|
I want to say at the outset that each
amendment which will be voted upon sep-
arately and not as a whole stands by itself,
is severable, is not dependent upon any
of the other amendments with the excep-
tion of the last three, which are actually
simply housekeeping amendments to bring
in line the balance of the provision with
earlier amendments if adopted by this Con-
vention.
I purposely divided these amendments
into nine separate amendments so that they
would not otherwise be divisible by this
body. They each present you with clear
and distinct different questions.
Note that the memorandum stated there
will be eight amendments. The memoran-
dum numbers each amendment in the re-
vised section and has two number eights.
The second number eight is now number
nine.
There is one correction I wanted to make
on Amendment D but because I think most
of the delegates probably do not have that
yet, I will mention it when we vote on
Amendment D. I am going to make a
presentation now with respect to all of
the amendments so that you can under-
stand the purpose of all in toto, then speak
for only a minute or so when we come to
each and are about to vote on each.
I am very proud of the job which this
Convention has done. We worked hard and
the product clearly reflects our careful
deliberations.
We are writing a constitution which will
create a viable and responsive state and
local government for the twentieth and
perhaps the twenty-first centuries. We all
hope it will endure for a great period of
time. However, by virtue of the nature of
our deliberative body, we made many com-
promises and some provisions have been
written and will be adopted which may very
well not be to the liking of all. I submit
that many of those provisions, as Delegate
Scanlan has pointed out on numerous occa-
sions, are unnecessary, are too detailed,
are inflexible, and are statutory in nature.
In addition, I doubt that we are suffi-
ciently wise and visionary to create a docu-
ment which will last forever or even a
hundred years as the current constitution
has lasted. I think our constitution will and
should reflect the thoughts of our time. It
should definitely be a living document.
Therefore, it will not necessarily be rep-
resentative of the views of the time a hun-
dred years from now or even fifty years
|
from now. The relationship of government
to society is changing rapidly and our
society is increasing in its complexity at
an alarming rate.
I am not being critical of the job we
have done but, I think, realistic. The adop-
tion, the amendment, and the revision of
the constitution are the most basic exer-
cises of the sovereign power of the people
and we should not put the ability of the
people to exercise that power out of their
reach. I feel that Committee Recommenda-
tion GP-8 is unduly restrictive in several
respects. We offer these amendments to
free up that procedure.
Remember that none of the procedures
by which a constitutional convention can
be called requires an overhauling of the
constitution. But they do permit an out-
standing deliberative body such as this one
to review the basic structure to determine
if any changes may be desirable.
I think this only gives recognition to
the job which we have done and I am ask-
ing you to pat yourselves on the back a
little by providing amendments for calling
together such a convention as this in the
reasonably near future.
I suggest that the most effective way to
study the entire structure of state and
local government is by a body that can do
something about it. There have been any
number of commissions here in Maryland
which have studied reorganization of vari-
ous branches of the government and have
come up with some very laudatory reports.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have used five
of your ten minutes, Delegate Needle.
DELEGATE NEEDLE: But those re-
ports to a large extent have been filed
away and little has been done about them.
In addition to that, I submit that this is
a piecemeal manner in which to study the
structure of our government.
Some of you may ask what about the cost
to this State of calling of a convention? I
submit that regardless of what that cost
may be, and it is relatively small, it is a
small price to pay.
To get down to specifics. GP-8 only per-
mits the General Assembly to call a con-
stitutional convention. I cannot understand
why the governor or the people by petition
should not also have the right to call a
constitutional convention. I think that by
virtue of your rejection of the initiative
for the submission of amendments to the
|
