Having a Road Map to go forward in a practical manner with a job like constructing the parts of a State Assembly is the equivalent of having a blueprint --- it still matters how you do the work, the order in which you do it, and the "materials" you use. Please note that a house built of plastic, is still plastic, and the ends don't justify the means.
Unknown to you, I had probably a dozen contacts with Paul over the past six months, asking him questions he didn't answer and trying to moderate. Two months ago I became truly alarmed and wondered if he was losing his mind. So I asked for an impartial evaluation of what was going on in Michigan. The findings came back -- he was creating powers and even a whole "jurisdiction" for himself, that don't exist; he was denying and infringing upon the equal rights of other Michiganders -- using surveillance techniques to violate their rights to privacy and freedom of association, punishing anyone he even suspected of any ill-intent by removing them from committee work and applying "time-outs" without any real justification for their use, even telling one man --- a man with equal rights to his own --- that he could "never" be a member of The Michigan Assembly.
"Yes, Paul, I can and I did. (Remove him from being a Coordinator and dissolve the Assembly -- again.) I have had to do it before in Michigan, in California, and Missouri, when they got wildly off track.
We, in America, don’t kill freedom in the name of protecting it.
You may have had the best intentions, you may have faced some extraordinary circumstance, but the means to an end DO matter.
Remember, “I may not agree with what you say, Sir, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it”?
No actual good can come from denying people their basic rights as enumerated in The Bill of Rights, no greater goal is promoted by constant surveillance and making assumptions about their intentions — haven’t you ever read about the right to privacy, Paul?
Or “Innocent until proven guilty”?
You’ve been making allegations and accusations and throwing people out of their own Assembly for sins like having coffee with a neighbor.
Look at what you have said about Amy Hunt, even after I told you no, she is innocent of any such malarkey. I named her because she still has the right attitude toward her fellowman.
You, Paul, have been trained as an attack dog and that is not what we are doing here. It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s not that I don’t appreciate your service. Or your many technical and organizational talents.
But we are not at war. Any “enemies” are pretty much limited to FBI Agents and Snitches and we don’t worry about them too much. We just keep our skirts clean and don’t promote violence or let anyone promote violence to us. Let them look all they want. Let them listen to every phone call and read every email
They might learn something. They might even switch lanes. It has been known to happen.
We do have a FEW out of school CIA and ONI operatives embedded around the country, but they are not politicking — they are just listening and scavenging information about topics of interest. So let them.
We don’t mind giving them a free education.
Our focus, as a result, isn’t on identifying infiltrators or, more to the point, imagining them behind every bush. Look at the long list of people including me that you have labeled “infiltrators”.
A little voice should be saying, no, Paul, this isn’t the Cold War and we are not Enemy Combatants.
Do you seriously believe that any of us work for any foreign agency or government or have any interest in undermining work that we ourselves have set in motion?
No. We are Americans who are muddling along learning our traditional values and history and form of law — and restoring our government in the process.
Numerous assumptions you have made simply are not correct. We don’t operate on or offer contracts. That’s the Other Guys. That’s how THEY operate.
Coordinators are civilian volunteers — not commanders.
Coming home should be joyous and welcoming and comforting, but you have created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, instead.
That’s just more of the same old gulag-style “occupied territory” crap that we don’t want or need, and that we are moving beyond now.
Mom and Pop are occupying their own territory again, and that’s a good thing long overdue.
From the beginning I have described as what we are doing as a rescue mission for all Americans. All.
Picture them all, flailing in the water, about to drown— and we hove into view in our old three-masted sailing ship with a skeleton crew just in time.
It may seem ridiculous to some in an age of cell phones and surveillance satellites, but what is true in Law remains true. Rights really ARE unalienable. And when you are out in the middle of the ocean any boat that floats is boat enough to praise God for.
We, Paul, are manning that old Ship of State. And it’s the Federation exercising the American Admiralty that is making it possible, so stop kicking the Federation and stop pretending that we aren’t doing our job.
