OPINION

OPINION
A12 | FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013
www.TheEpochTimes.com/Opinion
How to Improve Accountability of Elected
Officials, and Hold Them to Their Oaths
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MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES FOR FOUNDATION FOR THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
By Catherine Crabill
As America stands upon a great
and dangerous precipice, millions of Americans involve
themselves battling against an
ever-emerging Tyranny.
We skirmish on so many
fronts that even though our
numbers are legion, our efforts
are minimized in their effectiveness by the nature of the
division intentionally created
by those who wage war against
our liberty.
As I have prayed for our great
nation I believe God has shown
me a “silver bullet” by which We
the People can and must reclaim
control over every renegade and
corrupt president, congressman,
senator, state delegate, judge,
sheriff, and so on.
In fact, this concept will affect
every constitutional office holder
and restore said Constitution to
its rightful place as supreme Law
of the Land.
I propose legislation, drafted
and introduced on a state level,
which would make it a Class
1 felony to betray one’s oath
of office to uphold and defend
the Constitution. The penalty
would need to be significant in
its severity, not only depriving
such criminals of their liberty,
mandatorily, but also their personal property.
Examination and Citizen
Grand Jury
Anyone interested in running
for any office, from clerk of the
court to state governor, congressman or senator, would
be required by law to pass an
examination on the Constitution before they could enter any
contest as a candidate.
Just as any person wanting to become a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or realtor must
first be examined for compe-
tency, how much more should
we expect from those who “rule”
or represent us?
In addition, an examination
proves that the examinee knows
what is expected of them and
which actions are criminally
prosecutable, thus the examinee cannot claim ignorance. The
examination is the linchpin of
accountability.
As it stands now, the remedy
for removing someone from
office, other than the ballot box,
(and few trust the veracity of an
Who could stand
before their
constituents and
explain how they
voted against this
proposal because
they refuse to be
held accountable?
election anymore), is a recall or
an impeachment. While these
tools are indeed available, the
task of implementing any of the
above is daunting in its scope.
The vast majority of us feel
impotent and frustrated.
I propose in this legislative initiative that a pre-determined number of petition signatures, achievable by a single
concerned citizen, would trigger a Citizen Grand Jury made
up of volunteers who likewise
would have taken and passed the
same examination on the Constitution as the constitutional
office holder.
Once a Citizen Grand Jury
brings forth a bill of indictment,
the constitutional office holder
(L-R) Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and filmmakers
Ken Burns and Steven Spielberg view the Constitution of the United
States in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 19.
would have to defend themselves
before a jury of their peers, who
would also be made up of those
who have taken and passed the
exam, and be presided over by
a judge who has also taken and
passed the exam, and who is not
allowed to be a member of the
bar, thus avoiding the corruption
rampant in our judicial system.
Upholding and Studying the
Constitution
Imagine the far-reaching ramifications of such an initiative! It
would destroy the left-right paradigm, nullifying the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian parties. After all, if everyone
in office were held accountable
to their oath it would not matter if one were an avowed communist! Once you take that
oath you will be held to criminal account for betraying it.
Furthermore, it would decimate the numbers of those
whose motive in pursuit of political office may be less than honorable. This legislation would be
retroactive in requiring all current office holders to take and
pass the same examination.
From that point forward they
would be held to the same standard as any incoming governor,
senator, congressman, delegate,
sheriff, or clerk of the court.
In addition, since We the
People would be rightfully
empowered to hold these men
and women to account, there
The examination
is the linchpin of
accountability.
would be a vast revival in the
common man’s interest and
study of the Constitution. Such
conversations would be had in
restaurants, bars, parties, and
churches, because the rule of
constitutional law would be
restored into the hands of every
American.
It would electrify the electorate.
The naysayers have argued
that no legislator would vote to
shackle him or herself under
these restraints. To that I say: who
would dare vote against it!? Who
could stand before their constituents and explain how they voted
against it because they refuse to
be held accountable?
Holding our congressmen and
senators to account would hold
the president to account. If we
could prosecute our congressmen and senators for betraying their oath to balance the
budget, protect our privacy,
impeach and prosecute a rogue
president and corrupt administration, and so forth, I submit
they would do what they, by virtue of their oath, should be doing
already. We could also recapture
control over the Supreme Court
for betraying our Constitution
by referencing any other law
other than our Constitution.
At the time of this writing, I
have submitted this idea to three
state legislators in the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of whom
has responded and shown a genuine interest.
For those who have made a
name in their respective field
of expertise fighting unconstitutional assaults on our liberty,
this initiative may feel threatening. After all, many have spent
a lifetime and a fortune doing
battle on their respective fronts.
