Liberty Song Saturday: Pendulum

Here is a cover of Pendulum by Jordan Page with a video that includes numerous quotes from the Articles of Freedom. It was originally put together as an ad for the Articles of Freedom Delivery Day--Patriot's Day, April 19, 2010. The Articles of Freedom were delivered to certain officials at every state capitol on that day.

The song, Pendulum, expresses the singer/songwriter Jordan Page's frustration with the false left-right paradigm:

". . . and the pendulum swings from the left to the right,
the momentum increases, the weight and the height,
But if nobody's listening, is anyone right?
And I can't find the key to the middle . . ."

This song is also about Page's personal observations of what is happening to his country and its Constitution:

"I saw a president blind to the needs of his people,
I saw a camel that passed through the eye of a needle,
I saw a group of old men whose money was evil . . ."

"I saw beggars and cripples dying in squalor,
I a saw a son whose sins has exceeded his father's,
I saw a nation of sleepers whose dreams were forgotten,
and a bushel of apples from a tree that was rotten. . ."

And finally, this is a song about Page's personal journey to the R3volution:

"I met a young woman with a baby inside her,
I looked but there wasn't a safe place to hide her;
I met an old man with a face like a mirror,
he showed me his sadness so I could see clearer . . ."

The quotes from the Articles of Freedom are special in their own right, and here they go together with the song. The Articles of Freedom document how our government has abrogated the Constitution, and how the actions of our elected officials in all three branches of government have destroyed Liberty. The Articles of Freedom are also a powerful call to action on the part of we, the people, to restore our Liberty by requiring our government to obey the Constitution.

Although the Articles of Freedom have been delivered to government officials in every state capitol already, it is still imperative that we join together to take the peaceful but forceful actions necessary to withdraw our support from a government bent on tyranny and the destruction of our Liberty.

If you love Liberty, go to the link above and sign the pledge.

It is our right and our duty to change a government that has become an instrument of tyranny.

The Articles of Freedom Ceremony at the Roundhouse

They thought we were skinheads. Evidently, the Roundhouse security didn't click through on the links to the We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, and to the Articles of Freedom website. So our ceremony, in the Rotunda of the Roundhouse, was attended by a few Constitutionalists, and large group of the Capitol Police. Well, perhaps the policemen heard us talking about their Oath to the Constitution. I hope so. At one point in the ceremony, I said:

"How does anyone taking this vow, elected officials especially, reconcile this with the violations that have been committed against our Constitution, and what those violations have done and are doing to America, with effects for generations to come?"

During the ceremony, they did allow a tour group composed for the most part of retirees and schoolchildren to walk through, so by then I imagine that they realized that we are simply ordinary Americans, concerned about our out of control government.

(Here we are getting ready for the ceremony. Michael Lunnon had put our state table marker from CC2009 on the lectern, but the Capitol Security made us take it down. Evidently, there's been some incidents of anti-Richardson signs at the Capitol lately. Wonder why?)

The New Mexico Roundhouse is the only round capitol building in the US, and it looks like a Zia--the symbol on our seal, from the air. New Mexico has the oldest Capitol Building in the US--the Palace of the Governors--built to house the Spanish colonial governor--pre-dates Williamsburg and New England. New Mexico also has the newest, our current capital, the Roundhouse, finished in 1966.

(Picture: The Great Seal of the State of New Mexico was on the front of the lectern. It is an interesting seal because it shows the American Bald Eagle protecting the Mexican Brown Eagle, which has a snake in its beak and an cactus in it's talons; the same Brown Eagle is on the Mexican Flag. The date 1912--the year of our statehood is in Arabic rather than Roman numerals, as the the people thought the Roman numerals were too prententious for us. The Motto--Cresit Eundo--means "it grows as it goes". Although some think it is nonsensical, I believe it fits New Mexico very well.)