If we weren’t, the whole assembly process wouldn’t be here. Absolutely none of this would be going on.
Part of our (unwanted and extra, by the way) duty is to guide the States through the process of assembling and because it hasn’t been done in a while, that is proving difficult. Add in the effects of a lifetime spent under the heels of foreign governments it’s damn near impossible for people to “just know” who they are and how things are supposed to work.
Imagine my dismay when after making this Herculean effort to go out on the High Seas to rescue these precious people, to find you still barring their way? Denying and controlling access to their most basic rights? Their right to participate in their own government — in a self-governing nation. Their right to free speech and expression. Their right to free association (they can talk to and associate with anyone they like.). Their right to equal treatment. Their right to privacy.
You’ve been trampling over people who have rights equal to your own, and using misrepresented claims of positional authority to do it.
Teri should have taught you that Coordinators are all ASNs. They are all volunteers from their States. They work with both the Federation and the local Assembly members to build the organizational structures of the traditional and customary American State Assembly.
And that’s it. Coordinators are not meant to be autocrats or bureaucrats, either one. They are meant to function as neighbors, and as friends to all parties involved in this process. There are no “sides”.
Like building a barn, it’s a job to be done.
It’s a thoroughly civilian effort open to people of all kinds from all races, creeds, political persuasions and religions, who stand as traditional Americans claiming their birthright and reversionary trust interest.
And they don’t have to agree about everything and move in lock-step to agree about the one thing that counts. They are Americans who take their nationality from their State of the Union and stand together to exercise their rights and their freedoms for the common good.
They are The Michigan Assembly.
Treasure them and cherish that, but also realize that you were way off course and treating people badly and denying them their most basic rights in the name of The Michigan Assembly—- and there are few things I can think of more wrong-headed than that."
-- Aaron, when I was a little girl, I was confused about what a "church" was. I saw the building and I heard people refer to it as a church, so, of course, I figured I knew what a church was. It was only later that my Mother explained that no, the actual "church" was the people, not the building.
It's the people that ARE The Michigan Assembly -- not the business structure.
I also want you to know that contrary to what is being alleged by Paul, that I am just acting off-the-cuff, irrationally, or without evidence of what I say, or that I am being influenced by liars and cheats and propagandists -- I want you to know that we have video and audio confirmation that Paul said and did these things -- infringing on the rights of other Michiganders -- so it's not up for debate.
Indeed, if you ever stopped and listened to the lengthy preamble to every meeting, the one that drones on and on about what you can and cannot say and how long you can speak and what behaviors are tolerated and even dictates the "emotionless" manner in which you can speak --- and thought about it --- you would realize that the most basic rights of the people were being unreasonably and brutally abridged --in the name of what? A Roadmap?
Where does it say, in any Roadmap I purportedly approved, that it's okay to deprive people of their freedom of speech and association? To dictate their freedom of expression and limit their communications to "emotionless" delivery? And who is to decide what is properly emotionless or not? What gives that person the right to make such judgments? Does any "Roadmap" --- any piece of paper, ever, confer such authority?
No.
That's not the American Way.
Neither is surveillance of others, the building of dossiers detailing who they speak to, who they have coffee with, or other violations of privacy and freedom of association. Pardon me, Aaron, but Americans, including Michiganders, can talk to whoever they wish, whenever, about any topic.
It's not up to Paul Peterson. Or you. Or me.
And it is not up to Paul Peterson to arbitrarily "remove" people from their own State Assembly. I have made it perfectly clear on many, many occasions that State Assemblies are public government institutions, not private clubs. Every Michigander has the right to participate in their State Government.
