By Anna Von Reitz
Certain members and non-members of The Oregon Assembly have been deriding my simple suggestion that they look around in old bookshops and rare book services and find themselves American History and Government textbooks like we used a hundred years ago or more, if they want "proof" of how State Assemblies are supposed to be organized.
Can anyone tell me how else you are supposed to know for sure how your government was organized in the past without consulting books published in the past?
I wasn't alive in 1840 or even 1900. Were you?
So how do we know how State Assemblies are structured? How do we know what functions they perform? We read old books.
We've kindly done the research already and shared the results, but certain knotheads want more. They don't trust us. They want to see it for themselves.
So, I suggested that they do the same thing I did myself and go find old textbooks on the subject and read it for themselves, because that is the only way that they will be convinced anyhow.
What is more intriguing is why would that suggestion provoke ridicule?
We aren't supposed to trust textbooks about our government published in the 1850's? They were "lying" back then, too?
I used to have these same kinds of arguments about the peacetime flag.
First, I was told that there was no such thing as a peacetime flag.
Then, once that was settled in my favor, I was told there was no evidence of the peacetime flag actually being used.
I brought forward a description of it being used as recorded in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, written and published during the time period the peacetime flag was flown.
My critics slunk back into the corner because they had no other choice, but that was a single simple thing.
The structure and function of a State Assembly is much more complex, and if you want to confirm what I am telling you for yourselves you are going to have to do the work I did.
A member of The Minnesota Assembly went and did what I suggested. She's all excited. She started reading books published in 1937 and she couldn't believe all the amazing stuff she found, all the practical, useful information these old books contained.
Our Predecessors weren't fools. They were better educated about a lot of things than we are today. And they spent more time reading.
No wonder their textbooks and reference books are more informative than Wikipedia.
I sent the Oregon people a copy of her happy email and pages she scanned to show me the kind and quality of information she found in these old books---and gave them a taste of what they are missing.
I wasn't blowing them off. I was telling them how I have learned most of what I have learned -- which is by reading old books and periodicals.
If you want "proof" that what I am telling you is true, then you have to do what I did and educate yourselves the same way. And the easiest way to learn about the structure of the American Government is by reading old textbooks on the subject.
Remember that a third of our government was blown away in the so-called Civil War, so if you want to know "for sure" how our Government is meant to be and function you have to go back at least 100 years and more like 150 to a time when our State Assemblies were in regular Session and the original Confederation formed in 1781 was still functioning or at least well-remembered.
This requires consulting "rare" books and buying them is usually the only way to consult them, because most libraries have not preserved the old books.
Amazon has a rare book department and also a textbook department that can be helpful, and there are numerous rare book sellers like ABE Books that keep search lists and let you know when something comes in.
A basic old textbook might cost you $30-50, and a more extensive encyclopedia-type book might cost anywhere from $150 to $500, but if you think I am blowing any sunshine up your skirts and feel the need to know "for sure" this is how you do it.
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