Although press releases were sent out, there was only one person there who may have been from the press--but he didn't identify himself. No matter, the ceremony was intended to be a public speaking out to our government which is in violation of the Constitution. Although we hope for a response to the Articles of Freedom, we do not expect it. The purpose of this public speaking out is to have a record that we have petitioned for redress of our grievances, and getting no response, now we have provided our servant government with instructions on the violations from the reak Sovereigns--the people themselves. In the future whether we regain our liberty as free men and women, or if we lose our liberty entirely, there will be record that some of us resisted the encroaching power of the state.

Despite the fact that we were treated as if we, the people who own the building, were somehow a danger to it, we were happy that we were able to use the Rotunda. We did so with prior notice, and we did sign a copy of the rules--but we did not ask for a permit to speak. Rights need no permission. And in that sense, perhaps the State of New Mexico is more honorable than many other places. They did not ask us to violate our rights.



(Picture: The inside of the Rotunda is faced with native New Mexican travertine, carefully matched. The Rotunda is full of light from the simple but beautiful ocula above).










Rather than beginning with the Pledge to the Flag, we began with a more meaningful (to us) Pledge of Honor to the Constitution for the United States:

"I pledge my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor, to protect and defend the Constitution, and the Republic which it forms, One nation of Sovereign States, with Liberty and Justice for ALL." (I wrote this after looking at various other pledges to the Constitution).









The second part of the ceremony, after all the pledges and the Prayer of the Continental Congress 2009, read the statement of purpose:


"Our message is not about the resusitation of a dead Constitution.The Constitution still towers above the wrecks of our national life.


. . . We are NOT fanatics. We are NOT extremists. We do NOT seek revolution or anarchy.


As a people we need to ask . . . what kind of a country do we want to leave to our children and grandchildren?


Shall we let our Constitution and its essential principles be murdered by the powers of this world? Will we tolerate TYRANNY merely to be comfortable?


. . . Now we offer these instructions to our government to obey the Constitution, which after all, is a strongly worded set of principles to govern the government, NOT the people.


By the provisions in the Constitution, the PEOPLE have formed the government, and enabled the government to act in certain ways. HOWEVER, the PEOPLE have also purposely and markedly restricted and prohibited the government from acting in certain other ways.


. . .We are not moved by any hasty suggestion of anger or revenge. Through every possible change of fortune we adhere peacably to this determination.


. . . It is our obligation as responsible citizens of this country to set a proper value upon, and to defend to the utmost, our just rights and the blessings of life and liberty. . .


. . . [We are placing our government and its officials] on notice that, We, the Free People of America, believe them to be in violation of their Oaths of Office and the Constitution for the United States of America."

Dave Batcheller then read the Declaration and Resolves of the Continental Congress 2009:





" . . . In defense of a Free People, the time has come to reassert our god-given natural rights and cast off tyranny.


Let the facts reveal: The federal government of the United States of America was instituted to secure the individual rights of our citizens, and instead now threatens our life, liberty and property through usurpations of the Constitution. Emboldened by our own lack of responsibility in these matters, government has exceded its mandate and abandoned those founding principles that have made our nation exceptional.


. . . Whereupon we, as citizen-delegates have gathered in defense of divine justice, liberty and the principles of limited government, now stand in recognition of the Supreme Law of the Land--the Constitution for the United States of America.


Therefore, we demand that government immediately re-establish Constitutional Rule of Law, lest the people be forced to do so themselves; and we hereby serve notice that in the defense of Freedom and Liberty there shall be NO COMPROMISE to which we will ever yield."




After I then read a list of the fourteen Constitutional violations for which the formal petitions for Redress of Grievance had been ignored, as identified by the Continental Congress, the people present were invited to join in taking the Pledge of the Articles of Freedom:

"In full view of the Creator as my Witness,
I hereby pledge to join with millions of Americans, to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable to their oaths of office: To preserve, protect and defend the Constitution for the United States of America.
In seeking to hold them accountable, I shall hold myself accountable to do the same.
I renounce and condemn, any and all INITIATION of violent force, and will pursue all Lawful and Constitutional means to fulfill my duty.
I speak these works as an Eternal Record of the will of a people to be Free."

These are the highlights.

