Birth right

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

While this clause has been the basis for the "birther" argument made so vociferously and so frequently by Donald Trump, there has just been a discovery of a long lost footnote to this Constitutional provision. Found deep within the catacombs of neglected constitutional writings, this additional provision is creating an uproar of monumental significance. For those within the Republican party who claim to read the Constitution, like the Bible, as a document to be strictly construed, this may mean the end of the debate concerning the legitimacy of the presidency of Barack Obama, and might signal the death knoll for the intended coronation of Trump. It reads as follows:

"Natural born is defined as the act of giving birth to a child without third party intervention."


There were but 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and only 39 signers of our Constitution. The oldest, and possibly the most well respected of those in attendance was Benjamin Franklin. 81 at the historic signing, Franklin was so infirm that he had to be carried to the sessions in a sedan chair.

But whatever his physical infirmity, Franklin's intellect remained fully intact. Revered for his interests in philanthropy and politics, he was also a man passionately involved in many aspects of science. Deep into his life, Franklin vigorously promoted all causes for which he felt strongly. As late as 1787, he was named the first President of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, a cause he had championed since the 1730's.

Equally important to Franklin was the preservation of both mother and child during the act of bringing said child into our universe. As of the late 1700's, most women gave birth at home without medical intervention.

Births, without medical intervention, were thought not only to be safer for mother and child, but served to promote psychological bonding. There could be no greater connection of a new born to its parent, and to its universe, than by the act of natural birth. Franklin was an adamant advocate of the belief that for a child to be capable of reaching his maximum level of intellectual achievement and emotional attachment to not only his immediate world, his mother, but the larger world of his country, he could not be forced, maneuvered, or compelled to enter this society through unnatural means.

And so, this forgotten footnote, was born. The writings, now discovered, speak of the extended discussions that took place on the third day of the conference, centering on this issue. Members of the delegations from Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland, took exception to Franklin's stance, castigating it as the "birther movement". Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts found meaning and substance in the words of the venerable Franklin, and fought for the definition of natural born to be set forth as part of the words of the Constitution.

At the end of the day, with there being talk of filibuster (a word that didn't even exist until that moment) and a walk-out, compromise was finally reached. Franklin's concerns would find their way into the greatest document ever produced, but the definition he wanted for clarification to all who would thereafter read and interpret, was left as a footnote to history. And then this footnote was lost in the final version that took shape at the conclusion of the convention.

And there the story ended for well over 200 years.

At Jamaica Hospital, in Queens, on June 14, 1946 Donald John Trump was brought into this world. The child of Fred C. Trump, listed as a builder on the City of NY Vital Records, and Mary McLeod, housewife, the fact of this birth is further verified by the Certificate of Birth Registry for New York City.

Richard Eckhart is the son of Robert Eckhart, the obstetrician who performed the delivery. Robert Eckhart passed away in 1993, and all the the others in attendance at that fateful event, are long gone. However, Richard Eckhart has, in recent conversations with all those media outlets that Trump so relies upon, provided specific details of the birth, as told to him by his father shortly before his death. He spoke of problems that arose relating to fetal distress, cord prologue and abnormal presentation. And thus it is alleged that on a late spring evening in 1946, merely months after the end of the second World War, due to various complications and rising concerns for the welfare of mother and child, Donald John Trump entered our society by way of Caesarean section.

It has now been suggested to Mr. Trump that the easiest way to resolve any uncertainties relating to the report, is for him to authorize the release of all hospital records of his birth. However, Mr. Trump has responded by seeking an injunction preventing Mr. Eckhart from discussing the confidential information of his birth. He has alternately contended that Dr. Eckhart breached his sacred oath or that the information allegedly provided to his son, was false and defamatory. Trump's representatives say he will vigorously prosecute a multi- million dollar lawsuit.

As for the release of the records, Trump has said that one only has to look at him to know that he is the definition of natural. "I am a person who has met everything in life head on. My birth was no different."

The first birth utilizing surgical procedures was thought to have occurred almost 300 years BC. Bindurasa, the second Mauryan emperor of India, was born only by cutting the stomach of his mother, who had died as a result of ingestion of poison.

The term Caesarean was allegedly taken from the Latin verb, caedo, meaning to cut. It was originally a method reserved for those situations in which the mother had passed away. It was thought improper to bury one with a child still inside the womb. And so, it was intended to be the ultimate act of separation.

On August 4, 1961, at 7:24 PM, Stanley Ann Dunham gave birth to Barack Hussein Obama II. The certificate of Live Birth filed on August 8,1961 listed the State of Hawaii, Island of Oahu, County of Honolulu as the place where the current President of the United States arrived into this world.

However, unlike what had occurred some 15 years earlier in that hospital in Queens, it appears that Obama's birth was as uncomplicated as Trump's was messy. Upon the discovery of the words of our founding fathers, Obama was asked to provide hospital records of his birth. The next day, the full set of certified documents was released to the public. These revealed that only 90 minutes after entering the hospital, Stanley Ann Dunham completed the delivery. Short of cutting the umbilical cord, this was as devoid of outside presence in the procedure as humanly possible. It was in all ways a natural birth. Mother, child and environment all were in harmony on that warm, summer night.

When asked about the controversy, President Obama recently stated: "We have real issues to address in this country and that is what keeps me awake at night. I will not be drawn further into this sideshow."

In reviewing the admonitions of Benjamin Franklin, the deliberations of those at the Constitutional Convention, and the definition long ago lost, but now found, we must now address the unmistakable intentions of the framers that have, for well over 200 years, been misinterpreted and misapplied.

We are in a situation where Trump, not Obama, will soon be facing relentless criticism for failing to permit full disclosure. Whatever other shortcomings one may attribute to Donald John Trump, his attempted ascension may well be aborted unless he demonstrates that he is a natural born citizen of this country. Show us the records Mr. Trump. What are you trying to hide?