In Search of George Washington: The Story of the 28Th Amendment

By Rick Sirmon

In Search of George Washington (The Story of the 28th Amendment) chronicles the amazing flashback that was the "Prairie Fire" that swept the country over 18 months in 2012 and 2013. See how America cried out for Her heroes and Her history and Her heritage and how a strange re-visitation in the mysterious mists of time by the Founders triggered the massive chain of events leading up to "Post 28 America". Business" that had raced away from America, came racing back and business competitiveness that had dimmed - "blazed again - from sea to shining sea". See how pure "free enterprise" unleashed the creativity and abilities of the poor, the unemployed, and the undocumented, to grow and learn and excel. Believe that for maybe the first time that you as one person can make a difference. Plug in and hold on. This is your gateway to the incredible reaches of "The 28th Amendment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465397683

Rick Sirmon

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In Search of

George Washington

The Story of the 28th Amendment

Rick Sirmon

Copyright © 2011 by Rick Sirmon.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011960649

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-9767-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-9766-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-9768-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

I. DEDICATION—

II. FORWARD— Start with the End in Mind

III. FLASHBACK The Original Washington Way

IV. INTRODUCTION— We the People—AMENDING FENCES

V. PREFACE— Are You Kidding Me: Small towns In America where there’s no taxes!

PART I THE 100 YEAR WAR ON BUSINESS AND SUCCESS (1913-2013)

Chapter 1 THE LEGACY OF PROGRESSIVE IDEOLOGY—(WHERE HAD ALL THE BUSINESS GONE?)

Chapter 2 THE LEGACY OF RED INC (REDistribution of INCome)—WHERE HAD ALL THE MONEY GONE?

Chapter 3 The Legend of Bagger Vance and the Pivotal Financial Setting of 1931

PART II THE 225-YEAR REVISITATION

Chapter 4 Ghosts of Independence Hall

Chapter 5 Re-hosting Independence—George Washington Reports

Chapter 6 Re-Constitution, Restoration, and Recommendation

Chapter 7

PART III THE 28th AMENDMENT

Chapter 8 THE 28TH AMENDMENT—Introduction by We The People

Chapter 9 THE 28TH AMENDMENT

Chapter 10 Free Enterprise Towns A Building Boom for the Ages and

PART IV THE 28th AMENDMENT PROJECT

Chapter 11 How Could The 28th Amendment Project happen virtually overnight?

Chapter 12

PART V

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my wife, for being the wonderful person that she is, and who is just like her wonderful mother who brings out the very best in everyone and,

To my three children, for being the best kids a proud dad could ask for— who are talented and productive adults and excellent writers in their own rights and,

To Heather Hobbs Woodard and Harry Slaughter—my fellow warriors in the trenches— without whose expertise, talent and encouragement, this book could not have been written;

my gratitude, love and enduring thanks in supporting this important work.

I. DEDICATION—

To My Grand Daughters—

Your grandmother and I think you three are the cutest and smartest little girls we’ve ever seen. We know you will brighten the world with your beautiful smiles, inquisitive personalities, and natural intelligence. We are confident that you will go far in life, and that when you are ready, you will find love and happiness and build good lives for yourselves and those around you. We have great confidence that what will matter to you most will be the growth of your hearts and souls, the betterment of mankind and acknowledging the God of the universe who made humanity in His own Image.

The generations of your family members who preceded your grandmother and me paved the way for the blessings of liberty and freedom to endure so that your proverbial pursuits of happiness could stay boundless and unfettered. We are so very proud of you three, and, while you girls are just two, two and four years old, and beginning life’s journey, we know that you will be persuaders, thinkers, dreamers and doers.

Today is Memorial Day and I’m writing to you to record some things that may bear on that journey. The Greatest Generation, as it has been called, of your family and your nation’s families, worked exceedingly hard and sacrificed much to build up and protect history’s greatest nation and preserve its ideals. My generation, the Baby Boomers, and your parents’ generation, have inherited immense benefits from their sacrifices. Now, it is our turn to be vigilant and true to the founding principles and documents that formed the basis and produced the greatness that made America the unparalleled leader of the free world.