After the ceremony, Dave, Michael and I were escorted by security to deliver the Articles of Freedom to the Governor's office, and the offices of the Speaker of the State House, and the President Pro-Tempore of the State Senate. These offices are in the Roundhouse. We then went (sans entourage) to the offices of both US Senators, as well as the US Representative in whose district Santa Fe is located to deliver the Articles to them.

At each place, we gave the staffer a short shpiel and then handed over the articles. As I said above, it would be nice if they look at them but that is a lot to expect from these politicians. Their bread is not buttered by the people that they supposedly represent.

Now we work to get that 3 - 5 % of the population on board with the concept of peaceful but determined civic action, in order to put the pressure on our out-of-control government.
That is the next step. Whatever happens in the end, at least I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I did not fiddle while the Constitution burned.

Articles of Freedom: The New Website

The R3volution continues . . .

I am proud to annouce that the Articles of Freedom Website has now been launched and that I had a teeny, tiny part to play in the drama! One of the two webmasters launched it from my kitchen--and in our excitement and because we were distracted--I forgot to feed him!

A sorry come-down for the Mother of the R3volution NM.

The Articles of Freedom represent the work of the Continental Congress 2009, and several versions have been distributed on the web. Each of the 15 Articles present the facts about one Constitutional violation that our servant government has used to increase its power at our expense. The We the People Foundation, over years of activism, has established a record of formal Petitions for Redress of Grievances for each of these 15 violations, and our employees in all branches of government have refused to respond to any of them. Therefore three delegates from each of 48 states-- Americans from all walks of life--met together to created a record of these violations, and moving beyond a time of petition, have issued instructions for how to redress the violations to all branches of government, federal and state. In case those instructions are not followed, and in case our servant government mistakes our intention, we have also made recomendations to the People of the United States, in their several sovereign States, for peaceful civic action to hold government accountable to the Constitution.

These civic actions can be effective if a mass movement of between 2.5% and 5% of the population engages in them together, in order to hold the government accountable. This has been the case in every place and time where the People have held their governments accountable.

If you desire liberty for yourselves and your children; and if you have been concerned about the concentration of power into the hands of venal politicians, who "have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our peopel and eat out their substance" (Declaration of Independence), then go to the website on the widget at the top of this blog, read the Articles of Freedom and sign the pledge to take action together. And if you are a patriot--prove it by reading the Plan of Action for April 19th, 2010. And spread the word. Do your part to restore Liberty and Constitutional governance. Then you can look your children in the eye when they ask you what you did to protect their inheritance of Liberty.

Atlas Chronicles: Feds Loot Charter Bank

Until recently, our small state-regulated banks and small local banks under federal regulation have been left alone by the Feds. But last week the looting of the wealth of New Mexico for the sake of political expediency began. This is happening in communities and states across the United States. The looting of our communities has begun.

On Friday, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) closed Charter Bank, a closely-held conservative local bank that was in the business of lending money to New Mexicans and their businesses for the purchase of homes and commercial real estate. They then forced the sale of the remaining assets to a vulture "capitalist" from Texas, a company that has no interest in making conservative loans to New Mexicans interested in owning their own homes. The looting began because the OTS, a bureaucratic agency in fear of its own survival, is imposing standards based on conditions at the big banks--the ones on the government dole--to small banks who couldn't get government "help" if they tried. They are imposing standards required by the disaster that, through the Community Reinvestment Act, and the looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal government itself created.

Charter Bank was not "too big to fail," and the owners knew it. They also understood that by doing their business honorable and conservatively, they kept the trust of their customers and brought wealth and stability to New Mexico. At the time Charter was forced to close, their commercial loans not being paid on time amounted to about 0.33% of their total loans. (Note: this is late payments, not foreclosures). These are numbers that speak to the careful underwriting that Charter clearly did to make sure the loans they made were good ones. These are numbers that many of the bail-out banks could only dream of having.

