By Anna Von Reitz
This is my 13th Start Up. By that I mean that I have spent much of my life working on "start up" operations --- creating or, in this case, restoring --- organizations that have either: (1) never existed before or (2) have existed, but have stalemated or been partially deconstructed, and need to be restored to full function and maybe even to undertake new functions.
Remember my analogy about the huge old farm machine stored out in the shed out on the Back Forty? A combine harvester from 1958, that needs its diesel engine brought back to life? Or a steam turbine electrical generator that has sat in the generator shack above a dam spillway for forty years, unused?
That's the kind of proposition we have here. We are restoring and in many senses--- restarting, a system of government that has lain dormant for decades, even in some parts that has been forgotten for generations. Not dead. Simply by-passed. Not used. Moth-balled.
We have never seen the American Government in operation the way it is meant to be in operation in our lifetimes. Our parents glimpsed parts of it. Our grandparents knew more about it, but we have to go back to the era of our great-grandparents before the taste and feel of "how this engine is supposed to run" would become clear to everyone involved.
As a result, it's like a start-up operation of any other kind and I emphasize this for everyone, because start-ups are profoundly different than the well-oiled machines that most people experience as inductees to the corporate world.
People like me are like midwives dealing with the birthing process of businesses and governments, while the "managers" who come after us are dealing with organizations in various recognizable stages of maturity. At each stage, the cast of characters, the skills, and the abilities of those involved change.
Building or rebuilding from a start-up perspective is a whole different proposition worlds away from running an established and well-oiled machine.
Building any organization is an organic process, because organizations and the functions of organizations are alive in much the same sense that we are alive as unique people. Like people, organizations can be moral and solid, or they can be crafty and dishonest.
This is what we mean when we talk about "establishing a corporate culture" --- what are the values of the organization? What gets rewarded, and what gets punished? What kind of leadership do we choose? What matters? What are the goals?
The first and foremost goal of any actual government is to protect the people and their private assets.
Our government is no different.
Our secondary goal is to protect, promote, and develop the public resources of our country--- our infrastructure and institutions --- our ports, roads, bridges, rail system, schools, universities, and public lands.
And that, my friends, is really all that a good government needs to do. Two things. Keep those two things firmly in mind and make them your goal, and our people and our country will prosper. Forget them or displace them in favor of profit-making, and our enterprise will fail.
It's as simple --- and as challenging --- as that.
We've seen what happens when "governmental services providers" take over. These private, for-profit government subcontractors have different goals. Sure, they may provide worthy and necessary services, but they are in it for different reasons. They are here to make a profit for their shareholders.
We are here to serve everyone's best interests, including our own.
That is a profound change of focus and relationship. They are employees. We are owner-operators.
Starting from these "givens" let me address one of many situations that generate ongoing concerns: computerization of functions.
Back when our "Big Old Machine" was parked out in that storage shed, we didn't have computers. Like them or not in theory, computers and computerization of functions has become part of our lives and functioning as a modern government requires us to adapt and make use of the new technologies. So that is part of what we are doing.
As the responsible party, I looked at what needed to be done and at the resources available, and I made the following decisions about the situation as it existed when the effort began.
1. Brett would develop the Land Recording System;
2. Dave and Sherry and family would develop the Assembly Hub and assist in the customization of the individual websites and all the portals, links, and accesses needed;
3. Teri would continue to build, oversee, and manage the outreach and educational websites.
In numerous conversations with people all over this country, nobody has disagreed with what I did. Nobody has said, no, no, you were wrong to let Brett develop and manage the LRS. Nobody has objected to anything Dave and Sherry have done. And nobody has criticized Teri's work on the American States Assembly and Sign In America and Peacekeeping Task Force websites.
Nobody. Not a single word of complaint. Not a single dissenting voice.
Everyone to all external signs, is well-content to have our people and resources thus distributed and employed, and, also, according to all reports, reasonable good progress is being made on all the various computer-related projects and tasks --- with one exception.
For whatever reasons, we have not been able to timely deploy and provide the State Credential ID cards. This, in itself, is a comparatively simple task, akin to producing a Driver's License at a DMV office. As all our Assembly Members have done their political status declarations, that necessary step is done, and all that remains is to scan and upload specifics to a secure special purpose database and print out a card.
My computer skills don't extend to programming, but even I could manage to produce a viable secure database and print out cards, quite independent of anything else that is going on.
As the situation on the West Coast has continued to deteriorate and as our members there are in an increasingly exposed position, the prompt issuance of State Credential IDs has become an issue.
