Title: Write a Letter to the Editor
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Attached File: Letter_to_the_Editor.pdf
There are a number of volunteer activities that can contribute to our mission as a passed state to “Build an engaged army of self-governing grassroots activists”.\r\r
This document will help you to know how to conduct one of those activities namely “Composing and sending a ‘Letter to the Editor’ opinion piece to keep the Convention of States Action missions in the forefront of peoples thoughts”.\r
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In this current age where printed media seems to be a dying art there are still many newspapers and other digital media outlets that people depend on for local information. A considered opinion or fact piece that is published in the editorial section of a local paper or an online news outlet has the legs to light a conversation amongst the readers of that publication. With this in mind be aware of what and who you are representing and compose your ‘letter’ to address the desired audience. Sometimes you may be writing to reinforce an idea or action that is being acted on in the State Legislature, or you may be writing to introduce the Convention of States Action Arizona to a group who is unaware of us, and our goals. \r
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This document provides you a set of tools to assist you in becoming an integral part in moving the Convention of States Arizona forward in these times of necessity. The tools and their use is: A partial list of printed newspapers in Arizona, to give you a starting point, an extensive set of ‘letter to the editor’ for you to use as guides or ‘cut and paste’ when appropriate, and directions to Convention of States web site for guidance and resources in composing subjects for publication
Created: 2020-03-21 00:37:04
Updated: 2021-03-20 23:00:00
Published: 2020-03-23 01:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T19:59:37.844115318
Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
Fellow Patriot,
You have chosen to volunteer in a cause to restore our Federal government to what the framers
of our Constitution intended using Article V of that constitution, a protection provided by the
framers to check a government that has moved beyond its limited and enumerated powers. You
can play a most important part in this effort as a volunteer to help us get the job done.
There are a number of volunteer activities that can contribute to our mission as a passed state to
“Build an engaged army of self-governing grassroots activists”.
This document will help you to know how to conduct one of those activities namely
“Composing and sending a ‘Letter to the Editor’ opinion piece to keep the Convention of
States Action missions in the forefront of peoples thoughts”.
In this current age where printed media seems to be a dying art there are still many newspapers
and other digital media outlets that people depend on for local information. A considered opinion
or fact piece that is published in the editorial section of a local paper or an online news outlet has
the legs to light a conversation amongst the readers of that publication. With this in mind be
aware of what and who you are representing and compose your ‘letter’ to address the desired
audience. Sometimes you may be writing to reinforce an idea or action that is being acted on in
the State Legislature, or you may be writing to introduce the Convention of States Action
Arizona to a group who is unaware of us, and our goals.
This document provides you a set of tools to assist you in becoming an integral part in moving
the Convention of States Arizona forward in these times of necessity. The tools and their use is:
A partial list of printed newspapers in Arizona, to give you a starting point, an extensive set of
‘letter to the editor’ for you to use as guides or ‘cut and paste’ when appropriate, and directions
to Convention of States web site for guidance and resources in composing subjects for
publication.
List of newspapers in Arizona.
This list, included in the appendix, is partial and is only a gateway into the many public venues
available to a person who wants to enlighten and engage fellow citizens. Do not let this be your
complete resource list, You should also consider and search for publications that are local and
present other points of view, for example consider Arizona New Times, this is a great place to
introduce a view of independent self-governance to an opposed audience and perhaps present a
view on current legislation that would recruit new followers to join us. There are also many
Planned communities with an active HOA, that publishes a periodical for information to the
members. This would be a great resource to initiate a “Meet and Greet” for interested members .
You are only limited by your imagination.
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
Letter to the Editor examples
The appendix of this manual has several “boiler plate” examples of letters to the editor that you
are free to cut and paste from or use in their entirety. Be sure to proofread before using any of
these examples as they may contain references to territories or legislative actions that are not
relevant to our current situation. In all instances, be aware that the Convention of States Action
Arizona does not support candidates for office nor do we endorse or support political parties.
You can get information on current Legislative action to use as subject material from our
Legislative Liaison person or by looking online at azleg.gov
Convention of States website
A complete list of resources, and recommended guidelines are available from the Convention of \\
States website. (the volunteers will not necessarily know who fills these roles) This site has a
wealth of information to help you become better informed about our mission and goals. There is
also a Convention of States University that has courses to help you understand the methods and
requirements of good citizen participation in our work.
Once you have written a letter to the publication you should follow up by letting your District
Captain (if you know who it is) know that you have acted on this by sending them a copy of your
text and a submittal date along with the name of the publication you have written to. This will
help us coordinate any further efforts that should be implemented and we would all know when
to watch for and read your letter.