However, I worry that the miracles of our founding—the greatest of which are 1) the Declaration of Independence, 2) the winning of our freedom in the Revolutionary war (1776-1781), 3) the Divinely—inspired Constitution of the United States of America in 1787, and 4) the attendant safeguards of the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments—are being taken for granted and assailed by many who would like to see our nation and its people fail.

We, as steward generations, have been largely silent as massive spending and borrowing have consolidated and centralized the levers of power by those who were elected to serve in government. We have let politicians and power-brokers mushroom out of control, waste our tax dollars, and ignore our God. It is easy to assume that things will always be as they are now. We want to believe that our normal life routines will always be what we’ve grown accustomed to. It is tempting to take the path of least resistance and to do nothing. It is easy to rationalize that one person can’t make a difference, feel overwhelmed and ineffectual as one small being in a gigantic system. The forces that are eroding those normal routines and undermining the very foundations of America have been working against our freedoms slowly and incrementally. These forces are consolidating power and destroying many of our traditional institutions that range from marriage and long held morals to the integrity of our currency and our economy and our standing in the world.

Are we too far gone to turn back to our roots? Are we too complacent to return to greatness and do the work it takes to preserve that which is slipping away? No! Not on this watch!

It is time to reaffirm the goodness that is the United States of America. One person can make a difference. If there ever was a time to make that difference, it is now. You three girls and your futures are the reasons for this book. To accomplish that renewed, bright future ahead requires that we all re-learn the lessons of America’s history and our amazing heritage and, in so doing, act in concert to arrest the spiraling decline. Those lessons and those actions are offered and given in many forms in the pages that follow.

Memorial Day is not a holiday for celebrating—it is a day of remembering. It is a day when we commemorate the sacred memory of those who fought and died to stop evil and preserve the good. Those who fought were not complacent, and today, they are not forgotten. Today is THEIR Memorial Day.

William Arthur Sirmon, your great-great grandfather, fought in World War I from 1917 to 1918.

He was a hero in that war, and your uncle, Brannon William Sirmon, has republished his diary, That’s War, published in 1929. His work chronicles the amazing spirit of the American Doughboy, as the American soldiers were called then. Witty, at times dire, but always informative, it is a day-by-day account of soldiers who were training at Ft. Gordon near Atlanta, Georgia, then crossing the Atlantic from New Jersey to Britain before they fought the war in France against Germany.

The dedication page in That’s War reads:

To My Boys:

With the prayer that the lot of war will never be theirs, but if the safety or honor of their country should demand it, that they will meet the issue with the same courage and fidelity with which my comrades met the challenge of 1917-18."

His two boys did get called to the defense of their country.

My father, your great grandfather, George Cornwell Sirmon, was a paratrooper who risked his life by jumping behind enemy lines in 1944-45. His older brother, William Arthur Sirmon, Jr., was in the Navy in the Pacific theater. They fought to preserve our way of life during the Second World War after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Now it is time to fight again in earnest to preserve our way of life.

This book is that fight, and this dedication is passed down over the generations.

To my grandchildren:

With the prayer that the generations now in charge and those generations yet to come will meet the challenges to the safety and honor of their country with the same courage and fidelity as those generations who have gone before and pass on the blessings of life and liberty to you, and to your families, and to posterity.

All my love always,

Pop Pop

II. FORWARD—

 Start with the End in Mind

There once was a radio spoof on the nursery rhyme, Little Bo Peep. It was a sarcastic ditty that began something like this:

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Well if she has lost her sheep, of course she doesn’t know where to find them.

Leave them alone and they will come home—wagging their tails behind them. Where else would they wag their tails?—in front of them? Perhaps they would—if they came home in reverse.

Unfortunately, it seems that those in Congress, those who are leading the exploding scope of the executive branch, and many of those in the judiciary, have come home in reverse—wagging their tails in front of them—and frequently, at the rest of us.

They have acted in reverse to common sense, reverse to the common good, reverse to the founding principles of limited government and limited national indebtedness, and reverse to the ideals of sacred honor and Divine Wisdom.

