Getting There
"Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world....indeed it is the only thing that ever has".
 Margaret Mead



     If we didn't understand before, after Obama's CHANGE brought us MORE OF THE SAME we do now. With both political parties a Duoploy,
both doing the bidding of commerce & profit, control of the media and culture, a meaningless shell game that leaves us with, at best, the 'lesser
of two evils'....the need for gathering together an opposition party is obvious, but something we Americans have not tried for many, many years.
     Not ironically --because staged & managed by huge corporate funding, the "Tea Baggers"-- have emerged as the only voice of those feeling
'forgotten'. While thoroughly misled by unscrupulous media lackeys and with no understanding of history & the real cause of their real problems
(low wages, over worked, under-employed, or jobless, crushed by debt) is not taxes, but a system that exploits them at every turn and uses that
exploitation to grow richer & richer, more & more powerful., against them. They own the Economic, and run the Civic Government. With the
emergence of anger and frustration on the part of the 'left, the liberal & progressives' who have been relied on to endlessly believe the reform-bait
of Demopublicans....and rage and fear on the part of the 'right' who fall for the Republicrat line about "Big Government"...America really is facing a
new opportunity for grassroots activism. Its up to us to make the voices of reason and CHOICE be heard. Its obvious we need to reaffirm our
Constitutional right and ability to organize a real alternative based on the needs and wants of the people, not corporations. That call appeals to all
of us. But we must make our message "Public'. We don't even have to wait for the perfect 'party'. With a Supreme Court and Congress acting to
thwart our Constitutionally-guaranteed rights and a Civic Government that acts on behalf of the People, we must begin soon.


     But How? Fortunately, with almost universal access to the internet,  we can do this better than ever before. For us, the irony is that Obama's
campaign strategy taught many something we'd almost forgotten: we can organize using our communities, our workplaces & unions, our schools.
Getting to a New Society begins by using the tools and rights we have. It means recognizing & building on our strength which must be a clearly
defined goal. And by utilizing every peaceful, political & economic means available; by not allowing 'small' to deter us we can grow larger.
By using the political process as an educational weapon, as an organizational  tool, we can elect a Congress- member by member- running
as independents but united & informed, strengthened & linked by a single platform and an underlying goal: to change the institutions, the
relationships and the paradigm of our present private-profit driven Economic System & its underlying STATE apparatus into a Cooperative
Economic and Civic Democracy.
    Right now, one party actually is out there (Campaign For A Working Democracy of Minnesota, New Union Party- see LinksList)). It is
based on the same principles & goals as ours at PFANS, running candidates when it can.  We at PFANS propose that the time is right for
those who have a vision of a cooperative Economic & Civic society to offer real change, real alternatives to the Demopublican charade.
Taking advantage of the current media interest in 'the independent movement' now from the Right, the political process can and should be
used by those of us with a different vision--of  a Cooperative Society --to begin a new dialogue across the nation using the political process. 
 
    So there are ways of GETTING THERE...they exist & now are even viable thru grassroots campaigns for Congress and Senate. The
strategy is within our reach. But we have to be clear: Winning can't be the main goal...although its the motivating one. Establishing a new
alternative voice and vision....maybe using our model (see New Democracy model) or just the basic ideas of a society which is diverse
in its voices, and with one of those voices -ours- having elected Representatives to propose legislation that piece by piece will fundamentally
change our economic, civic and underlying social agenda,  a process that will free society from profit, exploitation, wages, private ownership
of industries, resources and the goods and services created, distributed and provided by society.
    Using the internet, Candidates will be able to draw from various strategies & tools employed by many groups especially those who share
our goals ( Use our LinksList for other ways to approach topics, especially useful might be the Working Democracy group: check  their on-
line "Meet-up" reading club that meets monthly) or whatever you might discover is available: local email groups to get the word out & explain
what you stand for;  try local press, radio & local Cable TV for interviews and press releases; 'neighborhood coffees', participating in local
small meetings as well as larger forums often held for candidates.


BUT IS IT LEGAL?
   
     Yes it is. Although increasingly under attack, we still have the means to choose what our country will look like, how it will work for us. We still
have basic framework which allows for peaceful change thru the ballot. Seldom mentioned but amongst our other fundamental rights is our right
to peaceful, legal and complete change, guaranteed by the Constitution and foreseen by the original planners of our independence. We are still
guided & protected by the original precepts of our country's 'Grand Experiment'.
                         
                          Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence,
                          understood that he wrote for the people of his day, and said "We might
                          as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him as a boy, as
                          civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their...ancestors".
                          George Washington  added: "The basis of our political system is
                          the right of the people to alter their constitutions of government".


    Called The Amendment Clause, Article V of our Constitution was put in place by our Founding Fathers &Mothers because they
recognized change was a natural outcome of a democracy and would someday be required and in fact guaranteed that peaceful change
should therefore be made part of our legal system.Even the NeoCons and George Bush & Co. have not yet closed that 'loophole'. It
was the first time in history that a society recognized in its very founding documents that it would someday become outmoded, and gave
its future citizens the peaceful and democratic means to achieve it.  It is brilliant. It is revolutionary. And no wonder so seldom mentioned.
But well understood by the early Founders, and others who came after:
    
     Presciently looking ahead James Madison foresaw our own times when he declared "when wealth will be concentrated in the
hands of the few...(it would be necssary)..."to re-adjust the Laws of the Nation to the changed conditions."

                
                         Abraham Lincoln said:"Any people anywhere being inclined and having the
                         power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and
                         form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most
                         sacred right - a right we hope and believe, is to liberate the world". Going
                         further, he also said "This country with its institutions, belong to the people who
                         inhabit it. Whenever they grow weary of the existing government, they can
                         exercise their Constitutional right of amending it (Article V) or their
                         revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it". 


      The celebrated 19th C.American Humorist, Artemis Ward told the tale of a man in prison for fifteen years. Then one day a thought struck
him. He recalled that the door was not locked, opened it and walked out a free man. Article V is OUR unlocked door. It gives us the RIGHT
to use our majority and to set up a new course, a path no longer leading to war, unrelenting chaos and global insecurity but towards a true
commonwealth that is "Of, For and By the People'. Like that would-be prisoner, we have the key once we recognize it. Human history and
progress are not 'over'. We just need to turn the key.

                          And echoing the late Margaret Mead, in our own times another voice has said: "IF YOU ASSUME
                          THERE IS NO HOPE, YOU GUARANTEE IT.  IF  you assume there is an instinct for FREEDOM,
                          that there are opportunities to change things..... there is a chance you may contribute to making a
                          better world. THAT'S YOUR CHOICE".  
                          Noam Chomsky