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
Partial list of publishers in Arizona
Writing a Letter-to-the-Editor in Arizona
In order to send a letter-to-the-editor to newspapers in Arizona, please go to
Lake Havasu City Today's News-Herald
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
Example #1
Dear Editor, The federal government has grown too large; they have flooded local governments
with regulations and mandates. They’ve left us and our posterity with a crippling federal debt.
With all this overregulation we’ve given up our choices– we’ve give up our liberty! Let’s stand
up and say, “We’ve had enough!” The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution states, “The
powers not delegated to the United States by Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Federal funding and most court
interpretations of the Tenth Amendment have served to keep state power in check. If thirty-four
(34) states call for a Convention of States, as outlined in Article V of the Constitution, the states
can propose amendments to the Constitution. Think of the possibilities which will never take
place today in Washington, DC. 1) State and federal powers could be more clearly enumerated.
2) Term limits could be set for Congress. 3) A balanced budget amendment could be proposed.
Any proposed amendment would require the approval of three-quarters of the states. The
Convention of States is the final safeguard left to us by our Founding Fathers who knew that one
day we may need to impose fiscal restraints or limit the powers of the federal government. Use
it … or lose it! Will we continue to lose more liberty? Check out ConventionOfStates.com.
Example #2
Dear Editor, It is time to rein in the federal government. We need fiscal restraints to deal with
the exploding national debt of more than $20 trillion. The federal government needs to balance
their budget like families across this nation. We also need to rebalance the power between states
and the federal government. Washington, DC is a bureaucratic maze. In addition to
Congressional legislation we have federal agencies publishing so many regulations that it’s like
having another branch of the government. All of this is imposed upon the states and WE the
people. Although we have some well-meaning representatives in Washington, they have to deal
with the federal leviathan, the partisan politics and a system where seniority shows favoritism.
Imposing term limits on the servants who come to Washington and never seem to leave may be
the only way to deal with this broken system. How do we do it? Fortunately for us the Founding
Fathers anticipated a day when citizens would need to address issues like this. Article V of the
US Constitution allows states to call for a Convention of States where amendments can be
proposed. It takes thirty-four states to call the convention and thirty-eight states to approve an
amendment to the Constitution.
Example #3
Today we have a federal government that continues to over step its bounds. We can’t vote our
way out of the mess Washington D.C. has made. We have a runaway bureaucracy, bloated
government, massive deficits and well over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. When the
framers wrote the U.S. Constitution in 1787, they knew the people would need to be involved if
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
this republic were to last. The framers knew it was natural for a government to grow and become
oppressive. So, a few days before the Constitution was finalized, the delegates unanimously
decided to put a tool in place to bring the government back under control of the states. That tool
is the amendment process detailed in Article V. The first method is congress and the second
method is our states. Since congress won’t correct itself by bringing the federal government
under control, it is time we used the second part of Article V to make the corrections needed. Go
to ConventionOfStates.com and learn about the solution as big as the problem: an Article V
Convention of States. It’s time to restore these great United States of America to what our
founders intended them to be.
Example #4
Article V of the Constitution has been described as a safety valve put in place by our Founding
Fathers. They wisely anticipated that a day would come when the federal government would
become too dominant and usurp power that belongs to the states. Article V is the mechanism
built into the Constitution to allow the people to take back their power and their rights. We the
people can rein in an out of control government. Check out ConventionOfStates.com and read
about the Article V Convention of States project. It’s “a solution as big as the problem”.
Example #5
It really doesn’t matter who is in the White House or which party controls Congress; it is the
tendency of each of the three branches of the federal government to take more and more
authority upon itself and exert more and more control over the states and their citizens. The
founders of our republic realized that and wrote the Constitution so as to limit the powers “we
the people” thereby grant to the federal government, to set up checks and balances between the
legislative, executive, and judicial branches and to reserve all other powers to the people. A key
element of the Constitution is Article V, which provides that a Convention of States be held upon
application of at least two-thirds of the states, to propose amendments to the Constitution. Such
amendments then become law if ratified by at least three-fourths of the states. The federal
government has grown ever larger and more powerful over the years, and it has long been
evident that there is a need to amend the Constitution to limit the federal government, restore
checks and balances and return usurped powers to the states.
Example #6
“Laws With Loopholes”
One doesn’t have to look far beyond today’s headlines to find evidence that the federal
government has successfully inserted itself into virtually every crack and crevice of our daily
lives. Many of us who are self-proclaimed “constitutionalists” call out our elected officials,
admonishing them for not adhering to the limitations of the Tenth Amendment, wherein the
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
Volunteer Activity Plan
powers not specifically delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution are reserved to
the States.
