Last Frontier News

The Convention of the States' membership has climbed nationally, and the Alaska COS has also witnessed growth and an increased interest in its goals.

"Convention of States is exactly that which is described in Article V of the Constitution of the United States," Keith Heim, state director of Alaska COS, told Last Frontier News. "It describes in detail the means and conditions for which 'we the people' have a means to call 'check or checkmate' on those elected officials that were elected and serving in the Congress. To accomplish this task, we must have two-thirds of the states (34) to pass the rules for the convention, in their own state Houses and Senates."

Heim said there are three rules that currently apply in many states, including limiting federal government overreach, fiscal accountability (balanced budget); and term limits for Congress. These rules were passed and approved in 2014 and there is no sunset clause, he said.

Heim said he became aware of COS from a friend and has been involved ever since.

"Like so many others, I signed the petition online and agreed to volunteer to help further notify Alaskans," he said. "I became a district captain for my voting district. I learned more and wanted to help more and volunteered for the grassroots coordinator in addition to the district captain duties." 

In his current role as state director, Heim seeks to "encourage more Alaskans to become active in their voting district and communities statewide," he said. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Heim said he would use the COS system and email and text blast tools to let other Alaskans gather in Anchorage and that get-togethers were growing.

"COS gives me 'hope' that we can fix this country and the abuse that it is going through," Heim said. "COS gives me hope that 'freedom' and 'freedoms' can be restored to all American citizens. COS gives me hope that our government can be reigned in by Americans, for all Americans."

As with other states, Alaska COS has seen an increased interest in its organization and its goals. 

"Yes, a big increase has been seen in the past four years," Heim said.  "Americans, in general, are tired of seeing our government officials dictating freedoms, as well as fraudulently spending billions and trillions on frivolous personal projects."

In addition to out-of-control spending, he said, U.S. citizens are also tired of public figures who are not held accountable for their wrongdoing. 

"Americans are angry that wrongdoers are not being held accountable for their actions on a legal level," Heim said. "Americans are tired of government officials removing themselves from legal actions with the swipe of a pen."

The Convention of States is a national effort to call an amending convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. It takes 34 states to call a convention, and currently 15 have passed the resolution to call a convention of the states. Alaska passed its resolution in 2017. 

"Our nation is in trouble and we all know that," Heim said. "Our Founding Fathers foresaw this happening and gave us the ability to fix it. If we do nothing, nothing will happen. If we step up as Americans fighting to preserve our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we can save this country from those wishing to destroy it by falsely claiming they took an oath. Our Constitution is a document of which we the people have agree to abide by 'the rules.' It is not a living document that can be interpreted at will."

Heim called the Constitution the "so-called Bible of the people of a free America" and said Americans should "work together using what COS has built to fix this overreach by our government in D.C. and return freedoms and rights back to the people."