I urge Americans to instead progress forward now, toward the day when ALL human beings, all nations, all religions, all races and all cultures are respected equally, and enjoy truly equal rights under the laws of our lands and our world.

It is the choice of the people, and I hope the people choose wisely.

We do not have any of those rights now. Not really. In fact, our rights have been diminishing, and there is no politician in our country right now who will establish those rights. Even Barack Obama will not, because it would be impossible as long as we perpetuate the present partisan political-economic system. We would only continue to be either winners or losers in the insane competition for power and control, and the conflict and division would continue. Even worse, power could again be grabbed by the wrong people, and that would continue the corruption and unfairness.

In fact, Obama’s victory could turn out to be a hollow one, because even though he clearly won the election with the support of the clear majority who want him to make needed changes, the sore losers are so corrupt that they are resorting not merely to their divisive rhetoric, but also to outright lies, slander and deception to try to make Obama fail. It’s indicative of how broken and corrupt the partisan political system is. It demonstrates how the power of money talks the loudest through hateful and deceptive pawns who have been incited to fight even the half-hearted efforts to establish needed reforms and proper regulations.

That is very troubling, but it’s perhaps even more troubling that Obama seems to be unwilling to address his enemies frankly and strongly enough so that truth and justice will prevail over lies and unfairness. It also seems that his promise of greater transparency and accountability may be unfulfilled, and that he may be unable or unwilling to establish the kind of reforms and regulations that are really needed. Consequently, we are still being robbed, exploited, and cheated more than ever.

Therefore, I believe that to establish and secure our God-given universal rights, even while ensuring that government is secular with a wall of separation between religion and government, the people should adopt a revised and updated Declaration of Independence to re-state and expand our rights, and then demand a Constitutional Convention to adopt constitutional amendments that will ensure those rights.

For a long time most politicians have felt they would not profit from doing that, because they like the status quo whether they are Republicans or Democrats. And they apparently still feel that way, even though in certain instances the Constitution was virtually ignored by the Bush Regime, and even though political and corporate corruption has become rampant and very damaging to our national well being and our reputation in the world. No Republican or Democrat has even mentioned the need for amendments to the Constitution to correct the situation.

But, many good politicians in the past have favored a Constitutional Convention, including such notables as Republican Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Even if Barack Obama is able to make significant improvements as president, as long as we perpetuate this system, another right-wing demagogue could rise to power waving the flag, thumping the bible, and rattling his sword.

Even as it is now, with Barack Obama as president, the U.S. Religious Military Industrial Complex continues to grow at an amazing pace.

In the private sector, huge industrial corporations are essentially indoctrinating people with propaganda, using the power of their money through television ads to create the impression that they are our beneficent friends and should be free to operate with business as usual. But, unfortunately, as has been proven time and time again, some of them are not our friends. Some of them merely want to continue raking in incredibly huge profits at our expense. Certain oil companies, military contractors, banks, predatory lending companies, other financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, health insurance companies, other insurance companies, credit card companies, coal companies, utility companies, forest products companies, and many others put profit above ethics, above the public good, above the environment, and above all else. And that's because over a long period of time, especially during the last thirty years, the corporate culture has become extremely corrupt while pretending to be good and beneficent.

In the public sector, with complicity by the Pentagon, much of the US. Military has been and even now is being taken over by proud, militant right-wing "Christian Evangelicals." They practically dominate the Air Force Academy, and cadets who do not fall into line with them are harassed. The military chaplain corps in all branches of the service are also being taken over by evangelical Christians for the purpose of proselytizing and recruiting converts, in spite of the fact that chaplains should respect and serve members of all religions. And the military is moving into our public schools. All across America the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are recruiting more than ever, and even opening new schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes. And, not surprisingly, they are targeting the poor and minority communities in the inner-cities, which have declining tax bases and growing unemployment.