So, after how many years of “admonishment,” how’s that worked out? Simply pointing to
existing law and demanding compliance is not enough. The Supreme Court looks at existing law
and exploits it every day, finding loopholes in the beautiful but often vague and ambiguous
language of the Constitution, creating more power and broader authority for the Federal
government, power that the Founders never envisioned nor intended, allowing interference in
public education, land use and building codes, water resources, energy production, medical and
health issues, lending practices, the possession and sale of firearms, and voting rights, just to
name a few.
Those loopholes can be closed, the language can be clarified, and the original intent of the
Framers of that great document can be restored. Can be, but never will… at least not by
Congress.
It can be done, however, according to Article V of the Constitution, by the people in the states,
with full transparency in the free marketplace of ideas… an Article V Convention of States led
by our locally-elected state legislators, the government closest to “We, the People.”
Take action today! Join the movement at ConventionOfStates.com.
Example #7
“A Simple Test”
Over 2¼ centuries ago, the Founders of this nation created a new form of governance and
enshrined its tenets in our Constitution. That document not only set forth the individual rights of
each citizen, but it also established the federal government and charged it with defending and
protecting those rights.
There are those today who would accuse our federal government of overreaching its authority,
who say that it’s out of control, who complain that Washington, D.C., is no longer responsive to
the wants and needs of the states.
Well, here’s a quick test for the accuracy of those charges – ask yourself if the majority of the
most recent actions of the federal government have been, as required by the Constitution, to
defend and protect the rights of its citizens, or have the majority of its actions been to limit them,
to diminish them, to reduce or abridge them?
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If your honest answer is the same as mine, then you’ll be relieved to know that the Founders of
this great nation predicted that this day would come, that in its drive to amass centralized power,
the federal government would eventually place itself beyond the reach of the states.
Thankfully, they provided a remedy – Article V – to be used by the state legislatures to cure any
defects identified during the course of self-governance. Article V gives our state legislators the
power and the responsibility to remind the federal government that it is a creation of the states,
that its legitimacy emanates entirely from the states, and that its authority and its ultimate
existence is derived wholly from the consent of the governed.
Please take a moment, if you haven’t already, and inform yourself on this critical matter by
examining the information provided at the Convention of States Project website below, and join
the movement. Then pick up the phone or send off an eMail informing your state representative
that you support an Article V Convention of States, and that you encourage him or her to support
any legislation that helps keep Arizona on the growing list of states determined to reign in the
federal government.
ConventionOfStates.com
Example #8
SUBJECT: TERM LIMITS
“Remembering Patrick Henry”
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” That was Patrick Henry’s hope 2¼ centuries ago for our
new American form of representative democracy. Today, given what we’re seeing as
Washington’s priorities, many of us have sadly resigned ourselves to the belief that we will
probably see death before we see liberty.
If there’s one thing that the American citizenry needs to be reminded of, it’s that we, the People
in the states deliberately joined together to create the federal government in the first place.
Washington, D.C., did not exist until it was created by our Constitution.
The Founders expected us to be ever-vigilant, to ensure that, in exchange for its existence, our
federal government never strayed outside the enumerated powers enshrined in that Constitution.
To assist us in meeting that tremendous responsibility, they drafted Article V, empowering state
legislators to join together and instruct Congress to call a Convention of States to propose
amendments to the Constitution, if and when the need became obvious.
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One such amendment, if proposed at Convention and then later ratified by ¾ of the state
legislatures, could impose maximum term limits on all federal officials and forever change the
incessant insanity that is Washington, D.C., no matter which party is at the helm.
In their wisdom, the Founders wisely anticipated the day when the federal government would fail
or refuse to respond to the demands of the states. They left us Article V to repair the defects in
government perceived by We the Governed. They placed their trust in us… their confidence…
their faith. To do anything less is to dishonor their legacy.
Inform yourself at ConventionOfStates.com and join the movement. Then call your elected state
representatives and urge their support for an Article V Convention of States.
Example #9
“Yes, We Can!”
In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that the voters of a sovereign state don't have the right to
legislatively impose term limits on their own locally-elected federal delegation. The ruling stated
specifically that if the states want to establish term limits on Congress, then they “must come
through a constitutional amendment properly passed under the procedures set forth in Article V.”
The prospect of seeing an amendment to the Constitution that would impose term limits on all
federal officials, including the judiciary, is the primary reason that I support the Convention of
States Project.
Resolving that one issue, I believe, would go a very long way toward eliminating many of the
most pressing issues that we face. Washington, DC, without a doubt, has become the most
powerful, some would say corrupt, city in the world, and no one who enters its enormous sphere
of influence can help but be changed by it… and usually not for the better.
We keep sending good people to Washington, only to see them disappear into the meat-grinder
that is Congress, and come out the other side just so much baloney! If there were Term Limits
and the candidate knew going in that their term was limited by constitutional edict, I firmly
believe that they would think twice before casting a vote on legislation that could have a severe
impact on the very communities to which they themselves will eventually return… to live among
the rest of us, to work at a job like a normal person again, outside of the Beltway Bubble, forced
to bear the burden of whatever laws Congress might pass with little or no concern for the
unintended consequences they have on the daily lives of real people throughout this country.
