9 “We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.” – Edward R. Murrow “T he higher I got up in the agency [CIA], the more I began to see illegal, unconstitutional, sometimes criminal activity that the agency and some other sectors of the ‘Shadow Gov- ernment’ (I call it) were doing – things that were illegal and were unconstitutional and I always have to say this: The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It supersedes every other law in the U.S. criminal system and the judicial branch. That’s worth remembering, when the U.S. Government violates the constitution they are committing multiple felonies based on the foundation of our government. We must always remember that.” “As a federal agent I had to swear an oath to our constitution, to defend our constitution, from enemies foreign and domestic. The problem was, there were some that were do- mestic! And there were some that happened to be in our own government. So I had to make a decision, was I going to uphold my oath to the constitution or was I going to shrink back and for me that was an easy de- cision…. I chose to stand for the constitution and that’s why I’m here…” – Kevin Shipp, Former CIA Officer: Anti-terrorism Specialist A Conversation With Dr. Cynthia McKinney On July 1, 2017, three days before Americans celebrated our Independence Day, I sat with former US Congresswoman Cynthia McK- inney, now a professor of political science, in her apartment in Dhaka, Bangladesh to record a conversation about the US Constitution. This conversation followed a week of intense discussion with Dr. McKinney, drawing on her 12 years of experience in Congress and many years of passionate activism on behalf of human rights globally. (The transcript of our conversation starts on page 20.) We discussed the power of the US Constitu- tion and the covenant it has created, the dire nature of what will happen if it is changed, and the incredible possibilities if we can enforce it through actions we can take in our own lives. We also discussed the importance of begin- ning a conversation about how we can enforce the US Constitution while the government is breaking it. The purpose of this written portion of our 2nd Quarter Wrap Up 2017 is to kick off such a discussion. What are the issues? My contri- bution to this discussion focuses primarily on the financial aspects of this task. This is an ongoing conversation and it will require the contributions of many people. However, I am confident that we can ultimately enforce the US Constitution and that we have the capacity to do so. Cynthia McKinney is an American politician and ac- tivist based in Georgia. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first black woman elected to represent Georgia in the House.