I am sending a voice speak truth to power We shall be free In a truthful manner I speak We shall be free With a good heart I speak We shall be free
In April of 1999, President Clinton was in the process of delivering American “Full Spectrum Dominance” to Kosovo. The methodology is to slaughter civilians. Rain bombs from killing platforms at high altitude, beyond reach of anti-aircraft defense. This is the modern American style of spreading democratic values. I wrote these verses during a visit to my former home.
On a Visit to America in the Spring of Ninety Nine My Heart Hurts, And I Grieve
For sacred trees, gone to money For the loneliness of a faceless mankind / isolated / in cyberspace
For the disconnect of human heart / . Mouse-click missions that kill form a distance
For all creatures great and small, killed / For all things bright and beautiful – destroyed by our mindless greed for ease, comfort and “power”
I rage at the ugliness of self-pity In my seeming impotence to do anything more useful than just say “NO,” and leave
I grieve for my children whose inheritance is desecrated The blue-green planet, once alive, breathing, sustained by respect
No matter the price of personal sacrifice, I must not support the killing and the lies.
“There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all – the voice of conscience – even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you my belong, from all you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the Law of our being….To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny him the ordinary amenities of life is worse than starving the body. It is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.” ~ Gandhi
Further along in this communication to my fellow men, I deliver one small voice of notice. It speaks to the violations of humanity that have been perpetrated by the Powers That Be, and that are continuing. I offer – without suggestion of relevance to any other – my personal response. The following verses are offered as preface to my declaration. I hope thereby to indicate the spirit of my intentions. A man needs a country. He would be better off without a government.
Emigrant's Road Log
Now the world gone mad in the violence of its greed humanity gone crazy thread the labyrinth, try to be pure the labyrinth made of lies essence-less meaningless, yet full of fear.
The bus rolls out quiet now, springtime nippy-cold bird song and pussy willows and a south wind Feel the great vast serenity space of the North the land so sweet – a moment of reverie ~
~ then suddenly sky shattered civilization comes roaring the earth trembles with sudden deafening roar F-16's overhead corporate state war machines rip the sky Military Operations Area full spectrum dominance blows away the tranquility of ages to the edge of time land so sweet – humanity so bitter.
First border crossing just ahead show documents get interrogated searched stripped of dignity, violated as if owned like a serf tracked like a criminal this is no way to live not for a man.
From yonder far shore must I wage Satyagraha my nonviolent struggle for freedom.
THE IMPERIAL DOCTRINE
See this man in tribal cloth, for generations oppressed under the jack-boot heel of Big Oil brand USA? He is in my way, obstructing corporate access. And besides, he hates our freedoms.
Therefore, in the name of religion and all that is good, proper and democratic, remembering my father's words at Kyoto “The American lifestyle is not negotiable”, and having silenced peace-loving dissenters by the insidious draconian Patriot Act (you are either with me or you are in jail, may Fascism prevail) let me now kill him off.
I will rain bombs upon his huts, his weddings and his children as I click the murder-mouse from the safety of my air conditioned bunker. That my God and my country may reign supreme and this other man's oil may be mine forever.
That my shares of Halliburton, Unocal and Carlyle may keep on rising with news from Afghanistan and Iraq. That the dust of depleted uranium may mutate his foreign genes into forever and ever. Let the Earth burn.
Let Iraqi children starve and war widows weep – as Ambassador Mouthpiece said before me, “five hundred thousand dead Iraqi children is worth the price.” After all, we need the oil, and the votes, so that our children may drive their SUV's and aimlessly wander in mindless malls.
Lest you mistake my intentions, I say to you now – lying with all my charismatic patriotism – you had better be afraid, for the voice of God has told me Iran is an axis of evil. Let them be warned, all options are on the table. Full spectrum dominance is our aim shock and awe our tactic Hiroshima our training ground. Let them be warned, for they are next.
Stand aside women and children when I move my mouth for I am the Decider and I decide who shall live and who shall die never having known that these others had lives or hopes or sufferings or love.
* * *
For Power, there is no tomorrow. There are no grandchildren. Even of earth there is none. There is only power.
The Way has been lost. We stand on the brink of a maniacal holocaust. How shall we live?
“The path is made by walking.” – African proverb
A REFUSAL OF MURDER
I send this message to Bush and his minions of death Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and Gonzales and all the other faceless unelected machine parts in air conditioned bunkers anonymous maintained at specified operating temperature don't take it personal torturers morally lobotomized organs of State self selected symbiotic pairs with bin Laden mutually co-dependent for power to hold us in thralldom of your lies.
