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Shirlee Meier · Scene Projects Sports Network

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  The following program is part of the Patriot Broadcasting Project brought to you by the
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  scene projects podcast network.
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  In the South Dakota Patriot Broadcasting.
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  Broadcasting.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
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  And with me today, we have Shirley Meyer.
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  She's the state director of the convention of states for South Dakota.
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  Welcome to the show, Shirley.
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  Well, thank you.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Well, it's great to catch up with you on this, the last day of 2024, moving into a new year,
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  an exciting, time for our political, movement, the patriot movement.
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  I I know we have a lot of new legislators.
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  We've been talking to a lot of them, but you come from a different angle and a whole
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  different thing.
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  So before we get into what the convention of state states is, why don't you give us a little
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  bit of your background, and then we'll talk about more about COS.
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  Well, I'm a lifelong resident of South Dakota.
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  I am also a veteran.
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  I served in the military.
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  I'm, I worked and I'm retired.
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  I retired from the post office.
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  I after federal service, put in probably about fifty, fifty some years, and then I retired.
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  And when I retired, I decided what I wanted to do with my time.
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  So I checked in different organizations, and I came across convention of states, and I checked
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  into it.
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  And so then I volunteered, and I've been with convention of states ever since.
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  That's amazing.
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  So you've spent your entire life, in service to your country, whether that's in military
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  service or or for the post office, which I think a lot of us tend to take for granted
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  these days.
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  The the, you know and and maybe less so around the holidays when when the packages are getting
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  delivered, and we remember what a service it truly is, to have that.
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  Incredible.
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  An incredible life that you've lived and now in retirement, you're serving in a volunteer
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  status as the director?
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  That is correct.
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  I am not paid.
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  I am a volunteer.
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  Everything I do and the products and that that I hand out and stuff, I pay for myself.
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  So
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  Well, that's amazing.
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  That's amazing.
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  So what are, you know, what is the convention of states, and then what do you do, in the
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  state of South Dakota to, I guess, further the larger agenda?
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  Okay.
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  Basically, what we are, we are a nonprofit volunteer organization that came together in
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  2013, actually, with Mark Meckler, who was the original founder of the Tea Party, and then he
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  left it.
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  And him and Michael Farris, who is the constitutional attorney who went to all 50
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  states and got home suing approved, they came together and they formed the Convention of
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  States.
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  Basically, what it is under article five of the constitution, there's only two ways to make
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  amendments to the constitution.
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  Congress in Washington or your state legislators, if they pass the same resolution
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  in 34 states, they can call a convention for proposing amendments.
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  We have a resolution that has three subject matters.
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  Reign in the power and scope of the federal government, bring the power back to the states
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  where under the constitution, all but 17 enumerated powers belong to the states, bring
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  that back, and term limits on congress and other officials in Washington, and then make
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  them physically responsible, like a balanced budget.
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  They can't just print and spend and print and spend like they're doing now.
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  We are so far in debt in that.
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  And so that is what our resolution is about.
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  We are volunteers.
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  We volunteer our time.
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  We are out there trying to educate the public, educate legislators, and a lot of legislators,
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  they've got their hands so full.
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  They have so many things coming to them.
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  They cannot be knowledgeable about everything.
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  So we're trying to educate them as to what article five under the constitution is.
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  And we have volunteers.
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  We get into fairs.
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  We get into parades.
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  We do educational meetings.
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  We inform people and educate people.
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  So mostly what you're doing, at this point in the organization's history is awareness and
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  education because most people don't know what article five of the constitution is or says.
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  That that is correct.
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  That is or they just read it, and they don't totally read the second half of article five,
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  which is for proposing amendments.
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  You're not changing the constitution.
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  You're not rewriting.
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  You're just proposing amendments, and there's a big process that has to go to before an
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  amendment can be made.
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  So this is the long way around to propose some kind of accountability for the bureau crats and
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  our our other elected officials in Washington DC.
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  That is correct.
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  And it's the only constitutional way to do it and make it permanent.
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  They can do executive orders and all this stuff, but those are only temporary.
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  They're Band Aids.
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  A next part person comes in.
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  They can just erase everything they've done.
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  This is the original permanent way to make changes that can't be changed unless you call
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  another convention in order to do it.
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  And the whole process, it takes a lot.
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  Do you want me to explain the process?
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  I would love you to, Shirley.
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  Okay.
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  What you do is when you have passed the same resolution in 34 states, then the state
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  legislators are the ones who pick the delegates, and they give them their commission,
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  telling them what they can do and what they cannot do.
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  And then they send them to the place where the convention goes.
