Amendment Quotes

“Improvement is not enough, you also needs innovation.”
― Amit Kalantri

“Never before did the second amendment mean so much to the people of the United States. There were many well-regulated militias that became necessary for the security of every state, which meant the right of the people to keep and bear arms was detrimental for their survival and that right should not be infringed. Otherwise, the strong would surely overpower the weak.”
― Jason Medina, The Manhattanville Incident: An Undead Novel

“Change is hard because it is difficult to amend the old and easier to build anew.”
― Sukant Ratnakar, Quantraz

“The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government--But, the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.' -- GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address (1796)”
― John A. Ragosta, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle

“Improvement is not enough, you also need innovation.”
― Amit Kalantri

“You may perform poorly, but your "poorly" may not be as "badly" as others may say it is. Your "poorly" is "excellent" provided you make amendments on it!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365

“I had my first amendment rights removed by a USA judge for a video that I recorded in the public sidewalk. The right to free speech and freedom of the press only partially exists in the USA.”
― Steven Magee

“All therefore is well, and there is no need of vacuity and depression of soul over the littleness of our amendment if we are corresponding with grace, and thus gradually forming and fashioning Christ within us. We are growing in virtue imperceptibly, just as the tender seedling, in its predestined vigorous fullness, slowly expands into flower.”
― John A. Kane, How to Make a Good Confession: A Pocket Guide to Reconciliation with God

“And even in 1996, I in speeches propose the following amendments to the Constitution:
Article XXVIII: Every newborn shall be sincerely welcomed and cared for until maturity.
Article XXIX: Every adult who needs it shall be given meaningful work to do, at a living wage.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Timequake

“...my idea of the sovereignty of the people is, that the people can change the constitution if they please, but while the constitution exists, they must conform themselves to its dictates.' -- JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1789 [during debates over the Bill of Rights]”
― John A. Ragosta, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle

“I cannot conclude without earnestly recommending to my fellow-citizens, the forbearance of all force or violence, to obstruct the execution of the laws, or disturb the peace of society' relying, to effect the desirable reforms, upon the ordinary and proper modes of petition and remonstrance; and above all to be peculiarly cautious, and attentive to that object, in their suffrages at the various Elections, which, in a representative government, cannot fail of restoring things to their first principles, if the people are not deceived or cajoled, nor in a state of apathy or inattention to the importance of their suffrages.' -- EDMUND PENDLETON, 'Address of the Honorable Edmund Pendleton (1798/1799?)”
― John A. Ragosta, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle

“The most notable amendment is the alteration to Article 200, which describes the constitutional role of the military. This amendment extends the military’s duties to include the ‘protection of the constitution, democracy, the state and its secular nature, and personal freedoms.’ This phrase has radical implications, the most notable of which is that it paves the way for continued military intervention in politics, if and when it deems that the secular nature of that state, democracy or personal freedoms are threatened by an elected civilian government. This is very cynical, considering that the military autocracy has been the main violator of the freedoms mentioned in the amendment. In fact, this is the military’s option of last resort, in the event that popular pressure forces a free election and that a civilian government is elected. This is a very similar argument to the one made by the Algerian military on the eve of the coup in 1992, when elections won by F.I.S. were voided, triggering a bloody civil war that lasted the better part of a decade (Evans and John, 2007). Hidden in the language of the amendment is a very dangerous ideological imperative, which identifies the military with the ‘state’ rather than with the elected government of the day. It assumes that since the military is serving the ‘state’, then the military—and only the military—is able to defend the ‘state’ against the incompetence of civilians. In other words, the amendment assumes that the military’s supremacy over civilians is the natural order of things. This assumption is deeply rooted in the regime’s ideological construct, where the ‘state’ is imagined as an almost mythical entity that has to be protected against the folly of civilian politicians and the demands for democratization. In essence, the amendment turns the concept of popular sovereignty on its head, with the source of sovereignty transferred from the popular will to the military, as the ultimate guardian of the ‘state’. This entrenches a paternalistic attitude towards the citizenry, as incompetent simpletons who, in a moment of folly, might elect a government that could destroy the ‘state’. Finer identifies acceptance of civilian supremacy as one of the pre-conditions for restraining a military’s interventionist appetite (Finer, 2002). This is clearly not the case in Egypt, where prospective future coups now have a solid constitutional basis.”
Chapter 2: The New Leviathan, pages 52-53”
― Maged Mandour, Egypt under El-Sisi: A Nation on the Edge