User:Conprotamend
A Proposal For A New Article of Amendment to the United States Constitution
A Background In my final years of high school I participated in a political and legal studies and related programs - I became very aware of a lot of the issues of international relations, the making of law, and the formation and structure of government. After I left I started to enter the United States military. I had an honorable medical discharge before entering active service, but not before taking my oath. The language of this oath troubled me. The first part of it required my to swear or affirm that I would "uphold and defend" the Constitution of the United States. The remaining parts I promised to "obey my superior officers", and to follow the United States Code of Military Justice. The first thing I agreed to I felt honored to be asked and I willingly gave my assent, but the last parts were of cause for concern because the language required me to possibly agree to things that might conflict with the first part. At this point I began my research.
After nearly 30 years of independent study, research, and analysis of our military regulatory system, the history and structure of the United States Constitution and Amendments, and the political and judicial system, I found myself feeling intensely disturbed about the state of our nation. While no longer required to abide by any duties of public office (all United States military members are lesser United States federal officers as defined by Article II of the United States Constitution), I still found myself under oath - and I have verified this with legal counsel - and I considered my duties under it further. I concluded that I still had legal obligation to teach, inform, and to advocate publicly matters related to the Constitution. After seeing calls to diminish existing Constitutional protections (flag burning and other protest activities) and having found that this travesty had already occurred once (this is the origin of the Eleventh Article of Amendment to the United States Constitution and others), I saw the need to act under my duty to "defend" the Constitution and promote some protective mechanism against any further reductions of this instrument of common will's power. This requires a new Article of Amendment which I will propose here and seek comment.