Symbols of our devolution projected we all are responsible for what you have become To face and not to deny my share of this tragedy of the human commons is the call of duty and conscience answered now in a clear voice speaking truth to power.
I deny you permission to murder in my name not with my income tax will you murder come and get me if you wish before you are booked for crimes against humanity.
I never gave you or anyone moral sovereignty over me my life is not your property.
Let no infant wail for his blown to bits mother from a bomb I paid for I practice resurrection I renounce you and all the murder for which you stand for you my mind is trackless.
*”What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi
The Remedy of Wisconsin Is Also Remedy of Jeff
The Constitution has no inherent authority unless as a contract between man and man. It does not purport to be an agreement among persons now living. Those persons, if any, who gave their consent, are all long since dead. The Constitution, so far as it was their contract, died with them. They had no natural right or legal power to make it binding upon posterity. The instrument does not purport to be an agreement between anyone except “We the people of the United States” then existing. It cannot be said that the Constitution formed “the people of the United States” into a corporation extending to perpetuity. No assemblage of men – existing at any one time – has the power to create a legal perpetuity. As a matter of law and reason, this instrument cannot bind its posterity.
Furthermore, according to the present writer, “We the people” is a legal non-entity with respect to making a contract or entering any binding agreement whatsoever. “We the people” is no more than an abstract term for a loose conglomeration of independently acting individuals. It has no intrinsic reality. It is merely a slogan devoid of content. Exactly who is “we the people?” Who signs for and assumes the responsibility and liability of “We the people?” Who steps up and bears the burden of accountability for actions of “We the people?” Where is there any accountable, responsible, liable individual or group of individuals who physically signed or co-signed an instrument and took upon themselves the burdens of its performance?
And still further, in the particular events under discussion, those men who allegedly established an agreement binding upon not only several millions unknown to them (those millions having had no voice or participation whatsoever), but also upon their unborn posterity for all time to come — met and negotiated on behalf of their unknowable clients in secret, and made an oath of secrecy. They left no record of their proceedings, and they signed no document purporting to be an agreement even among themselves, let alone millions of unknowable others and posterity for all time to come.
That “We the people” have put up with this nonsense for so long is truly an absurdity that boggles my mind.
Referring now to The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Tom Woods:
A statement by the Wisconsin legislature in 1859 said, “Resolved, that the government formed by the Constitution of the United States was not the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself (I ask, delegated by whom?); but that, as in all other cases of a compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions, as of the mode and measure of redress. The individual states, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the Constitution's infractions; and that a positive defiance of those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done or attempted to be done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.”
Thus I conclude that the maximum possible validity of the Constitution – notwithstanding my understanding and belief that it has no validity whatsoever – is that of a compact among parties having no common judge.
Therefore, just as the state of Wisconsin is an independent sovereignty in relation to the United States, so also am I as an individual. If I am not recognized as an individual sovereignty, then I am a nullity, for all purposes of law and reason a non-living being, an entity to be dealt with as an object or a piece of inanimate property.
And therefore, just as the remedy of Wisconsin is “positive defiance,” so also is positive defiance my remedy as a sovereign individual.
The foregoing notwithstanding, my understanding and belief is that the Constitution is of no authority over me, or anyone. The authority of State emanates from the barrel of a gun.
I maintain that it is the right of any individual person to reject and renounce a government which violates his moral conscience. I maintain that it is my personal right, in this very body, here and now, to ignore the State, and to refuse participation in its actions which violate humanity and life itself. I also declare that the same is my intention insofar as refusal to pay direct tax to any nation-state. There can be no treason if one's first loyalty is to humanity and to life itself. Human life is above Nation-State. Personal conscience and individual moral sovereignty is above State sovereignty. How can the question of treason arise when one refuses to murder innocent women and children? He who claims self ownership can never commit treason because the State cannot own him. He is not the property of the State.
Believing the American State to be a criminal operation of nigh incomprehensible scale, and having executed no contract by which it has any jurisdiction over my life, I declare it is my right to renounce and depart from it without obligation. Like the Hopi, I believe the laws of the Great Spirit (for me, the Law of Truth and Nonviolence) are of a higher order than any man-made political law. Pursuant to the application of reason, common sense, mental purification through self-observation (far to go here), conscience, and the felt presence of Love, my highest duty is to do no harm. This means I must not support war in any manner, directly or indirectly through payment of taxes.
“He who distrusts freedom in others loses his moral right to it.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore
*STATEMENT OF ABUSES AND VIOLATIONS OF MY HUMANITY AND NATURAL RIGHTS PERPETRATED AGAINST ME BY THE UNITED STATES
“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless and corrupt.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi
– The United States has forcibly taken from me, under penalty of my liberty, the product of my labor.