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  One state, one vote.
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  When it comes time to vote, they break up into committees, and ours would probably be three
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  committees because ours has three subject matters, they would come up with amendments
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  that they all agree on.
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  It could come up with two.
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  They could come up with 15.
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  I do not know.
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  But once they come together in a committee and they agree on the wording and that of each
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  amendment, in order for it to come out of that convention, each amendment has to be approved
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  by 26 states.
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  Once they come out, then they go to the states for ratification.
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  Each amendment has to be ratified by 38 states in order to become part of the constitution.
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  If anywhere along that process and that they try to change the wording of the amendments or
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  anything else, it makes them null and void, And they have to accept them as they were.
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  If they don't like it, then they just discard it.
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  That is the process.
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  It's a high bar, and it takes a while.
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  Well and we're talking, you know, possibly several election cycles, especially for, you
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  know, smaller representatives, state representatives rolling over, every two years.
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  Yes.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  And that is true.
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  So there is a a small window sometimes, of these movements, like this populist movement
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  that we're living in right now, where you actually have a chance to deliver on some of
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  these promises of the constitution and to affect some real change in the bloated and
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  increasingly swampy Washington DC.
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  That is correct.
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  And that's the only and that unless congress and Washington makes those changes, they're not
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  going to do it.
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  They're going to, you know, just do a Band Aid on it, and then the next person comes in, and
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  they do their way.
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  That's what we've have now and we've been having for the last twenty, twenty five, thirty
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  years.
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  So this this this is kind of the the people and the the state, legislations, you know, and on
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  all of the different state legislations, this is our power to try and wrestle some of that
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  back from this bloated, you know, federal government that we have now.
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  That is correct.
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  And it's the only constitutional way that, you know, someone can't come in and do it because
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  it's part of the constitution, and the constitution is the law of the land.
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  And there are people who will say, well, they don't obey the constitution now anyway.
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  That is not true.
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  People don't realize that, basically, we live under two different constitutions.
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  We live under the constitution that our founding fathers gave us, depending upon which
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  pamphlet you do.
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  It's about 39 pages.
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  They're very simple, very easy.
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  But the one that congress goes by and Washington goes by is this big one that's about
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  4,000 pages long, about four inches thick, and it's what?
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  The supreme court and other decisions have made and put in there, and it is the constitution,
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  the one that goes by.
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  Some of them are not lawful.
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  And that we wanna break that up and bring it power back to the states where it belong, like
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  education.
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  That is a state right.
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  But the states have given up their power.
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  So they have this big bureaucracy in Washington.
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  States send money to Washington for education.
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  Washington says, okay.
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  We'll send it back to you under these stipulations.
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  You do this, this, and this, and you teach this, this, and this.
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  Otherwise, you're not getting the money.
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  That is not the way our founding fathers wanted it.
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  And there are other things like that that the big bureaucracies in Washington dictate to the
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  states.
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  Give it back to the states where it belongs.
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  And exactly.
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  Why why send the money back to be stolen to be sent right back to us anyway?
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  That's right.
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  The whole thing hasn't made sense, and I think that is a that's a big reason why you had this
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  massive populist movement, rise up in 2024.
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  And and to take, you know, the Republicans to take, you know, the house, the senate, and the
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  presidency on the national level, and then the swell of republican wins, kind of across the
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  board in the state legislators as well.
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  But just new blood.
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  I think 42 new legislators is what I heard from from our friend Tessa Schwands.
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  And it it just I think we were ready as a society, as a culture, as a country.
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  We were ready for some new ideas.
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  We were ready for some fresh blood in there to start affecting some change and, educating
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  people and educating legislators on the power that they hold through article five as to how
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  we actually get something done instead of just kinda going through the motions.
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  That's right.
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  What are the challenges facing the conventions of states moving into 2025, and what are the,
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  you know, what are the obstacles that we're trying to overcome, you know, in the short
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  term?
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  And then, obviously, in the long term, 2026 will be another huge election year.
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  Well, basically, what it is is getting people to understand what article five of the
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  constitution is.
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  There's a lot of misinformation out there about it.
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  The main one is, well, you're you're going to rewrite our constitution.
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  That is not true.
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  If you read article five, you it's very explicit.
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  It says, and that basically congress can do it, or you're calling a convention of states for
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  proposing amendments to this constitution.
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  So you can't do both.
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  You can't rewrite the constitution then and also propose amendments to it.
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  That that's but people don't understand.
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  The biggest problem is getting people educated, having them read it, and understand what it
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  says.
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  Ignorance.
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  Ignorance is our biggest obstacle.
