GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Aug. 12, 2003--  Creating a democratic constitution in Iraq may be like performing heart surgery on the Beast of Terror--the chambers may be so clogged with Terrorism it may be impossible to unclog the crusty, Terror-calcified arteries

     A 25-man constitutional team has been appointed to draft the Iraqi Constitution.  This isn't the first time Iraq has put pen to paper to strike legitimacy into the anvil of political democracy for a nation of 23 million people about the size of the state of California.
     The first was formed in 1924 when the nation was carved out of the sand by the British Empire, then again in 1958 and 1964.  The last time insured Saddam Hussein's despotic rule.

     Optimism rules this time, however.   "We have no experience in this, governing a democracy," said Naseer K. Chadirji, a member of the Governing Council. At 70, Mr. Chadirji said, he had voted in an election only once, in 1954.  "It's a little like raising a child," he said. "But we can do it."
      Chadirji's comment, reported in the New York Times today, hits the mark as far as I'm concerned.
      A true Constitution for Iraq should be designed not for the adults, but for the Children, and not just the current Children, but the Children's Children's Children, and their Children's Children's Children.
      A couple of hundred years ago, America struck such a bargain with its progeny.   It drafted a document--which took a decade to complete--that offered future generations rights the world had never known before.
      The instrument was flexible, and today it is being bent and shaped to fit the needs of an evolving society, yet its fundamentals remain solid.  Equal rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and, as California's recall election illustrates, the right to remove a leader who isn't ruling in accordance with the wishes of the people, replaces the more violent solutions of the coup de etat or assassination.
       I was taken by the words of Chadirji--"It's a little like raising as child."
       Nothing is more important in shaping a nation's future than in doing it for the future generations.
       Decisions about the rights of the people must be focused not on those 23 million who now occupy the land of Iraq, but on the countless millions who will inherit the land, those who are yet unborn.

       During the American Constitutional Convention period, drafts of the Constitution were nailed to trees and posted in villages for the people to examine and comment upon.  Then, their Voices were ingrained into the final drafts so the document became the reflection not of just a group of men, but of mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, grandparents, cousins, nephews, nieces.
        I am a firm believer that there should be a Constitution of Vigilance, a document that serves to battle the Triad of Terrorism--the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that conspires to create the venom of the Beast of Terror.
        Woven into the document should be the forces of Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for future generations.   The American Constitution is a superb model for such a Document of Vigilance.  It contains the power to provide every individual equal rights under the law, and even though the struggle for this equality has been a legacy of conflict over the past two centuries, it proves itself daily as groups of people from different economic, social, political, ethnic, sexual and religious factions continue to rise above the forces trying to suppress them.
         The other great tribute to future generations in our Constitution is the right to free speech.   People with diverse opinions can express them and protest what they consider to be injustices without fear of being shot or having their heads lopped off.

      Even when government tries to strangle the rights of the citizens, the citizens revolt not with guns and knives and bombs, but with their right to vote.  Again, California's current effort to recall Governor Gray Davis and replace him with another is an ultimate tribute to the democratic right to change wrongs the right way--through the people's Voices rather than with suicide bombers, torture or armed revolution.
        But democracy is not new.

       Thousands of years ago the Greeks set into motion the template of democracy.   They understood the importance of a "citizen's right" to have leaders who represented not just their views, but the views of their family and their children.
        The average citizen is not concerned with political intrigues and how to manipulate laws to their favor.   The average citizen is concerned with a system that will benefit their family, offer their children the greatest roadways to success, that will open lids suppressing the rights of their offspring to achieve.
         Hopefully, the Iraqi Constitutional Convention will not draft a document that denies the rights of the Children's Children's Children.   If they do the job properly, it will take a long time.   Every draft should be posted in each village and town.  Citizens need to become part of the process, making their comments, proposing suggestions, arguing and, if necessary, protesting.

        Currently the 25-member team putting the Constitution together is comprised of all men.   That is a huge error in judgment unless whatever is drafted is given to the public in toto for inspection, comment and critique.   
         I would opt for a combination of Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents and Loved Ones of Vigilance being on the Constitutional Committee.   Every decision regarding the Constitution should be put up against a test:  "Does this Article benefit all the Children's Children's Children?  If so, why?"
         The American Constitution providentially met this criterion.   Its framers, taking a decade to draft and redraft the document before its ratification, ended up with an instrument that provides rigidity for rights, but flexibility to express them universally among all.
         It would be a shame if the Iraqi Constitution was rushed to completion in an attempt to dot "i's" and cross "t's."
         I hope the Iraqi Constitutional Convention, before each session, takes the Pledge of Vigilance.  If they do, then their pens will seek the benefits for the future, rather than trying to quell the thirst of the present.
        One can be sure the Beast of Terror will be watching closely.   He or she will be hoping the Constitution will not cut deep into the heart.  For if it produces the true freedoms and equality for the Children and their Children's Children's, the Beast will not favor the new heart he is being given.  
        He could turn soft, and that would not be good for a Beast of Terror.

Aug 11--Rewriting The Seven Deadly Sins of Terrorism

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