Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) strongly supports
constitutionally limited government. Unfortunately, the original Constitution didn't
adequately protect two groups of people. For various reasons, both black slaves and
American Indians were not provided with constitutional protections. The Civil War was
fought to end black slavery. The Civil War amendments were passed and black slavery was
over. However, these amendments only applied to the states, and not to the national
government. Just ten years after the end of the Civil War, a new kind of slavery was
created by the national government. It was the declared policy of the national government
to hold American Indians in "protective ward status." Indians were specifically
segregated on reservations and denied the rights of citizenship.
The national government does not have the power to discriminate or
segregate the People because of race, religion, ethnic background, sex, or income
capacity. If we the People continue to allow the national government to discriminate and
segregate us, we give away the right of our communities to manage our own resources. State
and local government is in the best position to balance environmental and employment
concerns. The national government's role is to create a usable structure of laws to
enhance commerce between the states. This structure must include laws which prevent one
state from harming the resources of another state. When the national government grants one
racial group "statehood status" over resources, it discriminates against all
other persons in the state. The national government has also "reserved rights"
from many states for the benefit of its "wards." This action prevents the state
from regulating its own resources by actually segregating the reserved lands from the laws
of the state.
We must be "One People" for our
Constitution to work. This does not mean we must all be the same. Diversity of individuals
is one of the strengths of this nation. But we must all have the same individual rights
according to the law. "Equal protection of the law" is the way it is written in
the 14th Amendment, the greatest of the Civil War Amendments. It is time to end the power
of the national government to discriminate and segregate.
This country fought a great and costly Civil War to give black slaves
the "equal protection of the law." American Indians on reservations are still
without the equal protection of the law. Gaining equal Constitutional rights for
reservation residents is the greatest civil rights struggle remaining in America today.
CERA is committed to this last great civil rights struggle. "We the People"
should be One People Under One Law.