– It has used this product of my labor, taken from me by force, to execute massive crimes against humanity in my name usurped from me. These crimes are too numerous to account. A few of them include deliberate, calculated, cold-blooded mass murder of innocent, non-combatant civilians including women and children; massive destruction of the infrastructure of civilized societies, resulting in untold suffering and death; long term poisoning of earth's ecosystem and food-water supply with effluence of war, such as depleted uranium and Agent Orange; massive destruction of local ecologies upon which civilians depend for life and livelihood; massive direct destruction of livestock and crops, leading to suffering and death of human beings; deliberately fomented and supported war, revolution and genocide in foreign lands for its own purposes of domination. Other abuses are discussed elsewhere in the text of the booklet of which this is part.
– It has used this product of my labor, forcibly removed from me, to undertake assassinations and murder in the course of overthrowing foreign governments. It has further employed these funds for the illegal imprisonment, torture, degradation and murder of innocent civilians, without charge, and without habeas corpus.
– It has used my taxes paid under coercion of threat of force to conduct weapons experiments with poisonous chemical and radioactive substances on its own unwitting citizens, some of whom died as a result. This is premeditated murder.
– It has used my taxes paid under threat to my liberty to experiment with pesticides on pregnant women, resulting in damage and death to the unborn.
– It has conscripted me to military service and dispatched me as a participant in an aggressive war against a foreign country of no palpable threat to the United States – a war in which millions of people were murdered. This violates my right not to kill and not to support killing.
– It has used the product of my labor forcibly taken from me under penalty of liberty to manufacture, deploy and drop napalm bombs upon innocent women and children living in grass huts in non-combatant Cambodia, dispatching hundreds of thousands of souls to an incendiary death. This is a grotesque crime against humanity.
– It has used tax payments forcibly extracted from me to build, maintain and operate a reported seven hundred military bases around the world, doing thereby immense ecological damage, disturbing the peace, destabilizing societies and causing the flames of hatred against America to burn ever hotter in more and more places.
– It has used the product of my labor taken from me under palpable threat of force to execute certain specific “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” as defined by the UN, including but not limited to the following:
Targeting of foreign leaders in “decapitation” strikes Targeting civilian populations and civilian infrastructure with by intentionally directing attacks upon civilians and hospitals, medical centers, residential neighborhoods, electricity stations, water purification facilities, and intense indiscriminate military operations against cities and towns which resulted in many civilian casualties. Using disproportionate force and weapons systems with indiscriminate effects, such as cluster munitions, incendiary bombs, depleted uranium and chemical weapons. Using depleted uranium munitions with devastating long term effects upon human beings and the environment. Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly (Geneva Convention). Seizure of, destruction of and willful damage done to religious institutions, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic documents and archeological treasures of humanity. Attack and bombardment of undefended towns, villages, dwellings and buildings. Wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages with devastation not justified by military necessity, for example the wanton destruction of ancient Babylon. Imposition of interim government over a foreign people with practices of managed elections and violation of right of self-determination. Unlawful attacks, including assassinations, summary executions, murders, disappearances, kidnapping and torture, use of deadly violence against peaceful protestors, imposition of punishment without charge or trial, including collective punishment. Unlawful detention and torture, including by US military personnel and paramilitary forces operating anonymously, including widespread, repeated and systematic use of torture and degrading treatment of civilians as well as military personnel detained in prison facilities or covertly transferred for torture in foreign countries, practices which are unconditionally prohibited by international law. Willfully devastating the environment, including through the use of depleted uranium. Systematically utilizing, controlling, directing, manipulating, misinforming and restricting press and media coverage and deliberately presenting false and misleading reports to obtain support for US military and political actions; and to deprive the American people of knowledge essential to develop an informed public opinion essential to democratic processes and public justice. Ordering young Americans, soldiers and others, to commit terrible acts that will aunt them, their families and their communities. Their acts of torture and the killing of women, children, injured people, doctors, nurses, and the bombing of places of worship and hospitals will not only brutalize these soldiers individually, but will increase te violence and militarization of American culture. Indefinite detention of persons seized far from any combat zone while denying protection of the Geneva Conventions and US Constitution. The use of military force to seize and detain indefinitely without charges US citizens, denying right of habeas corpus. Committing murder by authorizing the CIA to kill people designated by the President anywhere in the world.
