Oklahoma!

Walter Williams has noted a promising development in Oklahoma, but he doesn't go quite far enough:

Oklahomans are trying to recover some of their lost state sovereignty by House Joint Resolution 1089, introduced by State Rep. Charles Key.

The resolution's language, in part, reads: "Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: 'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.'; and Whereas, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and whereas, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and Whereas, today, in 2008, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government. … Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the 2nd session of the 51st Oklahoma Legislature: that the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. That this serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers."

While the resolution has yet to make it through the state senate, Williams is encouraged:

State efforts, such as Oklahoma's, create a glimmer of hope that one day Americans and their elected representatives will realize that the federal government is the creation of the states. A bit of rebellion by officials in other states will speed that process along.

Dr. Williams is correct, but fails to note the redefinition that is at the heart of the failure to make that realization:

The word "federal" is supposed to refer to the two-tiered governmental structure under which a national government handles foreign affairs and national defense, while the several states handle domestic governance. Somewhere along the line, the word was usurped by the national government itself, and has become part of names such as "Federal Bureau of Investigation", "Federal Reserve", or the bizarrely-entitled "Federal National Mortgage Association" (usually called "Fannie Mae") and "Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation" ("Freddie Mac") that have been in the news lately.

Williams falls prey to this terminology error even as he decries its result (emphasis mine):

One of the more disgusting sights for me to is to watch a president, congressman or federal judge take an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution, when in reality they either hold constitutional principles in contempt or they are ignorant of those principles.

They're not "federal judges"; they are employed by the national government of the United States of America. The use of "federal" to mean "national" is depriving the word of its true meaning; advocates of federalism are unable to make our case to an electorate that doesn't even understand what we're talking about. In order to think clearly, we must use well-defined terms. One of the biggest weapons in the leftist arsenal is the redefinition of language. Let's not surrender our language to them.
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