While we might assume that the sheep in this famous nursery rhyme made it home safely, the current political and economic climates of the United States are facing different, sobering realities. Over the last 100 years, an ever more powerful and progressive (liberal) government has lost its way. Simply put, a burgeoning government has implemented perverse policies and broken its promises to the American people. As a result, America’s venerable status as the greatest nation on Earth is suffering great harm.

In 2011, the federal government had lost $14 TRILLION. Even more stunning was the notion that the people running the country had almost no idea where the money went, and officials were content to believe that it was acceptable to leave them alone and they (IOU’s) will come home (to roost) waging despair behind them for someone else to deal with.

With all due respect to Little Bo Peep, it would be unfair to her to compare her to a federal government whose members seemed to believe that they were in charge of sheep that would put up with this kind of insanity forever. However, in 2012, Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard and when We the People got there and the cupboard was bare, the 28th amendment sent them all home (with term limits)—wagging their pork-barreled tales (and forked tongues) between their legs.

In Search of George Washington (The Story of the 28th Amendment) is a futuristic flashback that chronicles the year that We the People took charge and redefined the spirit and the mechanics of how the nation’s business would be conducted and what the new roles of the government officials were in the new framework. True to Habit #3 of the #1 best seller by Dr. Stephen Covey entitled Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, the perspective and the setting of the book takes Dr. Covey’s advice to start with the end in mind.

Set in 2013, In Search of George Washington is a flashback to the unbridled chaos that befell the American people in 2011 and 2012 as the direct result of 100 years of progressive (liberal) government. More specifically, it discusses the fiscal and moral irresponsibility that, in a stunning downward spiral, dragged down the spirit of a proud nation with it. Out of the nightmarish fiasco that was a runaway central government came a miracle that took place seemingly overnight.

The scope and breadth of the uprising by We the People was breathtaking.

The powers in Article V vested in the original 1787 Constitution for altering government through the adoption of a Constitutional amendment were absolutely appropriate, and We the People grasped firmly onto the wisdom and foresight that stemmed from that Divinely inspired heritage. The precursor of the 28th Amendment, The Balanced Budget Amendment, although it was a noble effort, failed in its bid to neutralize the out of control, unholy alliances of unsavory lobbyists, power brokers, and politicians who succumbed to the lures of virtually every kind of power and corruption imaginable.

The Balanced Budget Amendment garnered approval in 32 states in the proposing stage, but this ambitious attempt to recapture our economic footing fell two states short of the 34 states needed for proposal. However, the advance work and some of the ideas of that effort would mushroom into something vast and far-reaching. In fact, it would become the springboard for a juggernaut amendment to tame a juggernaut government.

It was an amazing story of a house cleaning—and a sweeping senate, executive and judiciary cleaning to boot. More importantly, it set the tone for another revolution for the ages by re-establishing that the concepts of freedom and liberty need protecting from an internal, tyrannical government just as much as they do from potentially destructive foreign threats. In a broad sense, the basic question was reminiscent of historic debates between states’ rights and Federalists’ visions of the future. However, in this time and in this story, the states and We the People reclaimed usurped powers, realized new powers and took the lead, the momentum and the day to rebalance the scales of power. In the process, rugged individualism resurfaced, a spirit of honor and duty returned to the forefront of the American collective conscience, and compassion, connection and empathy were bindings that were real, close-knit and lasting.

Most critically and thankfully of all, it was a time of acknowledging the accomplishment of the masses. It was the celebration of the fact that the time had come and gone when vast, impersonal, politically correct, governmentally conceived and perpetuated programs were entities of a bureaucratic government whose members feigned compassion for the people who elected them. These crumbling dinosaurs were replaced, nixed, buried and burned into the pages of history for future generations of proud, patriotic Americans to learn from.

History was, again, alive, and the lessons were fresh on the minds of Americans again. Limited government, effective government, frugal government and government spelled for a good reason with a little g—those were the simple lessons of government in the four pages of the Constitution. We the People was capitalized for a reason by the founders everywhere it was inserted in the Constitution. We the People, Freedom and Liberty—those were the exemplary and enduring legacies of America.

Just like in Colonial times, George Washington’s larger—than—life leadership resurfaced for another seemingly impossible revolution and another seemingly impossible resetting of history’s course. His visage was as large in death and across the space and time continuum as it was in life, and it rose again to meld the historic with the contemporary. His spirit resurrected the wisdom of America’s founding generations and their hope that what they were bringing to the human race was proof of the simple, profound truth that—

Man could rule himself.

