“Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence.” Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter and composer.

At heart, I am a constitutionalist. That is, I believe the United States Constitution is the solid foundation of our nation and should not be changed unless absolutely necessary. Of course trying to define “absolutely necessary” could become very confusing in today’s political climate of hate and discontent. Thomas Jefferson, our third president, was quoted as saying that every generation needs a revolution. No, he was not speaking about a violent uprising but rather a method to always improve our country, a country that he helped form.

To date there have been 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the method to add those amendments is not an easy task. Two-thirds of both houses of Congress must first propose an amendment to the Constitution or two-thirds of the state legislatures must ask Congress to call a national convention to propose amendments, which has never been used. To ratify amendments to the Constitution either three-fourths of the state legislatures must approve it or ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states must approve it (this was done only once to approve the 21st Amendment which repealed Prohibition). My point here is that it is no easy task to make amendments to the Constitution and then make sure that they pass muster and are approved. Many of the amendments are familiar with most of the citizens of the United States. They include our freedom of religion, our right to bear arms, slavery being abolished and the right for women to vote, and that’s just a few.

I now propose the 28th and 29th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. I have received many e-mails about proposing the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as such: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”

I believe that somewhere between the first American government known as the Continental Congress being formed in September 1774 and today, members of Congress have deviated from the purposes of the American Revolution to serving themselves more than they serve us. They resemble nothing more than fat cats padding their own pockets with our money. They approve their own salaries, retirement and other benefits such as health care. Unfortunately, the one thing the Founding Fathers never saw coming was politics becoming not only a lifetime career but also a career where one can live an extravagant lifestyle.

That leads me into the 29th Amendment. “No elected official shall serve a total of more than six years and no elected official shall receive lifetime benefits for serving.”

In other words, the president, members of Congress, state governor, state legislators or local elected officials shall have neither a retirement and/or medical benefits for the rest of their life. They get our thanks (or boos) for serving and that’s it. I know what “they” will say in response to this proposal because “they” always say one thing. It takes years to learn what to do once elected. My response to that’s because the idiots that got elected needed years to figure out how to benefit themselves instead of those who elected them. What I like even more about having the 29th Amendment is that millions or even billions of dollars will not go into the reelection of candidates which means candidates will not have to begin their reelection campaign the day after they are elected. They can spend their entire six-year term serving us instead of themselves. I really like that thought. No more broken campaign promises that we hear every election like less government spending, education reform and reducing taxation. More importantly there will be no junk along our highways or yards.

Yours in Liberty.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, likes tea parties. No crumpets, please.