Nevertheless, this would end
the need to fight the NSA, TSA,
Agenda 21, EPA, and so forth, as
those who, to date, have betrayed
our country, our liberty, and our
prosperity will have to face We
the People on a field they do
not control as the rule of law is
restored to America again.
It is not only our right—it is
our duty.
Catherine Crabill was the Republican nominee for the 99th District in the Virginia House of
Delegates in 2009. She lives in
Irvington, Va.
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Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
The ‘Nine Commentaries’ is the book that is disintegrating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and changing China.
This award-winning Epoch Times editorial series discloses the true history and nature of the CCP. Now it is serialized here.
Commentary
Six (cont.)
On How the Chinese Communist
Party Destroyed
Traditional Culture
Chinese tradition has it that
“scholars can be killed but cannot be humiliated.” The CCP was
capable of humiliating intellectuals by depriving their right to
make a living and even incriminating their families unless they
accepted humiliation.
Many intellectuals did surrender. During the course, some
of them told on others to save
themselves, which broke many
people’s hearts. Those who did
not submit to humiliation were
killed—serving as examples to
terrorize other intellectuals.
The traditional scholarly class,
exemplars of social morality, was
thus obliterated.
Mao Zedong said: “What can
Emperor Qin Shi Huang brag
about? He only killed 460 Confucian scholars, but we killed
46,000 intellectuals. In our
suppression of counter-revolutionaries, didn’t we kill some
counter-revolutionary intellectuals as well? I argued with
the pro-democratic people
who accused us of acting like
Emperor Qin Shi Huang. I said
they were wrong. We surpassed
him by a hundred times.” i
Indeed, Mao did more than
kill the intellectuals. More grievously, he destroyed their minds
and hearts.
The Semblance of Traditional
Culture
After the CCP adopted economic reform and an opendoor policy, it renovated many
churches as well as Buddhist and
Taoist temples. It also organized
some temple fairs in China as
well as cultural fairs overseas.
This was the last effort of the
CCP to utilize and destroy the
remaining traditional culture.
There were two reasons for
the CCP to do this. On the one
hand, the kindness inherent
in human nature, which the
CCP could not possibly eradicate, will lead to the destruction of the “Party culture.”
On the other hand, the CCP
intended to use traditional cul-
ture to apply cosmetics to its
true face in order to cover up
its evil nature of “deceit, wickedness, and violence.”
The essence of culture is its
inner moral meaning, while
the superficial forms have only
entertainment value. The CCP
restored the superficial elements
of culture, which entertain, to
cover up its purpose of destroying morality.
No matter how many art and
calligraphy exhibits the CCP
has organized, how many culture festivals with dragon and
lion dances it has staged, how
many food festivals it has hosted,
or how much classical architecture it has built, the Party is
simply restoring the superficial
appearance, but not the essence
of the culture. In the meantime,
the CCP promoted its cultural
showpieces both inside and outside China basically for the sole
purpose of maintaining political power.
Once again, temples are an
example. Temples are meant
to be places for people to cultivate, hearing bells in the morning and drums at sunset, worshiping Buddha under burning
oil lamps. People in ordinary
human society can also confess
and worship there. Cultivation
requires a pure heart that pursues nothing. Confession and
worship also require a serious
and solemn environment.
However, temples have been
turned into tourist resorts for
the sake of economic profits. Among the people actually visiting temples in China
today, how many of them have
come to contemplate their mistakes with a sincere and respectful heart toward Buddha, right
after taking a bath and changing their clothes?
Restoring the semblance, but
destroying the inner meaning of traditional culture is the
tactic that the CCP has taken
to confuse people. Be it Buddhism, other religions, or cultural forms derived from them,
the CCP deliberately degrades
them in this way.
III. The Party Culture
While the CCP was destroying the traditional semi-divine culture, it quietly established its own “Party culture”
through continuous political
movements. The Party culture
has transformed the older generation, poisoned the younger
generation, and also had an
impact on children. Its influence has been extremely deep
and broad.
Even when many people
tried to expose the evilness of
the CCP, they couldn’t help but
adopt the ways of judging good
and bad, the ways of analyzing,
and the vocabulary developed by
the CCP, which inevitably carry
the imprint of the Party culture.
The Party culture not only
inherited the essential wickedness of the foreign-born Marxist-Leninist culture, but also
skillfully combined all the negative elements from thousands of
years of Chinese culture with the
violent revolution and philosophy of struggle from the Party’s
propaganda.
Those negative components
include internal strife for power
inside the royal family, forming
cliques to pursue selfish interests, political trickery to make
others suffer, dirty tactics, and
conspiracy. During the CCP’s
struggle for survival in the past
decades, its characteristic of
“deceit, wickedness, and violence” has been enriched, nurtured, and carried forward.
i Qian Bocheng, “Oriental Culture,” fourth
edition (2000).
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