Daughter, Wife, Mother, Author, Founder.

I have been the first 4 of those and now I have been asked to take part in an evolution and possibly a revolution, that could, in a sense, make me a FOUNDER OF A NEW NATION.........

My beloved home state of CA, ever a world leader, is doing her best to be a leader, again.

We are leading the US, in updating the US Constitution. (We can do better, and therefore we must).

Our US Constitution is 230 years old!!

Think about that. I'll wait................

People don't live that long. Cars and houses don't last that long. And, when a building gets to be that old, we make it a national landmark!

Why then, has our Constitution gone 230 years, without an update?

(Our educational system is older and even more desperately in need of an update, but I'll get to that).

When the Constitution was written, guns fired ONE BALL AT A TIME. Another fun fact: Only land owners could vote. That left out women and Black people. Black men had fought in the Civil War, just like White men, and Women had nursed and doctored the wounded back to health, alongside the men, but we (Blacks and Women) still couldn't own land or vote. The same could be said of the Native peoples from whom we stole the land we settled on, when we first migrated here from Europe.

It is long past time to revamp and update the Constitution, such that ALL people are recognized and treated equally under the law. Our forefathers had the grace, wisdom and foresight to write this into the Constitution. It was Amendment 15:

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

It's telling that the word "Democracy" is not in our Constitution, and yet we pride ourselves on living a "democratic" life- style that affords all these rights, equally to people of all races, colors, religions, and genders, and yet many still fear (with good reason) for their lives when they go to exercise their voting and other rights.

Look at all the marked uptick in hate crimes, since the presidential election of 2016 and tell me this isn't true.

This violence, and indoctrination into religions that discourage questioning and encourage superiority complexes is what we have decided to teach our school children. Where we haven't made this decision consciously, we have made it by default.

We make this decision to teach fantasy to students, when we choose to teach Creationism as opposed to the science of the sameness of DNA; when we rewrite or deny history, and:

When we neglect to honor and preserve the different cultures that have gone into making America a powerful influence and inspiration to the rest of the world.

Sadly, we now prioritize the dollar over quality education by packing classrooms to capacity. For the sake of the stipend of each student in a class, teachers are overwhelmed, and administrators don't care. They don't care that this sense of over-whelm trickles down to the students, who pick up on the tension and then get loaded up with work that should have gotten done in the class. This ridiculous excess of tedium goes home with the students passing itself off as homework, and keeping children from fresh air and sunshine, a proper dinner, family time and sleep. Superintendents and principals don't know or care that the homework may actually be holding a gifted student back, and decimating their natural eagerness to learn.

Teachers know this and go unheard in matters concerning the mental health of their students and how best to teach their students to make them both happy and successful. Their jobs rely on the high test scores of their students, so instead of teaching life skills that will help their students to survive in the real world, teachers must teach material that can be graphed and graded on paper.

As a student I never tested well, and because I went to a small, private (and yes religious) school, my parents, teachers and I had a chance to learn what study methods worked for me. I was able to succeed in college, thanks to an educational system that still put students and education first. ............and eventually I outgrew the need to believe that there was an invisible father figure in the sky who's feelings would be hurt if I didn't sing the blessings over the wine, candles and challah, with the rest of the kids, every Friday afternoon.

For 46 years I believed that my country was progressing on a path of greater and greater freedom, fairness, justice and education. I believed it, because my teachers told me that things were getting better: Slavery had been banned; Women and Blacks could vote, and Native American Lands had been returned to the Native Americans and were sacrosanct.

That belief in my country was been damaged, (perhaps beyond repair) by the uptick in hate crimes, since the end of 2016, and by a seeming rejuvenation and tolerance of bigotry and bigoted acts and speech. An equal note of disrespect has entered politics, aimed both at fellow politicians and at constituents.

It is not only teachers who go unheard, but the American people. ........... People who need affordable health care, affordable housing, affordable food, free access to clean drinking water, affordable education for their children and reasonable pay for their work so that they can have food on the table when their children come home for dinner.

My People, our needs are no longer paramount! Your will is ignored by your elected representatives in Congress!

California is calling upon Congress and the United States to come to the table to discuss an initiative that will guarantee her people many of these things, because we have seen the US do better in the past so we know that:

The US CAN DO BETTER.

If the US refuses to do better by her people, then California and the other states of the union will know that we are truly on our own and we will each have a choice to make, concerning an autonomy that will allow us the freedom to do better by our own state's citizens,.............

BECAUSE WE CAN DO BETTER, AND THEREFORE WE MUST DO BETTER.

BIO: Sue Hirsch is a member of the Cal Con Con Team who hosts a twice-weekly radio show 'Independent CA-Healthy CA' at 10am-11am PST. Tune in, Call in, Be in!