Celebrate Amendment 4 this July 4th

“Government has no right to make itself a party in any debate respecting the principles or modes of forming, or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established…

A constitution is the property of a nation (a people, or a state), and not of those who exercise the government….a constitution is a thing antecedent to the government, and always distinct therefrom.” (Thomas Paine, "Rights of Man")

On July 4th, we reflect on what fired great men to risk life, fortune, and sacred honor to gain. Paramount for them, and for us today, is that a people must own their government, and not be subject to a ruler’s (or ruling heirarchy’s) whims.

Thomas Jefferson felt the citizenry should periodically assess whether or not the American experiment still worked. To him, any steps taken by government to prevent people’s participation in it forsook the principles of a republic. As Thomas Paine points out in Rights of Man, “Res-Publica” refers to “the public good…not any particular form of government.” Its sole justifying premise is to serve the public interest.

Few ballot issues so directly track founding ideals as Amendment 4, which would grant voters final say over local land use changes. Though castigated by the “power elite” (which prefers a muzzled public), Amendment 4 epitomizes the spirit of ’76. When distress over faulty governance reaches fever pitch, as it has vis-à-vis excess development in Florida, the people act. And they are “Jeffersonian” when they do. Our state constitution provides for redress, via citizen amendment, against unresponsive elected officials.

“Government has no right to make itself a party in any debate respecting the principles or modes of forming, or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established…

Hometown Democracy would act as watchdog over local commissions, many of whose structures do not (in the first place) rightly separate powers, since the “executive” chairman/mayor sits also on the “legislative” council/commission, thus precluding impartial review.

The point of independence was to elevate all men onto a level playing field. The Founders knew their new set-up would be subject to abuse by representatives fixated solely on their own power, but they had no choice but to arrange America as federated states and hope the core values that most in 1776 held dear remained core and dear enough to their heirs to keep the states glued as one “country”. It worked, until the slavery issue tore our seams, demanding a better literal expression of the word “equal”.

Without a fresh America based on equal rights, even if in reality the ideal hadn’t been met yet, any unity would have devolved into state squabbles still refereed by a remote, despotic Crown. There would have been no reform.

Amendment 4, founded on the same grassroots premise our country was (that people by right own their government and that without this direct ownership it has no grounds to exist) arms voters to hew their elected to the straight and true, and to safeguard their communities from wholesale disfigurement by developers hi-jacking comprehensive plans meant to provide stability and predictability to land use for average citizens.

Amendment 4 is the sort of remedial revolt Jefferson cheered. He believed constitutions could and should be amended by whatever succeeding generations chafed under an established power structure that undermined their interests.

Critics seem to fault Amendment 4 for lacking proof that Utopia will result under it. This sets an impossible standard for any reform measure to meet. In 1776, Tory-leaning members at the Continental Congress likewise plugged the status quo.

A constitutional amendment needn’t vouchsafe snag-free Shangri-La, any more than a declaration of independence must, to be the right step to take. As Jefferson told the Marquis de Lafayette: “…we are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed.”

Jefferson, in his last extant letter, mused: “The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred…Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollection of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

A thing so indelibly tied to the general well-being as land usage should not be ordained by a “favored few.” Let’s toast July 4th for the spirit it embodies; and embrace Amendment 4 for the independence, civic participation and enhanced quality of life it can provide. This “people’s measure” is long due.

Rebecca Eagan, Winter Park

Statewide Amendment 4 coordinating committee