There was a time when a walk along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was as reverential as it was awe-inspiring for child and adult alike.
Respect and knowledge of the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution was built into basic civic education in the wealthiest of school districts and the humblest schoolhouses.
The history of this country was taught (warts and all) as the most unique experiment in government and nationhood on earth. Schools stressed the responsibilities of each sovereign citizen. The Founders and those who stood upon their shoulders were presented as worthy of admiration despite their flaws, inherent in all men.
Today, ignorant, self-proclaimed arbiters of morality attempt to overturn these fundamental teachings in favor of a perverted narrative that threatens the fabric of our republic.
As I walked along the length of the Mall in mid-June, I mused about how a "woke" individual, spoiled by prosperity and educated by those who demean our history, would regard the Mall and its monuments to liberty as symbols of oppression.
The Capitol's breathtaking dome atop the beautiful building on the Hill would be viewed not as a citadel of self-government, but a place of insurrection and white, right-wing terrorism. The barbed wire fencing that prevents citizens from looking up at the Rotunda and statuary that tells the tale of our country might seem a reasonable precaution rather than an insult to the foundations of our republic.
The Washington Monument might be seen as an outsized honorific to a slaveholding warmonger rather than an appropriately classic edifice dedicated to the most revered statesman and commander since Cincinnatus.
From there, look north to the Ellipse and beyond to the White House: there's no point in walking over there unless one wanted a photo with a backdrop of barriers and Secret Service Police, milling about and doing nothing.
The memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. might also be of interest, but the faithfully woke realize King's philosophy is far too 20th century to be worthy. The content of one's character is irrelevant. Those intending to install Critical Race Theory and Black Lives Matter in curricula have decided the color of one's skin is the content of one's character. White is wanting, no questions asked.
Let's head over to the Lincoln Memorial. How many of the indoctrinated would take the time to read the inscriptions on each side of the grand representation of our sixteenth president? On one flank, the immortal Gettysburg Address. On the other, the whole of Lincoln's second inaugural address, which is as succinct and emphatic a statement that American lives matter (all American lives) as has ever been composed.
One last stop to the Jefferson Memorial, honoring the slaveholding hypocrite who fathered at least one child with one of his slaves. Yeah, yeah, he largely penned the Declaration of Independence and all that other stuff, but he was a racist and that's all you need to know, no questions asked.
No doubt the woke individual would not bother to stroll a few steps further to visit the George Mason Memorial, dedicated to the Founder who ensured Article V as a part of the Constitution.
In accordance with the character of the man it honors, the memorial is humble. His likeness simply rests on a bench, a tri-cornered hat and walking stick at his side, a copy of Cicero's work De Officiis in his right hand.
But the inscriptions accompanying the statue are just as moving as those on any memorial; if only contemporary Americans could regard one of them and contemplate the worries of Mason and men like him:
"Regarding slavery...that slow poison, which is daily contaminating the minds and morals of our people. Every gentleman here is born a petty tyrant. Practiced in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity, and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own species in the most abject and contemptible degree below us, we lose that idea of the dignity of man, which the hand of nature had implanted in us...for great and useful purposes..."
And:
"All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights...among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."
The effort to activate an Article V Convention of States is not merely an effort to rein in the federal government and reestablish the sovereignty of the citizens–it is also an exercise in awakened appreciation for the founding of our republic, its principles and mechanisms.
It is an effort that reconnects citizens of every race, color, and creed to our glorious foundation, and reminds we citizens that the Constitution, the Mall, the Capitol, and the government itself is for us.
As the Constitution was designed to place checks upon an overweening centralized government, COS is part of the effort to check this shift that seeks to sully, misrepresent, and destroy the history of the United States and our invaluable inheritance, and to entrench politicians as forever rulers.
We owe it to those honored on the Mall to do what we can to utilize the Constitution against such offenses. Article V can go a long way toward bringing reverence back to Congress and the federal government, but even more importantly to the men who risked all to create and advance this great republic.
Matthew May is the State Content Writer for Convention of States Massachusetts.
