated at
Yorktown September 1781
h.
King of England signs
treaty of Paris saying each of the 13 united states is free and independent of
British rule 1783
i.
Constitutional
Convention at Philadelphia (delegates from all but Rhode Island) 1787
j.
Ratification by 9 of 13
states provided the 1st Congress will negotiate a bill of rights, 1788
k.
First Congress is seated
and George Washington is inaugurated
president, 1789
l.
Bill of rights ratified
by 10 of 14 states, 1791
12. For people who are
interested
a.
The
online-resource suggestions we listed in the past are posted in one file at cipbr.blogspot.com.
b.
Any
suggestions to add to the list of online resources would be welcomed.
[3]
John Locke used the phrase “safety and security” in 1690. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Treatises_of_Government
.
[4]
See coraweb.sos.la.gov/commercialsearch/CommercialSearchDetails.aspx?CharterID=1146246_L7D52
.
[7]
See http://www.libertylawsite.org/2016/01/06/should-law-schools-pursue-social-justice/#comment-1395072
especially anonymity “gabe” is an antagonist.
[8]
For example, Composing a Civic Life: A Rhetoric and Readings for Inquiry
and Action. Amy Muse and
Michael Berndt. 2002. I want to read this book.
[9]
Pew Research online at http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
[10] See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_United_States_Census#Data.
[12]
See for example, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/opinion/20cohen.html?_r=0
. I have never felt racism was right and felt great relief in 1964 and 1965
when possible national reform was made real.
[13]
See theadvocate.com/news/acadiana/13032262-123/leaders-unite-in-prayer-against
.
[36]
See http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp
. Read the paragraph before the last.
[37]
See smartoncrimela.com/
.
[38]
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Project
[43]
At en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_reform_in_the_United_States
.
[45]
See online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Society
.
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