This website uses cookies to improve your experience.

Please enable cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website

Sign the petition

to call for a

Convention of States!

signatures

How YOU can enlist COS supporters!

Published in Blog on September 09, 2019 by Michael Jason Alexander

The following was written by Steven McEwen, Legislative Liaison for Convention of States Arizona.

As a passionate and patriotic supporter of the end goals of the Convention of States Project, have you ever sat and wondered, “What exactly is our purpose, now that our state legislature has passed the COS resolution?”

If so, this post just may help answer that question for you.

The dust had barely settled from the first Convention of States Leadership Summit when COS Arizona’s Legislative Liaison Steven McEwen--who had just returned from that historic event in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia--shared an entry on the general topic of “self-governance” from his personal journal with our Passed States Regional Director Rodney Huckleberry.

After reading it, Rodney immediately declared Steven’s journal entry a “model” for what we in the Passed States should be doing going forward.

He has asked that it be shared with everyone who has an interest in our mission here in Arizona, particularly those of us who have found ourselves searching for direction as to what we can now do personally to advance COS.

Steven’s journal entry is as follows:

Self-governance is the primary mission of our organization. I have come to believe that to be effective in this process, we all need to get involved with our local government and school boards. This challenge will be a new direction with greater emphasis for our Arizona District Captains and volunteers.

There is simply no better way to learn what is going on in our government than to participate in it. In some cases, it may inspire us to become a leader by running for local office or by accepting appointment to a local decision-making board. This is how we can genuinely make a difference.

I have begun attending several local government meetings, one of my last being a County Supervisors meeting. I was approached there by a citizen, who asked me for more details about some comments I had made during the public speakers portion of the meeting. Our conversation resulted in an invitation for me to speak to a community group, which I accepted.

I arrived early and found that several members of this group were already actively engaged in discussions with each other about the policies, procedures, and expenditures of nearly every service provided by their community. I was impressed!

When the meeting was called to order and the business portion concluded, they asked me to introduce myself and tell my story. I began my presentation with complimenting all of them for being true patriots and engaged citizens of their community and of our great nation. Since I belong to several coalitions dealing with a number of different issues, I then touched on a handful of varied topics.

My presentation about the Article V Convention of States was very well-received. To my surprise, they all expressed a great deal of interest in my description of our movement, although most admitted that they had no previous knowledge of Article V or our organization. In the end, they all took a petition to sign, along with my business card. In closing, I told them all that I wished I had a thousand volunteers just like them!

In summation, I would like to make two points about this opportunity. First, our stated mission is to “Build an engaged army of self-governing grassroots activists.” What better place to find this type of citizen than at a local public government meeting?

One simply must be informed about the local issues and stand up, speak up, and show up to be heard. There’s no question that many in our society are tired of business as usual and have a driving desire to seek out the support and guidance from other like-minded, well-informed citizens.

Secondly, although it was disappointing to learn how few people in this instance knew about our cause, I did find that with just a little information, many were quick to support our mission.

The answer to our dilemma became strikingly clear. We must engage with our citizens on their level and be prepared to educate the community about the Constitution and about our mission of self-governance.

Get Involved Button

Click here to get involved!
Convention of states action

Are you sure you don't want emailed updates on our progress and local events? We respect your privacy, but we don't want you to feel left out!

Processing...