{"id":1267,"date":"2016-09-23T08:16:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T14:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2016-09-23T08:16:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T14:16:49","slug":"why-i-forgot-to-introduce-myself-at-the-simulated-convention-of-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/09\/why-i-forgot-to-introduce-myself-at-the-simulated-convention-of-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I forgot to introduce myself at the Simulated Convention of States"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 338px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/98846257\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 150.295858% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/98846257?et=rNOT1ffhQfFeZIQwxR9NGA&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=j3Ij5yD5wcODswBTUGAIewdIoCbWF98U9SoGOP7GWeQ=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"338\" height=\"508\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This is a big week for me and for America. \u00a0I\u2019m here at historic Simulated Convention of States in Colonial Williamsburg, where state legislators from all over the nation are debating possible amendments to the Constitution. \u00a0They\u2019ve been in committee meetings all day, discussing\u00a0various ways to restrain the federal government by using Article V.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve had the privilege\u00a0of speaking to this crowd on a couple of occasions \u2014 and my speeches have been warmly received.\u00a0(Here\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2016\/09\/day-1-whats-going-on-in-colonial-williamsburg-at-the-simulated-convention-of-states\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">my first one<\/a>\u00a0in case you missed it).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat talk,\u201d I\u2019ve heard repeatedly. \u00a0But just as frequently,\u00a0it\u2019s been followed by, \u201cNow, <em>who<\/em> are you exactly?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yep. \u00a0In all of my excitement,\u00a0I\u2019ve forgotten to introduce myself.<\/p>\n<p>Which, now that I think about it, is pretty apt.<\/p>\n<p>The Convention of States\u00a0movement is not about \u201cimportant people doing important things.\u201d \u00a0In fact, neither is this nation.<\/p>\n<p>George Washington famously settled on \u201cPresident\u201d as the modest reflection of his position \u2014 not as royalty, but as one who presides in an office during a set amount of time. He considered himself a steward of the office, not as some sort of messianic political leader. \u00a0In America, our \u201cpolitical leaders\u201d serve at the discretion of the sovereign citizens; \u201cwe the people\u201d are the ones who make the decisions.<\/p>\n<p>This is\u00a0easy to forget.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, our politicians have strayed from that Washingtonian humility. These days,\u00a0our politicians have become larger-than-life, power-hungry bureaucrats; they roll around with an air of superiority; they ignore the will of the people. \u00a0The President makes executive orders so frequently\u00a0that you wonder if he realizes why\u00a0Washington chose \u201cPresident\u201d instead of\u00a0\u201cKing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cool thing about the Convention of States \u2014 the beauty of it, really \u2014 is that it empowers \u201cwe the people\u201d to take back our\u00a0rightful power. \u00a0That\u2019s why I\u2019m sort of glad I forgot to introduce myself when I got onstage. \u00a0I might have told you my name, the fact that I\u2019ve been a grassroots activist for several years in the tea party, that I\u2019m an attorney,\u00a0or that I\u2019m a Constitutional activist.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not the main reason why I am\u00a0participating in this\u00a0simulated convention.<\/p>\n<p>We can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cosaction.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">call a Convention of States<\/a> to return the country to its original vision of a limited federal government that is of, by and for the people.<\/p>\n<p>So, let me take a few steps back and introduce myself.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m Mark Meckler, and I\u2019m a citizen of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Join me in taking this nation back from our power hungry \u201celites.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Great talk,&#8221; I&#8217;ve heard repeatedly.  But just as frequently, it&#8217;s been followed by, &#8220;Now, who are you exactly?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":1269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why I forgot to introduce myself at the Simulated Convention of States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Great talk,&quot; I&#039;ve heard repeatedly. 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