Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the people of the Ukraine are ripping mad, and they have every right to be. They have been deceived and stabbed in the back over and over. The riots that have been going on now for weeks in Kiev are the manifestation of that anger. Now cities around Ukraine are joining the protests. Like in the United States and the World over, politicians in the Ukraine believe they can run on a platform, then rule in direct opposition to that platform without consequence. In the US politicians get away with it, with the help of the unbiased media, but in Ukraine their feet are being held to the fire. A real fire as it turns out. The Ukrainian government has offered several concessions to the protesters but they are too little too late. Perhaps the riots won’t end, until either the government stomps them down like the Chinese communists did in Tienanmen Square, or the government falls, but there is a way to solve the problem in both the Ukraine and the World over.
People have a great ability to forgive. We understand that others are flawed human beings as are we. Upon a continued assault however, no person no matter their demeanor, will remain calm forever. Politicians in both the Ukraine and the US run as conservatives and libertarians but rule as tyrants and socialists. This enrages the people who voted for those corrupt politicians based, as it always turns out, on lies. No one can stand ceaseless irritations without eventually becoming irritated and that is where the Ukrainian people are. How long will it take for the American people to wake from our slumber?
One of the concessions offered by the Ukrainian president is the amending of their Constitution. What the unbiased media fail to report, or even understand, is that if a President can unilaterally amend the Constitution… there is no Constitution. The Protesters understand this basic fact of Constitutional rule, but the elite in the media and government don’t, (or don’t want to). A Constitution is supposed to be a document that limits the power of the elite over the people. If the elite can change it willy nilly, it does not limit their power, but give their reign a faux legitimacy. If the protesters allow the Constitution to be changed by the political elite, it will be changed back again the moment the exigency of the riots are over, giving the government unlimited power again.
History has not been kind the the people of the Ukraine. They have suffered under the Mongol hordes, they have faced wave after wave of Muslim invasions, they have suffered under the Tzar’s tyranny and oppression and have endured under Stalin and his artificial famine. The unfortunate people of the Ukraine have no history of freedom and liberty to fall back on. They have only famine, oppression, war and slaughter to remember. Now they have an opportunity to forge a different path, one free from oppression, and they are seizing it. I pray to God they can pull it off, their lot has been so bad for so long, if anyone deserves peace and prosperity, it is the people of the Ukraine.
Clearly what is needed in the Ukraine is laissez faire capitalism, a strongly limiting Constitution and a NUMA to enforce it. Otherwise the government will continue to run amok, progressing to socialism and tyranny, as they are in the US. Barring that, as soon as a new government comes into power, it will act the same as the old one. A NUMA would change the paradigm in Ukraine for the better by holding the political elite to the Constitution’s limits. This is something very few political leaders have been held to, since the dawn of time, anywhere. Power must be limited else it limits the people. We have seen this played out throughout time and the World over.
Only time will tell how the protests in Ukraine will turn out. The strong likely hood is that some new dictator will emerge, charismatic and ruthless. History is not on the side of the people. The normal state of humanity is under the thumb of a tyrant, it is the exception where and when a people escape from it and forge a new way. The US did for a while, but the current of politics always wears away the people’s resolve, eventually eroding the limits put on government by Constitutions. Only a Constitutionally empowered branch of government could ever hope to have the authority to contain the avarice of the political elite. Without a NUMA, Ukraine will fall back into oppression, as the US is progressing to.
Perhaps it is a pie in the sky dream that Ukrainians could have liberty but every man woman and child yearns to be free in his or her heart. Freedom has lifted millions of people from poverty while arbitrary rule has lowered billions to slavery. I am on the side of the protesters, I believe liberty is the only way to lift all boats, and liberty is the protester’s goal, but the protesters need to have a plan. To that end, a NUMA along with a strictly limiting Constitution, would do just that. Let’s pray it happens and that the political current doesn’t wash away the hopes and dreams of the Ukrainian people. God speed and God bless the Ukrainian people… and may God help us here in the US.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