How then did OTS close Charter Bank? Through an assault by devaluing Charter's holdings on paper. Like it has for many small and conservative banks, OTS decided based on national trends that have little relevance to the situation on the ground in New Mexico, that some of Charter's commercial customers might not be able to continue paying down their loans. They therefore forced Charter to reduce on paper the value of those loans. (This is like Pre-Crime in The Minority Report, a short story by Phillip K. Dick. The Pre-Crime Division would arrest and imprison innocent citizens because they might commit a crime in the future). This creative bookkeeping reduced Chater's capital holdings on paper, bringing it below the federally mandated amount, and presto-chango, Charter went from being on solid footing to being a "failing bank" by sleight of hand.

The OTS did this for political reasons. It has been fashionable in DC for a long time to blame all of the financial problems of this country on businessmen and capitalism. Like the medieval rulers of Europe, and the ruling families of corrupt middle-eastern kingdoms, American politicians have found it expedient to divert the attention of the population away from their own tyrannical machinations and corrupt policy by blaming the bankers. The OTS failed to stop the melt-down of the big national lenders because other government agencies had forced on them policies (like the Community Reinvestment Act) that could only end in failure. And the big lenders and investors played along, sucking at the government teat, in order acquire unreal profits at the expense of future stability. And when reality finally came crashing in on them, they all screamed that they were too big to fail, and received bailouts that will impoverish the next generation of productive Americans. And bookkeeping sleight-of hand continues at that level, as AIG payed back their bail-out with money printed by the Office of Treasury and sold to the Fed. So now, with their future existance in doubt, the OTS is trying to look busy by rushing to close the barn doors on small, local banks that never were in danger to begin with. The horses, already long gone, did not come from those barns.

Charter Bank did not engage in the illusory lending practices that created the real-estate bubble and the painful burst that the people in this country are now enduring. Charter Bank did not participate in subprime lending. And Albuquerque's housing market remains relatively stable, as the housing prices were not much over-inflated, and the slow-down in housing sales, a reaction to changes in conditions elsewhere, has already begun to recover. OTS made this decision by the fiat of a bureaucrat far away, based on conditions in places like Las Vegas and the State of Florida.

But OTS doesn't care that they have destroyed the personal wealth of a strong, responsible banking family in New Mexico by the stroke of a pen. They certainly don't care that they have replaced a strong conservative engine of wealth for New Mexico with a vulture "capitalist" from Texas, who also will not care about local needs. His business is to feed off of what remains from failed banks and his business model will not likely benefit New Mexico, where the wealth he and the OTS looted at the stroke of the pen originated.

It is time for our local sheriffs to make sure there are actual court-produced leans on homes and businesses, before allowing any federal agencies to invade homes and close businesses in our counties. It is time for the States to assert the 10th amendment, and nullify any action by the federal government that would move wealth away from the local economy and to the bureaucrats in Washington, that "Great City". We must stop these unelected people from looting us by regulatory strokes of the pen before we find ourselves paupers and slaves in the land our fathers and mothers built.

Prior to our marriage, the Engineering Geek and I both had financed our first homes through Charter. Both of us knew the Charter Bank owners, the Wertheims, members of the Jewish community here, and benefactors of the larger community in many ways beyond their business.
After our marriage, we also financed the loan portion of our first home together there. And when we paid off that loan and the home we now own outtright, Charter Bank has succeeded in producing another satisfied customer, and had contributed to more wealth in our economy. They did with good sense, and provided excellent and courteous customer service.

Like many in the community, we were shocked at the destruction that the Feds had wrought right here in little "Cow-town" USA. One letter written to the editor of the Albuquerque Journal today stated:

"When armed men enter a bank and take everything away from the owners, it is bank robbery. What do we do when the bank robber is the federal government? . . . I refuse to do business with thieves!" (Vickie Averhoff, Letters to the Editor: Breaking the Bank. The Albuquerque Journal, Wednesday January 29, 2010, p. A9).

Likewise, the Engineering Geek and I will not entrust one more dime of our money to the vultures who looted Charter Bank, and are sucking the wealth out of our community.

