(Camp Constitution is happy to announce that we will be posting The Constitutional Minute by Mr. Bob Hilliard on a weekly basis)
Presently, the NFL makes the rules for professional football. They train and hire the referees to keep the players within those established rules and the rules are uniform throughout the country.
For example, every team must advance the ball ten yards to keep possession of the ball. That’s the rule. It’s not nine yards for one team and twelve yards for another.
This keeps the game consistent for everyone throughout the country…not only for the teams, but for the fans as well.
But…what if the NFL did not hire the referees? Instead, what if the fans voted to elect the referees?
Would you, as a voting fan, want (and need) to have a working knowledge of the rules so that you could make the most informed vote? And wouldn’t an informed vote mean better referees?
Of course it would!
The same principle holds true for the election of our government officials at all levels.
Think of the voters as those whose job it is to elect representatives to keep the government within the rules WE established.
The rules WE established for the federal government are in the US Constitution.
We are starting with a series of very short posts with the hope to stir the reader’s curiosity and an interest in acquiring a “working knowledge” of our Constitution.
Some say our Constitution is broken. Our Constitution isn’t broken! Our Constitution isn’t outdated. The problem is that WE – who Alexander Hamilton said are “the natural guardians” of the Constitution – didn’t bother to learn it. Since we didn’t bother to learn it, we elected representatives who also hadn’t bothered to learn it. And so everyone ignores it.
WE THE PEOPLE need “fixing”. Restoration of our religious and moral foundation and our Constitution is the answer to the healing of our Land.
Let the restoration begin with you.
Bobby Hilliard spent most of his life in the foodservice business. First, he worked with his father in the family restaurant. Later as a foodservice design consultant. Retirement was to be filled with days on the golf course, but it did not work out that way.
February 2009 began protests all over the country as a manifestation of discontent of We the People of too much government spending, bailouts signed by President George W. Bush, and the many other federal government programs that were considered to be beyond the federal government’s authority. There seemed to be no end to it.
In order to find out where we have gone wrong, Bobby started searching websites to find like-minded friends. One website in particular had a constitution study group, so he joined. It was eye-opening! It was not hard to realize that the federal legislators’ failure to adhere to the limits in the Constitution was the problem.
After years of study on strict construction of the Constitution under his mentor, he collated 70 of her papers into the book The Handbook for We the People. The book is intended to be used as a supplemental text at the 11th and 12th grade levels in private high schools. The long-term goal is to start filling the pipeline with constitutionally literate students, teachers, candidates, legislators, and voters.
Bobby graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches in 1971 with a BBA in Business and married his girlfriend, Marilyn the same year. He spent his college summers manning the family shrimp boats in Galveston Bay catching shrimp for the restaurant. At the same time, he took flying lessons, and obtained his Private Pilot Certificate. Later, he built and flew his own homebuilt aircraft. He is 75 years old and never too old to learn.