And for those who fear that removing the “perks” of congressional service will cause a brain
drain such that no one of any consequence will want to run for office, I would submit that if the
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folks up there running things right now are the best and the brightest that money, power and
prestige can buy, then I think it's time to give some of us poor, stupid people a chance… we
couldn't possibly screw it up any worse!
Our best and last chance may just be an Article V Convention of States. It's finally come to the
point where it really doesn't matter who we elect anymore, because sooner or later, once they
become a member of an elite class who literally exist above the very laws that they impose upon
the rest of us, coupled with the realization that they can stay there forever if they just play by the
rules, there's no longer any incentive for them to exercise any discretion whatsoever. We need to
change those rules, because eventually, there's not a dime's worth of difference between any of
them, and frankly… I'm running out of dimes.
Join the movement! ConventionOfStates.com
Example #10
SUBJECT: GENERIC
“Convention of States Project Update”
Fifteen states have thus far approved and filed applications with the US Congress for a
Convention of States to be called for the purpose of proposing amendments to the US
Constitution.
Once 34 states send their applications to congress, a convention MUST be called.
These applications are authorized under Article V of the US Constitution. As defined in plain
language, it is a grass-roots, state-driven effort independent of congress, with the sole purpose of
gathering delegates from all the states to debate, define and propose amendments to the US
Constitution, amendments which then would be taken back to all the states for ratification.
Once ratified by 38 states, and without any congressional discretion, these amendments become
the Law of the Land, or in the words of Article V, “valid to all intents and purposes, also as part
of this Constitution.”
Just to be clear, this is not a “Constitutional Convention,” which would be an extra-judicial free-
for-all favored by those wishing to scrap our current form of government entirely and establish a
new one. To the contrary, a Convention of States is for those who want to defend and preserve
our current Constitution.
A Convention of States is a very well-defined, carefully regulated, public process wherein the
people of each state, through their self-appointed delegates, propose to those in the other states
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Composing and sending ‘Letter to the Editor’
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ideas that are limited exclusively to imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government;
reducing the size, scope and jurisdiction of the federal government; and establishing mandatory
term limits for its officials. These are ideas that currently enjoy broad support by Americans of
both major political parties, both genders, all age groups, and people from all across the
economic spectrum, ideas that congress simply refuses to address on its own.
Fortunately, the Founders wrote into the Constitution a little-known but very powerful method
whereby We the People can propose our ideas for consideration by all, should there ever come a
time when Washington would fail in its duty to govern responsibly. That time has come.
If you haven’t gotten involved in this yet, here’s a web site that will provide you with everything
you need to know about what has already attracted over four million supporters to the most
important political movement in modern history.
Join the movement at ConventionOfStates.com
Example #11
“History Re-written”
More than 230 years ago, a handful of brave men and women – merchants, soldiers, educators,
farmers, clerics, physicians and lawyers – all met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Combining their
past struggles against a tyrannical monarchy with their brilliant theories of a new, democratic
form of government, what they called a representative republic, they produced and signed the
document known today as the Constitution of the United States.
About ___(Fill in the blank)___ ago, I attended a meeting here in ________. It, too, held a
diverse crowd – small business owners, veterans, teachers, ranchers and retirees – all assembled
to hear a presentation devised around one paragraph, just 143 words, written by those early
Framers – Article V, where the states are given the same power and authority as the Congress to
propose amendments to the Constitution.
I learned that state legislators, without interference from the US Congress, can invoke Article V
and instruct Congress to call a Convention of States limited to proposing amendments to the
Constitution that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government; that limit the size, scope and
jurisdiction of the federal government; and that limit the terms of office for its officials,
including Congress and the Judiciary.
I further discovered that Arizona, along with 14 other states (as of March 2020), has taken a
brave step toward the nation’s future, hopefully one of rational restraint and constitutional
decorum, by sending just such an application to Congress.
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I am encouraged now to know that the voice of the people can make a difference… the voice of
an informed people, of a passionate people, of constituents and voters determined to hold their
elected officials to a higher standard – to demand that they put what’s best for our state and for
the nation ahead of what’s best for their life-long political careers.
As attendees of this community meeting, we were all encouraged to educate ourselves on this
issue that’s as old as the very nation that it helped to define, and to inform others of its little-
known existence. And finally, we were encouraged to join this nationwide movement, now over
four million-strong, and to contact our state legislators and encourage them to do the same.
We’ve all known for quite some time what the problems are… now we know the solution.
ConventionOfStates.com
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