And this begs the question. This type of thievery by government regulation is going on in every area where the federal government has usurped its Constitutionally limited powers. All of us who choose not to do business with thieves must begin to look carefully at how to stop supporting a federal government gone rogue, that lies, cheats and steals for the momentary benefit of a small number of politicians cum-potentates. This will not be an easy task. It will require courage and it will exact a price upon all of us, because the piper for this dance of destruction will have to be paid. If not by us, than it will be paid by the toil and loss of freedom of our children and grandchildren.

If you are a patriot; if you a just a person who gives a damn about the people being destroyed in your community; if you want to preserve your birthright to Life, Liberty and Property: Read the Articles of Freedom. Sign this Pledge:

"In full view of the Creator as my Witness, I hereby pledge my signature, and vow to join a goodly number of millions of Americans to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable for all of their violations, with the firm reminder that each one of them has sworn an Oath (or Affirmation) to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution for the United States of America. In seeking to hold them accountable, I shall hold myself accountable to do the same.

"We, undersigned renounce and condemn the INITIATION of Force, and will pursue all lawful and Constitutional means to fulfill our duty." (Articles of Freedom, Christmas Eve "Miracle" Edition).

Together, we can stop doing business with thieves.
Before they rob us blind.

Clarifying The Non-Initiation Principle

We, the undersigned, renounce and condemn any and all

INITIATION of force and will pursue all lawful and

Constitutional means to fulfill our duty."

--The Articles of Freedom:

the Work of Continental Congress 2009

Twice this week I have heard conservatives object to the Non-initiation of Force Principle (NIP) based on what appears to be a misunderstanding or mishearing of the word INITIATION. This is something that I have begun to notice as my political work takes me among conservatives; that they are generally unaware of the meaning or the basis of the Non-initiation principle that stems from the concept of the Rights of Man.

The non-initiation of force principle is a product of the classical liberal thought of the enlightenment and its modern statement is a product of libertarian philosophy and ethics. Its basis is that each individual has "certain unalienable rights." These rights are not granted by any god or government, rather they have their source in the nature of human beings as moral agents. Because they are unalienable, rights cannot be removed from individuals, nor may a person voluntarily surrender them. They are proper to the nature of the human individual. These rights are defined as the right to Life, Liberty and Property. It is these rights that the Declaration of Independence asserts and that the Constitution* was written to protect.

*The Constitution guarantees US citizens that these rights will be protected by the government it forms, but the Constitution does not "grant" them. If it did so, these would be privileges, not rights. Therefore, the concept "constitutional rights" is a misnomer. Rather, these are rights that are protected by the Constitution.

The first explanation I ever saw of how the initiation of force is a violation of individual rights comes from Ayn Rand's Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal. Rand writes:

"To violate a man's rights means to compel him to act against his own judgement or to expropriate his values. Basically, there is only one way to do it: by the use of physical force. There are two potential violators of man's rights: the criminals and the government. The great achievement of the United States was to draw a distinction between these two--by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the activities of the first." (p. 371)

In sum, it is a violation of an individual's natural rights to initiate force against him. Force can violent, as it is when someone is compelled against her will at the point of a gun or by the threat of torture. But there are also non-violent methods of force, such as fraud, deception and neglect.

Adherence to the Non-Initiation Principle means that one agrees not to use force against an innocent individual who has not first violated or threatened one's own right to Life, Liberty or Property. However, it does not mean that one cannot DEFEND against the violation of one's own rights by the meeting force with force. This is so, because by violating the rights of another, the one who initiates force has forfeited his own rights, and has become a criminal. This is true regardless of whether the initiator is acting alone, or in a group. And the person whose rights have been abrogated is morally obligated to use whatever means possible to defend them and restore them, and he may properly ask others to help him in this defense.

Through our Constitution, we have invested our governments (state and federal) with the power to protect our rights by protecting us from the initiation of force. We have authorized government to use force against those who initiate it against us in order to stop the violation of the rights of innocent citizens. For example, we have given* the government the power try and incarcerate a thief in order to protect us from a violation of our property rights.