III. FLASHBACK

 The Original Washington Way

It always seems impossible until its done.

Nelson Mandela

In 1776, Valley Forge looked like the end of the line for a fledgling new nation fighting the Old World superpower, England. As a historic winter on the Delaware River set in and the clock ticked down, the frozen remnants of George Washington’s Revolutionary troops were hanging on by an icicle.

Survival—much less victory—seemed impossible to all but George Washington. Crossing the Delaware in the dark of Christmas Day and winning the Battle of Trenton seemed impossible—until it was done.

In 1787, Philadelphia (Independence Hall) was a metaphorical battlefield of competing voices and unshakable differences of opinion. Anything resembling a realistic, long-term consensus seemed impossible. However, a new nation, a new leader (George Washington), a new Constitution and a new Republic emerged from those impossible beginnings. The common threads of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—certain inalienable rights endowed by our Creator, and government subservient to We the People reigned supreme.

It all seemed impossible until it was done.

Eighteen months ago, in 2012, George Washington would have been appalled that We the People were subservient to a voracious, ever-expanding government which decreed more power unto itself. Even worse, this massive entity dripped with the corruption that came with the power that seemed impossible to arrest as it festered uncontrollably. Undoubtedly, he would have sought to lead another impossible revolution against this new, malignant, internal tyranny. If Washington and the founders all had been able to come back and fight tyranny again, they might have begun the impossible fight to wrest power from a morally decayed government by helping another Tea Party rebellion. Interestingly, the Boston Tea Party that happened in 1773 was triggered by a 5% tax. Imagine their thoughts on a 70% to 90% income tax for half of the 20th century!

The Original Washington Way would have been to put shackles on those who would lord over We the People and treat the freedoms of the People with disdain. That hypothetical result would have been a gargantuan clash for the ages: one Washington Way versus another Washington Way.

As incredible as it seems, come back they did.

In Search of George Washington is the amazing story of history repeating itself.

Across 225 years, the father and the founders of our country came back from the pages of the history that they so fervently sculpted—and again, their voices resounded. Through their works and their exhortations of freedom for the ages—what they did—and what they gave—inspired a nation again to The Original Washington Way.

Sit back and see how Washington, the Father of our Country and all of the founding fathers returned home to come to the aid of their country. Revisit how their fierce determination, independence, and honor to each other and to the land they loved came alive in the tumultuous twenty-first century.

Absorb the magnitude of what transpired in that first Constitutional Convention of 1787 as George Washington presided over the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, who wanted more power in the central government, and conversely, the Anti-Federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson and other visionaries, who wanted more power in the states. Relish the lessons for the ages that fervent, arduous—and more importantly—reasoned debate wrought to create the greatest framework for governance of the People, by the People, for the People in human history.

Marvel at the miracle of a nation founded on Divine Providence that was granted its reprieve in 2012 from the dissolution of liberty at the hands of a rapacious, expansive government whose many progressive members and their radical revolutionary associations used America as their target of shameless sabotage and treason while they labored tirelessly to tear down the very tenets of freedom and free enterprise. Watch how the unfolding of the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America spread like a prairie fire across the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and see how this metaphorical conflagration was able to inspire and rekindle the foundations of liberty, love and charity and restore faith in Divine Providence.

In 2012, controlling a tyrannical federal government seemed impossible—until it was done.

IV. INTRODUCTION—

 We the People—AMENDING FENCES

Tectonic forces were scraping against each other as 2011 dawned, but little did Americans know that there were earthquakes about to shake a society that had shaken the entire world 224 years before. The majesty and greatness of a nation that, through the true grit of her people, had risen to prove Man could rule himself was being replaced with new, unflattering words and phrases like decline, once great, and failed. Once great words like free enterprise, entrepreneurship and capitalism" were being defiled.

The clamors for something else to replace those revered ideals were everywhere. The forces and traces and faces of Socialism and Marxism and Communism where splashed on signs in the market square and marching with other signs that proclaimed global governance, one world order and workers of the world unite. The leaders of these movements were ubiquitous in Washington as they did everything they could to seize control of power and especially in the executive branch. Not surprisingly, the noise was pitched, and so were the messages.

