Using a formula employed by Bernard Chumm, who's just gotten back from a week mushing dogs in Alaska:
      Resolved: We can't re-win the government and rescue the Constitution by merely learning more.     
                        We can't re-win the government and rescue the Constitution by listening to talk radio.
                        We can't re-win the government and rescue the Constitution by clinging bitterly to our guns, Bible and Constitution.
                        We can't re-win the government and rescue the Constitution simply by voting.
                        We have to do more...
                         ...and that requires some more of our time.

       This is a dilemma Moses Sands and I discussed at length years ago, as we wrestled over his book. I argued that he wanted to write a book that the intended audience would never read. He argued, "Yes, they will...once they understand the stakes. I'm sure you'll grab 'em early with that...just like a good mystery. Hook 'em in Chapter One." (That was my job.)
       I reclama'd that even if they knew everything that had to be done, and really understood the blueprint of their House, and what had to be done to protect it, and throw out all the trash that had sneaked in, and then pass it on to the next generation...once they came to that spot where they had to turn off the football game, or give up a movie, they'd put it off. The popular culture owns them, I argued. There's too much involved in their lives just keeping up with the Desperate Housewives while trying to raise a family. Husband and wife are both working jobs just to keep 3 cars running, a TV in every room, the kids in useless pastimes (Moses never could understand the psychopathy of video games). Just in taking out the garbage or cutting the grass they think they've been cheated of precious time.
       "Oh, I see." Moses replied. "It's like the one-hour laundry service a fellow gets at church...if he still goes. Sings, prays, and listens to the preacher...if he ain't talking about tithing. Just being there, that one hour, is his tithe. Then he feels better when he leaves, maybe even pausing to reflect on a thing or two. But come Monday morning he's back to admiring that girl with the big knockers in customer service."
        Moses "put his whole mind to it" and came up with a formula as to how much time a man and woman had to dedicate to their House, depending on the current state of their House, of course. Recalling Fibber McGee, he said most people would argue that their House was in a lot better working order than it really is...thereby requiring less work to fix it. Again, it was my job, in Chapter One, to convince them it was worse than they thought.
       "Common sense," Moses started out, "tells a person that it requires less effort to prevent a thing from happening than it does fixing it, once broke." Preventive maintenance. "It says it's easier not to let uninvited guests in the door in the first place than it is to jerk 'em away from the dinner table and throw 'em out. And it's absolutely a lot easier to begin passing the blueprints of your House in easy doses onto your kids when they're about ten than it is to wait til they're sixteen and try to get them to swallow it in one gulp. Sixteen's a tough time for learning new things, especially if they are as dull as a blueprint."
 
        That was a few years back, and I still have the outline of that chapter...only it isn't quite on point with what we face now, inasmuch as Moses wanted to prevent from happening what has in fact already happened. But he was aware of the possibility. "You know, when the river's rising, and you've got no place else to go (VB: America doesn't), you don't just keep hoeing your garden. You stack sandbags, til your arms fall off, if need be. And you lay on extra provisions, and put 'em on the top floor or in the attic. And you prepare to defend your property against looters. You postpone all other forms of recreation to do these things.
         "But most of all, you make common cause with your neighbors. Only that may not be the easiest of undertakings, as you've probably hacked off a couple of them. And even if you are all on the same page, likely you'd all be elbowing each other to see who gets to be leader. You can take the boy off the playground...
         "I'm not saying you have to put on a coat and tie, mind you, but you do have to go to meetings. Maybe not at the county building ...more like a basement. Just three or four of you. But eventually you'll find others are doing the same thing and before you know it, you won't be able to fit them all into a football stadium. That's what "trickle up" democracy was always all about.
         "I was reading about John Adams and he reminded me that you have to look for leadership, and wisdom, but not only in yourself, but in others. Adams was the cement, even among men he really didn't like very much. He was wise, not smart, to play that role.
         "Those were extraordinary men on several levels, I'm sure, but not on that one point of teamwork. A common purpose always brings forward common sense, which is open to even the most ordinary of people to use. Military types call it "mission". Mission first, always mission first.
         "And once you set out to do a thing, you never, never, never quit."

Next Time: The Constitutional Tithe: Resistance and Wrecking