*Rights belong to the people, and are individual; whereas the government is granted privileges and duty by the people whose individual rights the government exists to secure.

However, a government that violates the rights of its owners, the citizens, by initiating force against them has become a tyranny. And the citizens has the right to defend their rights against it, and more, they have the duty "to throw off such a government, and provide new guards for their future security." (The Declaration of Independence).

Both of the conservatives I spoke with objected to the Non-initiation Principle because they did not hear and/or understand the difference between initiating force against an innocent person, thus violating his rights, and the use of force to meet and repel the force used in those violations. That is, they did not understand the meaning of the word INITIATION in the context of the principle.

So I will state it plainly: the Non-initiation principle does not preclude the use of force as a RESPONSE to the initiation of force against oneself by criminals, whether they be individuals or groups or even associated with government. That is, it does not preclude the use of fraud, deception, neglect or violence to DEFEND one's Life, Liberty or Property. A free individual has no moral obligation to accept the initiation of force against him; rather he has the moral obligation to defend his rights, and he may morally join with others to defend the rights of another free individual.

If we have been subjected by our own government to " a long train of abuses and usurpations" of our rights--as we have been, and if "our most humble petitions for redress of grievances have been met only with repeated injury", then we have the moral obligation, that is the duty, to defend our rights by any means necessary.

However, we have no moral obligation to act imprudently. Rather, as we go about the defense of our rights, prudence dictates that we consider the consequences of our responses to ourselves and to those around us, using violence only when we have exhausted all other means of meeting force with force. Although there is no guarantee that we will be able to stop those abuses and usurpations of our rights by our servant government short of armed resistance, still it is better to try other means, for if we succeed in them, we save our own blood and treasure from destruction.

For a very brief and shining moment in history, the United States, through the Bill of Rights that forbade the government from initiation of force against innocent citizens, achieved a society in which the use of force in relationships among individuals was forbidden and punished, thus allowing for all relationships to be predicated on the freedom of individuals to associate with one another, and to have the unrestricted freedom of contract. But that moment has been superceded by a government that through the corruption of the values of liberty and individual rights, has usurped the sovereignty of the individual, replacing it with the collectivist concept of "the social good."

Our individual rights are almost gone from want of our strong and consistent defense of them. Rights only exist where free individuals have the will to exercise them, and upon their violation, to defend themselves against the usurpers of rights, whether those usurpers be criminals or government.

Is it time to consider meeting force with force?
I believe it is. And prudence dictates that we begin by demanding of the government their compliance with the limitations placed on them by the Constitution, and by meeting their initiation of force against us with strongly asserted, principled civil disobedience.

If you agree that we have the duty to defend our rights, join with us by signing the Articles of Freedom, and making the commitment to engage with millions of other Americans in the civic actions required to withdraw our support from those who have violated our rights.

Long live the Constitution of the United States!

R3volution: The Articles of Freedom

On 23 December 1776 Thomas Paine published his pamphlet The Crisis in which he said:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God."

Two-hundred and thirty-three years later, we find ourselves once again with a government that has declared that it "has the right not only to TAX but to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER". The Tyrant marches among us again, this time usurping power from We the People through election fraud, the making of unconstitutional legislation and by excessive use of the Treasury Department printing presses in order to enslave us once again.

For two weeks in November, delegates to the Continental Congress 2009 met together in St. Charles Illinois to determine what the next step of a Free People might be, seeing that all of our petitions for redress of grievance have gone unanswered. I was a delegate to that Congress, and I am proud to have played a small part in the product of that assembly.

Yesterday evening, 23 December 2009, two hundred thirty-three years to the day of Tom Paine's The Crisis, The Articles of Freedom: The Work of the Continental Congress 2009 was released for publication. The Preface of the Articles reads:

Across many administrations and years, by each branch of government, through each major political party, the Constitution for The United States has been violated. The People have formally Petitioned the Government for Redress of the violations in the most humble of terms. The People and their Petitions have been ignored. Each un-remedied violation has taken its toll with dire impact on our economic interests, our people, our quality and way of life and our international and national reputations.