The only exception is temporary time-outs because of disruptive "drunk and disorderly" behavior or behavior that willfully impedes the conduct of business (seeking to displace the Agenda without urgent cause, for example) and even in these cases, time-outs are meant to be progressive -- meaning that you identify the particular behavior and how that is causing disruption and you discuss it with the person and you give them a time-out for a few days. If they do it again, you go through the same process and put them in a longer time-out.
Such discipline as we have reflects the equal right of the other members to not waste their time -- for example, listening to drunken rants and having their intended business left unaddressed. Time outs are not meant to be weaponized and used to deprive people of their right to participate and be heard, or to suppress politically unpopular concerns.
All of that and more was going on in Michigan.
We, our American Government, doesn't use contracts to force anything on anyone. That's the Other Guys. Our most basic freedom, the freedom not to serve the government, is the keystone upon which all other freedoms depend.
In other countries, people are bound to serve their government at birth. There is no choice in that matter, and so, they are never free. One of the halcyon differences between this country and others, is that we individually make the choice of when and if and to what extent we will serve our own government.
So telling Michiganders that they have to sign a contract before they can be members of their State Assembly is at best a vast misrepresentation and imposition. Michiganders are free to serve their government -- or not -- on their own terms.
A simple agreement to abide by clearly stated standards of behavior isn't a contract of obligation to commercial penalties or performances. It's what used to be called "a gentleman's agreement" --- a freewill, good faith, handshake agreement to maintain the peace and respect the equal rights of others, for example. That's the kind of "Membership Agreement" the American Government anticipates, not a lengthy, crippling, contract designed to circumscribe the very freedoms that the members of The Michigan Assembly are owed.
All of that --and more-- was inappropriate and arbitrary "interpretation" of the Roadmap, and quite apart from the Roadmap itself.
As for Amy Hunt, she has the right attitude toward people, that indefinable quality of the Right Stuff for the job at hand. She is reasonable, thoughtful, fair-minded, and strives to do the right thing in a consistent fashion. I have observed her on several occasions -- difficult situations -- and she has always been a servant of the people and a peacemaker, which is badly needed.
She did not undermine Paul's administration. She did not put herself forward as his replacement. She was startled when I named her "out of the blue". It was not discussed prior to the action being undertaken. I need and Michigan needs someone of such prudent and even-temper and good intent, to be that kindly and welcoming source of comfort and common sense that one associates with coming home.
Many of our people are wounded, some beyond repair. Nobody needs to endure more trauma at the hands of those who are supposed to be rescuing them.
As for the Federation "meddling" in the affairs of a sovereign state, that is not what we are doing. It is our (unasked for and unhappy extra) duty to guide the State Assemblies through the assembling process on top of doing our own work at a difficult time in history. So we are doing it, and everyone concerned can thank God that we are.
It's because we are on duty that good people who acted in good faith in Missouri are being helped to get their paperwork done and bank accounts established. People in California aren't giving their hearts and money to another British substitute government. People in Utah are safe and not being set up as "dangerous insurrectionists". And people in Michigan aren't suffering severance from their most basic rights and freedoms, in the name of sovereignty, but not in its service.
Take a look and you will see that the Federation of States has been behind each and every development and action in your favor. The Federation summoned the States into Session. The Federation has steadfastly guided and guarded your progress toward full restoration of self-governance.
Seen against this background, it should be apparent that all this self-interested posturing about interfering in state sovereignty by those engaged in activities that seek to endanger and undermine that same sovereignty inherent in each and every one of you, is just another attempt to blame others for their own missteps and accuse others of what they have, self-evidently, done themselves.
The philosopher and writer, Hannah Arendt, famously observed that "we become what we hate". We focus on what we hate. We learn from what we hate. We adopt the practices, subconsciously, of what we hate. And then, we become what we hate, and visit all the same violence and criminality that we have suffered ourselves, on others.
That is not a pattern of behavior that the Federation of States will fall heir to, and it is not something that any State Assembly should be subject to, either.
We have remembered the past and are not destined to relive it.
Very sincerely yours,
Anna Maria
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