Throughout the year 2011 and into 2012, the chasms were great among many categories into which people could be classified:

Blacks and whites

Citizens and the undocumented

Wage earners and wage payers

The employed and the unemployed

East and west

Rich and poor

Men and women

Democrats and Republicans

Socialists and capitalists

Federal and state

Narrowing—and closing—these gaps seemed impossible, but just like a jailed dissident in South Africa could rise to be its President, closing that proverbial gap seemed impossible—-—until it was done.

Now, in 2013, the gaps are becoming much smaller, peace and harmony and common purpose are starting to return, and while men and women are still different, at least the opportunity for similar paychecks is more widely available.

What could have brought Nelson Mandela’s observation about the seemingly impossible to fruition on such a large scale? What could have bridged so many chasms in such short order? Did a country founded on Divine Providence get a sweeping miracle waved across its fruited plain? If you are looking for a short answer, it may be this—and if you want to attribute it to Divine guidance, brotherly love, and/or the Golden Rule that’s a good starting point:

A nation that decided to greet each day with love in its heart (see Chapter 12 and Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World) underwent a major makeover, and with faith and hope and charity and determination, restored people’s belief in being good to each other. Even more importantly, they decided to limit its government, and then paved the way to UNLIMIT every individual’s spirit and ability to excel, achieve and to reach for heights never dreamed possible. The plan and the details went viral across the web of technology and culminated in the first ever National Constitutional Convention that proposed the plan in a sweeping 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

The tool that the founders had reserved for We the People to rule the government and themselves through the constitutional amendment process was right there where it always had been—in Article 5 of the Constitution. We the People initiated a comprehensive 25-year plan and specific changes demanded by two-thirds of the States at it’s proposing (34 of 50 states) followed by the affirming votes of three-fourths of the state legislatures at its ratification (38 of 50 states).

This 25-year plan which began to work right from the beginning to harness the beliefs and desires of all individuals to better themselves, their families and their futures and to work in partnership with those above and below moving on the ladder of life. It was a plan that recaptured the verve, vitality, spirit and imagination that had been the hallmark of a formerly great nation.

It restored faith in the Creator—and a belief in the validity of the spiritual needs of man. It was a plan that gave the people a bond and a reverence with the founding fathers and their principles, an appreciation for the vast complexities of the present and the tools to master them, and a framework steeped in liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the freedom of expression to meet any challenge of the future.

V. PREFACE—

Are You Kidding Me:

 Small towns In America where there’s no taxes!

Can you imagine American towns in which the businesses and the people who locate there permanently have:

NO federal or state income taxes to pay,

NO property taxes to pay,

NO capital gains taxes to pay,

NO dividend or interest taxes to pay,

NO unemployment taxes to pay,

No Payroll taxes to pay,

NO gasoline taxes to pay, and

NO federal government paperwork or IRS to deal with!

Can you imagine the gigantic rush to build and locate in these high profile incubators for success because of the huge attractions and incentives of little or no federal taxation and regulation. Where the new businesses and new town councils operate with an inspiring mission to educate and train the poor and the unemployed and the undocumented immigrants longing for something better for themselves and their families. Where interns and students and apprentices quickly become highly motivated and skilled workers. Where workers eventually become investors and owners. And just as importantly, where businesses and individuals are inspired to work closely together and focus on a mandate to put pure free enterprise on full display for all the world to see.

Even before the ratification of The 28th Amendment, this phenomenon would begin attracting thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents to have plans ready for these new, small rural town incorporations to launch throughout the land and it all seemingly happened overnight!

Read the letters addressed to two of America’s most prominent businessmen, Mr. T. Boone Pickens and Mr. John C. Chambers to understand why the world beat a path back to America to do business. The answer to the question of why it all occurred was a simple concept founded in 1787 and approved by the founders. The solution to America’s economic doldrums was uncanny in how quickly it influenced business and commerce. It forged successful, close bonds between rich and poor, wage payers and wage earners, and made stockholders out of job holders and unleashed unbridled ambition and creativity where there had only been the