A Constitution For The People

From: Bob Menard >Date: Monday, December 10, 2007, 8:14 PM
I respectfully point out that to put to the vote of the people anything less than the final document, as drafted by the Constitution Committee, would be to trivialize the many hundreds of hours of effort and sacrifice of the tribal members that worked on this project, as well as to subvert the original intent of the Board of Directors, who incidentally, all voted to undertake the project, recognizing that our present constitution was no longer a viable document. Sending the proposed constitution to the people piecemeal would be the ultimate recipe for Machiavellian politics. It would empower those demagogues currently stirring up all the fuss in our Tribe to craft a government that purely suits their purpose.
I recognize that the Board of Directors has a legislative right to make the decision as to whether the proposed document will go to a vote of the people. However, I sincerely believe that they have a moral and ethical responsibility to see that the people get the opportunity to exercise their right to vote, not on a watered down version of the document, but on the final draft, in its entirety, as presented by the Constitution Committee. After all, it is a document of the people, for the people and should be by the people, not the product of a self serving few.