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  And even people saying, you know, something like, well, you're rewriting our there were the
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  constitution has been rewritten.
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  Right?
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  That is true.
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  Have been rewriting it for two hundred years, you know, two hundred and fifty years coming up
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  on on it.
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  You know?
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  So to to suggest that all of a sudden, you know, everything's going to be undone is is
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  more effacing the facts that it has been undone, and we're trying to get back to the
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  original frameworks of the constitution as they were written.
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  That is true.
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  And I'm gonna throw in a another little tidbit, and I don't want it to confuse people.
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  But they need to understand this.
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  Washington itself, if it wanted to, if it had a great desire to, they could rewrite the
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  constitution tomorrow if they wanted to.
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  They're there in Washington because, like I said, there's only two ways.
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  They could call a convention right there in Washington and propose a whole new constitution
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  and do it if they wanted to, but you and I know they're not going to, but they could.
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  Well, and if they did, I would be terrified of what came out of there.
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  That's correct.
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  Shirley, what what can people do to get involved?
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  Obviously, I'm sure you have a very large volunteer network.
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  Why don't you, have a website where people can kind of find out more information on their own
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  and begin to, put some action into their desires.
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  Yeah.
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  You can go to www.conventionofstates.com, and there's a lot of material there.
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  And we also have a university where we train people.
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  There are four courses that are free.
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  All you have to do is sign the petition and sign in and take those courses.
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  They they're online and that and you can educate yourself there.
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  You can go and volunteer.
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  There are different many volunteer positions that you can have in that if you would like to,
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  but we do require people to be educated and that if they volunteer in for a big role in
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  that.
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  And learn more about us.
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  You can call me if you want.
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  Go on our website.
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  My address and phone number is there, or I can give it to you now.
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  And call me.
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  I'll talk to you.
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  I'll talk to, you know, anybody who wants to know about convention states when we have
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  things, and that will be at fairs and stuff again.
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  If I'm out in fear, talk to me.
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  I'll tell you everything that I know, which and that.
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  So
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  Well, that's great, Shirley.
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  I appreciate you taking some time for us today.
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  I've already, gained a lot of of new information from this and a little bit of an
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  education.
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  We are happy to help in any way that we can to get some more of this information out to the
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  people.
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  And, yeah, we have events, throughout the year, and we would love for you to come and to share
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  more of of, you know, your story and, and more information about the convention of states and
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  what we can do as regular everyday citizens to have an effect on our lives.
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  Mhmm.
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  To to put it quite bluntly.
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  And one one of the best things that people can do is in their district, if they believe in
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  convention of states and they know about us, talk to their legislators.
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  They have three of them in each district.
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  Talk to their legislators.
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  Have their legislators support us in that.
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  And if they if they're against us, ask them why and, you know, inform them.
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  That communication and education is the biggest things is informing people and getting them
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  educated.
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  And you just kinda hit on the the focus of what South Dakota patriot broadcasting is.
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  It's not necessarily a left or a right.
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  We're we're trying our best not to lean one way or the other, but to present information,
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  present, some really interesting conversations.
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  And then hopefully in the future, we can start to get some people with opposing viewpoints to
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  kind of hash these things out and to come to a a real consensus instead of just doing this
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  oscillation that we have back and forth between, you know, left and right.
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  And we see now in today's current political climate that you you only do that so long
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  before the waves tip all the way left and all the way right, and then you end up flipping
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  upside down, and you don't know who's who or what's what anymore.
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  And True.
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  And that's exactly the time when you need something like this, a convention of states,
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  and and more of the people who are out here every single day living in this country, to
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  speak up and to share their experience.
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  And and that is the basis of what podcasting is in general.
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  I have five or six other shows that I host as well, and that's all it is.
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  Getting out our our own human experiences, our individual human experiences, and see where we
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  relate to the other people around us and in this country and in this world.
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  So I appreciate you coming on and sharing a little bit of your experience today, and, I
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  look forward to, getting a little bit more of an education on the convention of states.
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  Oh, that's fantastic, and I appreciate you having me.
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  And, I mean, there's a lot of other things I could say and talk about that I would love to.
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  So
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  Well, and maybe we can have a a more regular segment where we come on and have a little bit
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  more of a plan for what we wanna talk about, and we'll make a whole series out of this,
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  Shirley.
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  I would love to do that with you.
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  Oh, that would be great.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  I'd appreciate that very much.
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  Well, thank you so much for being a part of the show today, Shirley.
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  K.
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  Thank you for having me, and I appreciate you to doing this.
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  Thank you for tuning in to South Dakota Patriot Broadcasting.
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