There is even a "Super-Christian" group in America whose members call themselves "The Family." They regard themselves as an "invisible" association, although its leadership has always consisted mostly of powerful politicians and lawyers. In fact, among its membership there are a significant number of Republican U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives. Many members also belong to the right-wing Federalist Society, and many members are also involved with or identify with The Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which blatantly states its goal is U.S. Military-Industrial dominance of the world, also known as "globalism" (which is a euphemism for imperialism).

The Family organization has been around for quite awhile, and today there are many branches (or cliques) of younger members in the U.S. Military who simply call themselves "Believers" because they think the term Christian has become too broad and watered down, and in their minds they are the true "Army of God." For a long time many members have held regular prayer groups in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and they have strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries, and other corporate military contractors. They maintain a closely guarded database of the group’s associates, but there are no membership cards, no official dues, and its members are asked not to speak in public or to "outsiders" about the organization or its activities.

The organization has operated under many front organizations to keep "The Family" invisible so it won’t be under scrutiny and perhaps be "misunderstood." Among those front organizations have been many different committees, councils, fellowships, foundations, forums and societies, and each of them raises financial funds independently. The Family's only publicized gathering is the annual National Prayer Breakfast, which it established with congressional sponsorship, but its real purpose is to recruit wealthy, powerful people into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they more seriously proselytize and "assist people in establishing a personal relationship with Jesus."

Unfortunately, they do not realize they are an organized minority of idol worshipers whose idea of God is a wrathful Warlord who wields a "powerful, swift sword." They simply ignore the advice of God’s servant Jesus to judge not, to love even your enemy, to resist not evil but love good, and live not by the sword but by love and truth. And they ignore the Golden Rule of Jesus about how we should do unto others, which is the Universal Divine Imperative: Treat others as you would like to be treated if you were them. In other words, these "Christian" zealots are similar to the militant Jewish Zionists and Muslim Jihadists who also believe they are "doing God’s will" by waging "holy war."

Granted, The Family has done some good. Unfortunately, like most of the other leaders of the American "Christian Right," most of their words and activities have not been good for anyone but the wealthiest few Americans, their mega-corporations, and the U.S. Military Industrial Complex. They have fostered and financially supported relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most dictatorial, despotic leaders in Africa, Brazil, other Latin American countries like El Salvador and Honduras, and in Indonesia, especially during the Reagan Administration and the Bush Administrations.

To younger members of The Family today, Jesus is an idol to be worshiped and an ever-present Over-Lord for whom you must fight and even kill or die for in order to serve Him properly as a soldier in the Army of God. They shamelessly and proudly proclaim that their mission is to rule the world by force of arms if necessary, and they think the advice Jesus gave about not judging means that they can perform terrible acts and not judge each other, as long as they can rationalize that its for the glory of Jesus and greater Christendom. Like most militant religious zealots, they believe that the ends justifies the means. But they do not realize they actually serve what Jesus called Mammon and the "Beast of Babylon," not God.

Now, don’t get me wrong, because I love the core universal teachings of Jesus. However, like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and most other founding fathers, I came to understand I am a Deist who worships only the eternal God, the Great Spirit-Parent in heaven, and I understand the real message of God’s servant Jesus. And I am an American who loves his country. In fact, I am a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in the 1960s (in my early twenties) and put myself in harms way for my country when John F. Kennedy was president. Furthermore, I think it is a great testament to the advancement and goodness of the great majority of Americans that Michelle and Barack Obama are President and First Lady. After all, Barack is the son of a white English American woman and a black African American man, and a significant ancestor of Michelle’s was born of the union of an African-American slave girl and a white English American slave owner, consummated some two years before the Civil War. They are in the White House now because most Americans see past the color of skin to the content of a person’s character (which in their case is brilliant, reasonable and honorable), and that shows that most Americans have come a long way in certain respects.

