Title: Perspective is everything Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/perspective-is-everything|perspective-is-everything]] Login Required to view? No Created: 2021-02-10 20:01:05 Updated: 2021-02-18 03:00:00 Published: 2021-02-11 00:00:00 Converted: 2025-04-14T21:09:43.428792671 ---- > //The Three Stone Cutters//\\ > \\ > //A traveler came upon three individuals working with stone. Curious as to what these workers were doing, the traveler approached the first worker and asked, "What are you doing?"  Without the slightest hesitation, the worker replied gruffly, "What does it look like I am doing? I am a stone cutter and I am cutting stones."//\\ > \\ > //Still unclear of the workers' task, the traveler approached the second worker and asked the same question. To this the second worker thought for a moment, gazed briefly at the traveler and explained, "I am a stone cutter and I am cutting stones to earn money to support my family."//\\ > \\ > //Perplexed by the two different responses, the traveler approached the third worker and asked, "What are you doing?"// > > //The third worker stopped what he was doing, bringing his chisel to his side. Deep in thought, the worker slowly gazed toward the traveler and shared, "I am a stone cutter and I am building a cathedral to God, a cathedral that will be here for hundreds of years, my children and my children’s children will be able to look at it and know that I was part of it. It will be our legacy.// > > //~Author Unknown//\\ > \\ > Three men--all working at the same site, performing the same task--had three different perspectives of what they were doing.   **Perspective is everything**\\ \\ My husband and I travel through many states every year, and we always end our journey with a greater appreciation for our fellow Americans.\\ \\ What we see, feel, and hear is far different than what the media portrays.\\ \\ Where are the good-finders in the media? Why do they not come forth and tell America’s best stories?\\ \\ Why is it that they do not see what we see?\\ \\ How can they come to a completely opposite conclusion of their country and fellow citizens?\\ \\ It is their perspective. And changing perspective is an active decision they have to want to make.\\ \\ When faced with new information, people should feel the obligation to alter their given perspective on any given subject matter. But isn’t that when the ego gets in the way? Isn’t that where personal growth ends, when people double down instead of acknowledging the truth?\\ \\ The fact of the matter is that our perspective on life absolutely affects the people around us.\\ \\ We can easily identify the negative perspective held by those in Washington, and we can feel how it affects us. We see how they hold contempt for American citizens. They denigrate us more and more with each scheme and contrived plan to eliminate self-governance.\\ \\ We can also identify this negative perspective in those who oppose Article V and the Convention of States mission to restore our rightful place as the governors of our lives. We see how they mirror the contempt for their fellow citizens right to self-governance. We see how their ego gets in the way of learning historical facts. People with negative perspective on life often are addicted to the drama they create, and oddly the power they gain when playing victim to it.\\ \\ Regardless of their negative life perspective, the facts that they shun do not change. For instance: > "The United States conceived the convention to be proper, necessary, and expedient. They appointed one, twelve states concurring. Their deputies were actually assembled, and in deliberation. The step once taken, became the duty of every good man to give the attempt a fair chance. It was criminal to endeavor to raise prepossessions against it." -//Alexander Hamilton, 1787// It cannot escape an attentive observer that those who condemn the General Convention of 1787 now condemn the article provided for amending that convention’s creation. To underrate the importance of this observation would be a dangerous mistake.\\ \\ It is only a negative life perspective that can deduce such a conclusion that Article V should never be used by the state legislatures. It is quite a leap from reality to suppose that Article V--one of only seven articles in the Constitution--serves no purpose in the system of checks and balances. The Constitution produced a system of government that requires all parts to function properly. It is rather insulting to hear opponents throw out one of seven parts of the system, all the while complaining of the encroachments of the federal government. Perhaps their perspective of the federal government is more favorable than that of their fellow citizens.  \\ \\ We all know that the federal government will never yield up any portion of the authority of which they now possess due to the dereliction of duty by the state legislatures in holding them accountable.\\ \\ It is an extreme level of misjudgment on their part to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs and to expose the United States to the fall to despotism or a civil war.\\ \\ We were taught that we may safely rely on the character of the state legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority. But pray tell, have the legislators forgotten this? As for me and my perspective: I am stone cutter, and I am building a great cathedral for the entire world to see. #|PETITION_WIDGET{petition_tag:;coalition_id:;anedot_url:}|#