The forgotten tool of the Bill of Rights: the right to petition

Did you leave the voting box proud, excited to watch the Red Wave sweep the election map that night?

How did you feel in the hours and days that followed then, as reality dawned, bringing ever-disappointing business as usual in D.C.?

Voting cannot save us. If Americans are investing in real change in their country, their voices must be heard 365 days a year.

The secret to grasping the ear of our representatives is hidden in plain sight in the First Amendment: the art of petitioning.

Deeply embedded in the history of America is the “right of the people… to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The founding fathers prioritized protecting this right, so much so that the initial draft of the First Amendment only included the right to assembly and petition.

This protection was largely due to their own unaddressed grievances emphasized in the Declaration of Independence, “In every state of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.”

Petitioning has a rich history in the United States, both on individual and collective levels.

In 1836, the abolition movement made such waves in petitioning Congress that the proslavery representatives passed “gag rules”, removing the responsibility of reading or considering the thousands of signatures.

Petitioning also has the advantage of slicing across party lines.

The early years of the Women’s Suffrage movement relied heavily on bipartisan support in petition signing, uniting communities across the country.

Most petitions are doomed to die in obscurity.

This is what makes the Convention of States petition different from the countless others circling the nation.

With over 2.4 signatures, the American people have petitioned their state governments, with 19 states successfully calling for a Convention of States.

Whereas most petitions rely on the powers in D.C. to humor their petitions, an Article V Convention can propose amendments on the authority of states without the approval of the federal government.

So don’t waste the next two years thumbing through election guides. Use the gifts our founding fathers gave us, petition your state representatives today!