Unfortunately, some Americans who feign the guise of religiosity and patriotism still cling to a Nineteenth Century world view. Therefore, I must be very frank and ask you to please remember that in Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the children and youth were indoctrinated in his concept of "Christian religion," and in the ways of the military. Most of the German people never questioned Hitler's youth movement as a vehicle for evil Nazi indoctrination in the 1930s. It all seemed fine to them at the time, and they in fact liked hearing that Germany was superior and good, and should be the dominant "Christian force for good" in the world.

Does that ring a bell? It does for me, because in my view a similar thing began happening in 1981 with the rise of the Reaganites, the Neo-Conservatives, The Family, and the Christian Right, and increased again during the eight years the Bush II Regime reigned. After all, Bush claimed he was "doing God s will" by living by the "sword" (gun and bomb), waging an ill-advised war, denying civil liberties and human rights, violating U.S. and International laws, and pursuing a military industrial agenda seeking world dominance with their planned Project for the New American Century (PNAC). And that agenda has apparently been adopted by President Obama, because now the U.S. Military has even run television advertisements billing it as "the global force for good."

There is no person so motivated as a zealot who has been led to believe that he must fight and even kill in the service to a person or cause devoted to "God’s Will." And as I said, the Americans who call themselves the "true Christians" or "Believers" are very similar to proud and militant zealots who call themselves Muslims or Jews, who also believe they must fight and win a "holy" war. Unfortunately, they are ALL wrong. There is no such thing as a holy war, and the "weapons" of God’s true servant are not carnal, or lethal. They are written words of truth.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m merely making the point that it is through religious and military indoctrination, with a doctrine of preeminence and superiority, that fascist states come into being and military empires are forged by the fire of war and force of arms. We must become aware of that, because the U.S. Religious-Military-Industrial Complex is militarizing the culture of our nation to prepare for endless war. And it would be endless if we continue this madness.

I tell you that lasting peace cannot and will not be "won" by waging war. It cannot be done, especially not today or in the future. We will have lasting peace when truth overcomes falsehood, when love overcomes hate, and when good overcomes evil that masquerades as good. We will have lasting peace by making peace by making amends and reconciling our differences.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are the rights to: life; liberty; equal rights; equal opportunity; justice; safety; universal health care; complete public education from universal preschool-child care to post-graduate school; fair and adequate compensation for your labor; adequate social security income (if and when needed, so that no one suffers from hunger, poverty, or homelessness); real freedom of religion (with respect for all religions to prevent religious bigotry, domination, theocracy and persecution); freedom from even the presidential form of monarchy; and real freedom in the pursuit of happiness.

Therefore, in the name and by the authority of the good people of this nation, it is now solemnly declared that:

1) As soon as possible and from thereon, we the people shall share the throne of a reformed government, as equal joint heirs;

2) We shall at long last live by secular government of the people, for the people, and by the people, with a wall of separation between government and religion, and with equality of all religions under the Spirit of Divinity by whatever name;

3) We shall no longer allow one individual person to play god or act as a king or queen or presidential head of state;

4) We shall no longer be divided by a competitive partisan rivalry for the throne;

5) We shall freely choose, nominate and elect, by secret write-in ballot, an executive council of six men and six women to serve and represent us in the executive branch of our government;

6) Political advocacy will be confined to brief, positive, free public service messages through the print and broadcast media;

7) There shall be no paid commercial political advertisements; and

8) The news media shall print and broadcast the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and lose the privilege to operate if it is proven that they knowingly violate the public trust.

It is also solemnly declared that the government thus produced shall have full power to levy taxes fairly and equitably, without any loopholes or shelters, and without any deductions for charitable contributions; provide for the common defense; keep the peace; contract alliances; regulate commerce and the economy to ensure equity, fairness and stability; provide for the health, education and welfare of all the people; use the common wealth to serve the common good; be good stewards of our environment; protect the environment, correct the mistakes and clean up the mess that greed, corruption and folly have created; and do all other acts and things which independent states have the right and the duty to do.

For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, We the People mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

As the ancient Greek democracy matured, the idea was that all citizens must be equal and have an equal voice, and there was recognition that in a true democracy the poor actually have more power than the rich, because there are more of them.