We hold this Truth to be Self- Evident:

Any action, by any branch of the Government, that is
repugnant to the Constitution, is null and void.

On November 11, 2009, and for eleven days continuing morning, noon and night, Citizens of America gathered in St. Charles, Illinois, as Delegates from each of forty-eight States, to discuss these violations, and Government‟s refusal to be held accountable, and to recommend a course of action to restore Constitutional Obedience in a Constitutional Republic now challenged to Its core. These were not professional legislators, wordsmiths or attorneys.
These were ordinary, non-aligned citizens from across America and all walks of life. They set aside their lives for this Assembly. They represent You and Me, the Free People of America.

The conclusion of their efforts is This Document called
"Articles of Freedom."

It is proposed that these Articles be distributed to All in the Land with the
intent to draw the attention and courage of a “goodly number of millions of
People” who, entitled to their Freedom and essential to Its maintenance,
Arise to Restore the Constitution for the United States of America.

Then and only then shall America's Destiny be Fulfilled.

Now it is up to the Free People of the United States. Are you a winter soldier and an all-weather patriot? Do you understand that heaven prices Liberty dearly, and are you ready to pay the price to restore the Republic? If so, gentle reader, go to the link above or here and read the whole of the Articles of Freedom. And consider if what is expressed there make you willing to engage in non-violent civic action in order to call the rogue government in Washington D.C. to account for the long chain of abuses and usurpations it has engaged in against the People and the Constitution that we ordained and established in 1787.

And as you read, consider that we, the citizen-delegates, and our administrative team, are not by any stretch of the imagination, near to the greatness of our Founders. The writing is ours and not theirs, the editing is imperfect, and there are uncaught errors; and yet I believe that the Spirit of '76, their Spirit, shines through it, despite our lack of eloquence and our errors.

Thomas Paine concluded The Crisis by saying:

"Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to [the one] that breaks the compact . . . I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.

I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. . ."

Are you a Patriot? Prove it. Act to protect and defend our Great Charter of Liberty, the Constitution of the United States.In the Articles of Freedom, you will see our present situation described well. And reason will be brought to your ears. And there is a way out of it. When we hang together as mutual defenders and protectors of the Constitution of the United States, we shall see no cause for fear.

CC 2009: Articles of Freedom Preamble

The Preamble of the Articles of Freedom along with an interview with CC2009 President, Michael Badnarik, now available at the CC2009 Website.

Here is the Preamble. This was an entirely different draft than that which was first proposed. This one was approved because it stated the same information, but in a much shorted and stirring style. Enjoy!

Articles of Freedom of Continental Congress 2009 November 21, 2009.

In defense of a free people, the time has come to reassert our God-given natural rights and cast off tyranny.

Let the facts reveal - the Federal Government of the United States of America, which was instituted to protect the rights of individual citizens, instead - threatens our life, liberty and property through usurpations of the Constitution; and emboldened by our own lack of responsibility and due diligence in these matters, has exceeded its mandate, and abandoned those founding principles which have made our nation exceptional;

Our servant government has undertaken these unconstitutional actions in direct violation of their enumerated duties, to the detriment of the People's liberty and the sovereignty of our Republic;

Over many years and spanning multiple political administrations, the People who have, in good conscience, attempted to deliberate our grievances and voice our dissent against these offensive actions through both petition and assembly, have been maligned and ignored with contempt;

The people of the several States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, justly alarmed at these arbitrary and unconstitutional actions, have elected, constituted and appointed delegates to meet, and sit in general Congress in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. Whereupon these delegates, as duly elected representatives of the several States, have gathered in defense of divine justice, liberty and the principles of limited government, and we stand in clear recognition of the supreme law of the land - the Constitution of the United States of America.

Therefore, We demand that Government immediately re-establish Constitutional rule of law, lest the People be forced to do so themselves; and we hereby serve notice that in the defense of Freedom and Liberty there shall be NO COMPROMISE to which we shall ever yield.