America is in trouble! But you already know this. It’s the reason you are engaged with the Convention of States Project to rally State leaders to utilize the most powerful constitutional tool reserved to them – Article V of the United States Constitution.
As the president of the first Simulated Convention of States in 2016, and chair of the committee to limit federal jurisdiction and a Utah commissioner at the 2023 Simulated Convention of States, I obviously agree with you.
However, the problems we face are widespread and urgent, requiring an understanding of how to utilize every tool in the constitutional toolbox. For this reason, COS asked me to write this series of articles.
When we encounter a serious problem at an establishment, we typically seek out the first person who appears to work there, and ask “Who’s in charge around here?” We know once the boss recognizes the problem, the problem will be solved!
However, if the boss (i) rarely shows up, (ii) doesn’t know their employees, (iii) doesn’t instruct employees in their job description, and (iv) doesn’t follow up to see how their employees are doing, that enterprise is destined to fail, right?!
Should this make us wonder why the problems in our nation keep getting increasingly worse, rather than ever getting solved? Could it be we are not looking to the right people? The real “boss”?
James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a prominent contributor at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and an original member of the U.S. Supreme Court, imparted this foundational truth about the structure of our new government while teaching Constitution classes to President George Washington and his first cabinet:
“The dread and redoubtable sovereign, when traced to his ultimate and genuine source has been found, as he ought to have been found, in the free and independent man. To this truth, so simple and natural, and yet so neglected or despised, may be appreciated as the first and fundamental principle in the science of government.”
Did you catch who “is in charge around here?” YOU! YOU are the sovereign – “the boss” of our American governing enterprise. While this truth may seem daunting, Ronald Reagan counseled, “there are no easy answers, but there are simple ones.” The Framers engineered our exceptional structure of government to enable YOU to govern the nation through simple governing steps from wherever you happen to live in these vast United States.
To act like the “boss” and address the serious and urgent problems facing our nation, We the People simply have to “Just Say KNOW.” We have to KNOW:
- WE are the Boss, the buck stops here, and WE have to act like the boss;
- the background, experience, character, and abilities of people we “hire” (elect) as state leaders restore and maintain the governing structure that secures our life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness;
- that these state leaders KNOW their primary “job description” to restore and defend the constitutional structure which secures our rights; and
- the extent that our state leaders are doing this indispensable job.
In order to instruct our “employees” we “hire” in their constitutional “job description,” we must KNOW the unique structure of our government established under the U.S. Constitution and KNOW why this exceptional governing structure “is central to liberty.”
In any large organization, typically only a small handful of people report directly to the CEO. It is vital that We KNOW the Framers designed our American government to enable us to exercise our sovereign duty by delegating the protection of this governing structure to the 4-6 state leaders we directly elect, and who report directly to us. Delegation is a critical skill for the success of any organization. Successful delegation in our governing structure requires that We KNOW the 3 Ps of delegation, in order to KNOW we can rely on our state leaders to restore and defend the constitutional order in America that secures our rights.
Finally, we need to KNOW how to leverage our voice through organizations like COS. When we can leverage our voice, we speak on behalf of dozens in a club, hundreds in a group, or even thousands in a city or tens of thousands in a county. As we learn how to leverage our voice, eventually we can speak with the voice of the millions of people in our entire State to restore constitutional order in America … before it’s too late.
The Framers expected We the People would always act like the “boss” of our American governing enterprise. They engineered the structure of American government precisely so that We the People always remained “in charge around here.” If you knew by learning the basics of our governing structure and acting like the “boss,” together we really can solve the problems facing our country by spending just five minutes a week, would you do it?
If you said “YES!,” in the articles that follow, we are going to learn about each of these areas we need to KNOW to once again act like the boss – the sovereign – of our American governing enterprise. I’ll make you this promise: if you will study this Just Say KNOW articles series, and commit to spend at least 5 minutes a week acting like the “boss” (The fine print: We don’t ever take another week off…!), together We the People will restore and preserve an even more perfect Union for ourselves and our posterity, for the next 250 years!
In the late 1980s, the United States faced a nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union. In these serious circumstances, President Reagan counseled:
“This is a wonderful time to be alive. We’re lucky not to live in pale and timid times. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something – for liberty, and freedom, and fairness; and these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to. So let us go forth with good cheer and stout hearts, happy warriors out to seize back a country and a world to freedom!”
The problems facing our nation are widespread, they are serious, and they are urgent! Our children, our grandchildren, and our nation depend on YOU, Happy Warriors to act like the “boss” and Just Say KNOW!
Ken Ivory
Utah State Representative; Ambassador, Patriot Academy; Attorney; and Author of “Where’s the Line? How States Protect the Constitution.”
