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Founded in 2005, Americans for Freedom and Equality is a
non-partisan organization
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Last updated: January 5th , 2008
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Americans for Freedom and Equality
(AFFAE)
- Vision: Facilitate discussions on the merits and dignity
inherent in America's founding sentiments of freedom and
equality.
- Mission: To draft a principled national constitutional
amendment that advances the concepts of freedom and equality for all
persons. We believe in achieving this goal by guiding an open and direct
democratic approach that encourages American individuals to participate in
the legislative process.
- Our suggested outline: An advisory committee consisting of five
members will be established to work on the final Freedom and Equality
amendment proposal. The committee is to discuss all suggestions obtained
from individuals through public meetings, question forms, mailings, etc.
All advisory committee votes (required simple majority) on the final
proposal sent to Congress are of equal weight, with no one member
possessing restrictive veto power.
- We believe our outlined process is in accord with Article V. of the
U.S. Constitution which does not contain language preventing "the people"
from proposing bills or amendments to Congress. It is our hope that once
work is completed on the draft amendment, (estimated to be a three to five
year period) a member(s) of the House or Senate will sponsor it. Once
presented to Congress, the amendment will go through the
standard procedures stated in Article V. Amending the U.S. Constitution
requires a two-third vote in both houses of Congress and a ratification by
state legislatures in three-fourths of the states.
- We are not opposed to our outlined process being replaced
with a full-fledged Constitutional Convention, (a second amendment method
prescribed in Article V.) The initiation of a Constitutional Convention
would require two-thirds vote of the legislatures of the states. This
method has never been used to amend our U.S. Constitution, however, if a
Convention is called, AFFAE strongly recommend that the American people
require:
1. The spirit and content of the Bill of Rights remain unchanged.
2. The concepts of liberty, equality and individual rights
embodied in our Constitution stay protected.
- Miscellaneous:
- Our work is geared toward domestic U.S. policy.
- AFFAE believe that great care should be taken to ensure that freedom
and equality are advanced through peaceful and responsible means.
- One of our long term goals is developing a museum in the United States
that details the evolving story of freedom and equality.
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