Many of our people no longer use Driver Licenses as a form of identification because they now realize that they are not "drivers" in the sense of the statutory law, and that having a DL clouds their political status as Americans --- yet, due to the False Presumptions of military occupation of this country, everyone is required to have and produce a UPU guideline ID at all times for their own safety.
What to do?
With no prejudice or ill-will toward anyone or anything, Teri, who lives in the Seattle area where a lot of the current unrest is focused, took on the additional job of producing State Credential ID's for those in need. This is not rocket science, and it does not have to be tied in --- at least not immediately --- to any other aspect of the ongoing computer developments.
It can be handled as a separate function for now and the job can get done. It can get done at numerous locations, too. Every State should soon have its own printers and be able to feed their information to a central file database. As thousands upon thousands of Americans wake up, this will be necessary anyway.
To me, that phrase, "The job can get done." is all-important, because--- remember--- the first function of government is to protect our people and their private property. To the extent that anything impedes, delays, obstructs or stands in the way of us getting that job done, it has to be overcome.
The delay in getting State Credentials issued to our people endangers them. Pure and simple. It doesn't matter why and it doesn't imply blame. There are no sides to this issue. It simply has to get done.
If it takes another six months for the credential functions to be mainlined through the Assembly Hub, so be it. If it takes a year to train large numbers of clerical support volunteers to input data, so be it. None of that matters. What matters is protecting our people now.
As the Chief Cook, Bottle-washer, and Grandma of this operation, I can tell you that when a baby is hungry, it needs to be fed. There is no arguing about whose cow is tapped to give the milk. And there is no reasonable cause for any big controversy about this situation. All those who have resources and ideas and abilities to help solve the problem are invited to come forward. Everyone else is invited to shut up and sit down.
Why? Because our first goal as a government is to protect our people and their private property. Our second goal is to protect public property that also ultimately belongs to our people. And there isn't a third goal.
Now, I want everyone firmly focused on the two goals of Good Government.
I want everyone committed to accepting differences in roles and responsibilities, and yet, also committed to what our Forefathers called "the Greater Good". That means contributing our own unique abilities and resources as they exist in the present moment.
There is a reason that I tell our contributors --- "If you can't send money and prayers, send us your prayers." Everyone can contribute. Everyone has something to contribute. And as Dave and Sherry remind us, "All things work together for good."
So let the Good Will begin at home, in our own extended Family. Let's understand that when our Forefathers committed "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" -- they were making a commitment to each other, too.
There is no room for taking sides. However divided our opinions may be, at the end of the day, we have to stand together and help each other accomplish the goals --- (1) protect our people and their property; (2) protect and develop our public resources.
We have to develop the insight to not agree, and still defend to the death the rights of others to their own opinions.
I made the decision to place Brett in charge of the LRS. He is still in charge of it. I made the decision to put Dave and Sherry and their co-workers in charge of the Assembly Hub and all that entails. They are still in charge of that. I asked Teri to develop the American States Assembly websites and other educational and outreach websites. She is still in charge of all that.
These are simple facts, not hard for anyone to understand. They don't allow for any interpretation or presumption of competition or taking of sides. There are no sides in this operation. There are just different people and groups working on their own part of the whole.
Dave and Sherry are in charge of connecting the credential functions through the State Assembly Hub --- whenever that part of it is ready to be done, but as a separate function, production of the state credentials is a side issue. It could, as Dave and Sherry have themselves pointed out, eventually be contracted out to a company or companies that specialize in producing credential cards.
And frankly, neither I nor anyone I have spoken with, cares who produces the State Credential ID cards. Or how many offices we have that are, eventually, producing State Credential ID cards.
What I care about is --- is the information complete and correct? Is the database secure? Can local law enforcement and peacekeeping forces easily access the information they need? And if the answer to those three questions is "yes", then let's move forward with the means that we have at hand and get the job done.
Because our people are in need and our people are endangered for lack of viable modern credentials, and our very first goal and reason for being is what?
To protect our people and their property.
Anything that stands in the way of accomplishing our mission has to be overcome, side-stepped, leaped over, dug under or bull-dozed. Those that recognize problems and show the initiative to overcome them, need our applause and support.
None of us need any brou-hah-hah or speculation or back-biting. This isn't the board room at Exxon, Inc. This is a family.
So I am addressing each and every one of you today to stop and nip-in-the-bud all and any tendency that you may have toward criticizing our volunteers --- any of them.
They are all here doing their best to help move our Big Old Machine into position to protect our people and their property, and to preserve the interest of our people in the public lands and infrastructure of this country.
That's our job when we take up self-governance, those are the goals, and there isn't anything else to it.
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