What U.S. needs is is.

Clevelanders

propose amendments

By B. Vivian Aplin

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of

America.

Most Americans probably remember memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution and doubtless many can still recite the few lines above.

However, the same attention was not given to what followed. Teachers, and certainly pupils, seemed satisfied that a sense of the document was conveyed in the introduction.

Most knew that it guaranteed our rights in the democracy. But despite the work the nation's founders put into making the Constitution as perfect as possible, even then there were those who predicted it was incomplete.

James Madison, one of the framers and signers of the Constitution, foresaw the continuing demand for changes when he said: "In framing a system which we wish to last for ages, we should not lose sight of the changes which ages will produce.

Over the years many causes and unforeseen needs have led to the document being amended time and again.

As the nation celebrates its bicentennial, special-interest groups continue lobbying for constitutional amendments.

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The Plain Dealer talked to some of these would-be amenders. The. interviews reflect some of the amendments some Americans would like to see.

Kermit Pike, librarian of the Western Reserve Historical Society here, said recent media disclosures about congressmen prompted him to offer an amendment idea..

"A possible amendment would be the limitation of terms that could be served by senators and representatives in the same office," he said.

"Recent events make it so clear that the accumulation of power can easily be abused. This may be an awfully cynical view of contemporary American politics, but it's a cynicism that I feel is not totally unjustified."

Pat Smith, a local records specialist at the historical society, said she feels strongly about another cause.

"I would want the Constitution amended so that the taking of an unborn child's life from the moment of conception would be forbidden," she said.

"The only exception would be a case in which the mother's life would be endangered by childbirth.

"Since the unborn child is given certain rights by law — for example, they have the rights to inheritance if the father dies before the child is born I feel that the unborn child is not only entitled to the rights of life, but should be guaranteed those rights,

In a sense, Elizabeth Mudri, president of the Cleveland Senior Citizens Coalition, is also concerned about the right to life, but for the other end of it, the

elderly.

She would like to see increased Social Security benefits and controls on utility rates for the elderly. She said some old people cannot pay the rate for telephones.

"It's a very important thing in a senior citizen's home," she said "Especially the ones living alone. We're too old to go to everybody's home to check on them every day.

"If we call and can't get them, we know something's wrong. I've already found two people dead myself."

John Nosek, a gay rights activ-

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ist, said he wants a bill passed to end discrimination against

homosexuals.

"The biggest problem for gays is that we have no protection in employment. If anyone is either found to be gay or publicly discloses that he is gay, he can be fired just because he is homosexual, without regard to the caliber of his work," Nosek said.

"We feel that until something is clearly spelled out in a civil rights amendment our people will be oppressed and cannot be honest with themselves or society at large."

Jerry Sable, chairman of the Transcendental Meditation SociCleveland East Center of the ety, would like to see an amendment concerning. the consciousness level of America and Americans.-

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He said such an amendment could help the country develop its full potential. He worded a sample amendment to that end:

"The life and consciousness of the nation is a reflection of those individual lives and their own levels of consciousness and to secure the ideals of progress and fulfillment, all governmental action shall have as its final goal the development of the full potential of consciousness of all Americans."

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Sable explained the impact of his amendment: "The overall direction of growth toward more fulfillment and enlightenment is necessary as a basis for all the activity of the government.

"What TM (transcendental meditation) does is deepen a person's own consciousness, his own -insight, and the more lawmakers who are developing their own consciousnesses, the more profound will be the scope of overall legislative activity."

Lana Moresky said as a national director of the National Organization for Women she is involved with women's rights and is lobbying for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

"We would like to see the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution," she said. "So far, it is not just a fantasy, but a reality. It has passed both houses of the Congress and is in the proc-. ess of being ratified.

"So far, we have 34 states and we need 38. I think we're going. to get it, but it's slowing down and we need to concentrate all our efforts on it. We have until 1979."

Ms. Moresky said those in the women's movement are not celebrating the bicentennial.

"We are 200 years old and yet women do not have constitutional equality in this country. The reason that the ERA is needed is because of that very fact.

"The only time we're mentioned in the Constitution is when women got the right to vote and we had to fight for that 50 years."

She said the women's movement has been afoot 10 years and it has made great strides, but there is no guarantee to protect promises for women's rights. Congress can revoke any law, she said.

"Here we (would) have some constitutional basis to challenge laws and inequalities in our country. Two hundred years is enough. That could be the biggest birthday present in our country to have the Equal Rights Amendment.”

But, Ayesha Shaheed, a Sunni Muslim, said there is only one problem with the Constitution.

"What we need," she said, "is an amendment to enforce all the existing amendments. The Constitution in itself is a beautiful doctrine.

"Theoretically it's perfect, but in reality it is not. When the Constitution says freedom of speech, freedom of religion and all the other freedoms, it should be freedom for all in America, not just people who follow the standards set up for the country.

"If they could just produce one (amendment) to enforce the ones that are already. established it would be beautiful. If the freedoms were true for all people·· all black and all white, all Christians and all Jews and all Muslims then it would truly be a beautiful doctrine.”

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