The Constitution-21 Convention Blog

Text and Blog

This website consists of two parts: text and blog. The text is divided into Pages. On the left of the screen is a Table of Contents, a list of fifteen Page Titles. You click on a Page Title to see the corresponding text. Twelve of the Page Titles are the Articles (I through XII) of Constitution-21, most of which are divided into Sections (identified with a capital letter) and into numbered Provisions.

You use the standard facility built into your browser to print any individual page of text. A command button in the middle of the Table of Contents, Print 12 Articles, strings the text pages of the twelve articles together into one file so that you can use the browser facility to print the full text of Constitution-21 in one continuous report.

The blog is where you participate in the Constitutional Convention, where you make statements and read the statements of others. Blog entries will be statements on the provisions of Constitution-21 and will refer to an Article in general or to a Section of an Article.

From the text, you enter the blog by clicking on any Article Title or any Section heading. The blog is organized in parallel with the text. The topic you clicked on appears at the top of the screen in an area trimmed in red. The topic names – either the Article Title alone or the Section name and the Article where the Section appears – index the blog and appear at the top of the blog screen in red. You scan through the blog from one topic to another by clicking on the Dn or Up buttons in the red area at the top of the screen. Dn displays the next topic (e.g., from Article V to VI or Section A to B); Up displays the preceding topic.

Statements related to the topic names are displayed in an area trimmed in blue; the most recent statement is listed first. Within a topic, you scan through pages of statements with the scroll bar or with the PageDown-PageUp keys; you move though individual statements one at a time with the Down-Up Arrows.

From the blog, you return to a specific page of text by clicking on the corresponding Page Title in the columnar list on the left side of the screen.

You are invited to post your own statements in the blog. All statements you post must include your blog-name; thus you must log in with your blog-name and password. The screen will display the following instruction: “To Log on and make a statement, click here.” and a Log-on button.

Before posting your first statement (when you have no blog name), a registration screen appears so that you may establish a blog-name and password. The registration procedure is standard for websites. You enter a proposed blog name and email address, and the website almost instantly emails you a password. You enter this password, answer a few mostly optional questions, and optionally define a new meaningful password. You are then logged in.

Depending on your browser, the status of being logged-in may persist for only your time on line or for as long as one year. After registration, when you have to log-in, you will enter only your blog-name and password, which are matched to prevent someone else from posting an entry under your blog-name.

Once you have logged-on, the screen will show the following instruction: “You are logged-on. To make a statement, click here” and a Statement button. The abilities to scan through topic names and through statements previously posted are unchanged.

When you click on the Statement button, a box appears where you can type your statement. You may critique Provisions, Sections, Articles, or the Constitution overall. If you propose a new or substitute Provision or suggest that a Provision be deleted, refer to it by number. After multiple statements agree on a topic, participants’ ideas will be adopted and appear in the text.

Accompanying the statement box are two buttons: Post and Clear. The Clear button gives you a fresh start in composition. The Post button sets your statement with your blog-name, date, and Pacific time to appear in the blog. The statement will be indexed by the topic names at the top of the screen.

Participants’ statements relate to each other by being tied to the same topic in the text – i.e., there should be no debate between two participants that is divorced from Constitution-21. The author of the original draft text of Constitution-21 and administrator of this website has adopted the name PoliSys. Statements with this blog-name will appear in the blog.

Be respectful of others. Your fellow participants are, like you, presumed to be persons of good will. Please note that:

PoliSys reserves the right to remove any inappropriate postings and to deny access to any participant who abuses another participant or the website.

When you propose changes or additions to the text of Constitution-21, you give permission for their adoption, in whole or in part, modified as PoliSys sees fit.

Proposals adopted will have neither specific credit nor attribution.