Taking the initiative

This is an election year, for newly turned 18 year olds and the rest of us older than 18. Besides political offices, constitutional and charter amendments will be on the ballot, if each collects the required signatures.

That’s the reason they are called “initiatives.” In this state, relatively late to join the union, 1889, the constitutional founders took their fellow citizens seriously, respecting them, and did not “in any way limit the initiative and referendum powers reserved by the people.” That is the sole sentence of the first section at the start of the constitution, under Article I, De...