– It has not only taken from me by force the product of my labor and thereafter employed it in the execution of crimes against humanity, but it has also violated my human rights and my conscience as being done in my name and with my money, in ways listed below, among events too numerous to account. The overwhelming force of government being beyond my capacity to resist, this is a clear violation of my person, as well as utter degradation of humanity itself.
Lying to the people of the US, the UN and people of the world to provide false and deceptive rationale for war. Instituting secret and illegal wiretapping and spying operations against people of the US. Violation of the rights of US individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments of the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by US government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession of weapons of mass destruction in order falsely to create a climate of fear so as to destroy opposition to US wars of aggression and first strike attacks. Violations and subversions of the Charter of the UN and international law, both a part of the “Supreme Law of the Land” under Article VI of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against humanity and war crimes, and usurping powers of the UN and the people of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of US military and economic power against the international community. Acting to strip US citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation of the Executive of a citizen as a suspected “threat” to the US. Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override judicial orders of release of detainees, even where the judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully held by the government. Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the US and elsewhere, without charge, at discretion of the Attorney General or Secretary of Defense. Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary execution of persons who are not citizens, designated solely at discretion of the Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and as the only avenue of appellate relief. Refusing to provide disclosure of identities and locations of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the US government in the US. Use of secret arrests of persons within the US and elsewhere and denial f right to public trial. Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client privileged communications by the government, even in absence of court order and even where incarcerated persons have not been charged with a crime. Ordering the seizure of assets of persons in the US, prior to hearing or trial, for having had lawful or innocent association with any entity that at discretion of the Executive has been deemed a “terrorist.” Institutionalizing racial and religious profiling and domestic spying by federal law enforcement officials on persons based on their engagement in non-criminal religious and political activity. Development of diverse nuclear weaponry in direct violation of the UN Charter even as it decries other nations for attempting to acquire their own nuclear weaponry in order to defend themselves from pre-emptive strike by the US. Issuing Executive Orders that legalize criminal corporate collusion with the government in war crimes and finance of war crimes and concealment of the records thereof. Employing vast sums of money and large numbers of people to conduct research and development of weapons of mass destruction, and to create a stockpile thereof sufficient to destroy all of humanity.
By forcibly taking from me the product of my labor, under penalty of loss of liberty and confiscation of property, and employing these funds in execution of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the government has made it impossible for me to earn my livelihood without thereby becoming an accomplice to murder. This is an abomination, a violation of life itself.
*In addition to these violations of humanity and of conscience the government has violated my natural and human rights in other ways too numerous to account. A few incidents are listed below as “tip of the iceberg” examples.
– Classifying documents as “secret” to remove them from public view, their contents and actions described therein having been financed by the public notwithstanding.
– Manipulation and falsification of government statistics on employment, commerce, money supply, public debt.
– Keeping a double set of accounts for government financial operations, one being obscured from public view
– Diversion of the Social Security Trust Fund to general government operating expenses.
– Creating and operating sub-rosa “off-budget” government operations.
– Using the monetary authority of the Federal Reserve to print new money which depreciates the currency and robs the people of their savings, as well as permitting war finance without taxes.
– Using banking regulations to prevent the free movement of capital and to spy on people.
– Issue Executive Orders to authorize the President – at his sole recognizance of “National Emergency” – to seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, restrict travel, take control of the stock market, institute rationing, and more …
– Using the powers of Eminent Domain to transfer property to the hands of favored insiders.
– Using the powers of regulation and monopoly to advance the business interests of large corporate contributors at the expense of the public welfare.
– Denying by law and regulation my freedom to contract; defining the terms thereof as legal only in Federal Reserve Notes, a medium of depreciating value; and imposing other strictures on the freedom to contract on mutually agreeable terms in free and voluntary exchange .
– Obstructing my right to free and peaceful enjoyment of my property by imposing ubiquitous and onerous regulation of nonsensical building codes, ridiculous and counter-productive safety regulations, and everywhere posting regulations and limits of action under the guise of health and welfare.
– By operation of the “Plunge Protection Team” and “Economic Stabilization Fund,” intervene directly in stock and commodity markets to favor the government agenda and favored clients.
– Using government (public) funds to finance huge developments that profit a few at the cost of massive destruction of the ecology of the human commons.
– In an act of outright theft, confiscating all the privately held gold of US citizens in 1933, which included the property of my parents' generation, and maintaining to this day the executive authority to repeat this grand larceny.
– In an act of outright chicanery and breach of faith, abrogating the redemption of dollars into gold by foreign governments, thereby initiating world wide economic instability and loss of faith in the US since the order by Nixon in 1971, with effect upon my personal livelihood.
– Forced payroll deductions for Social Security, a trust now on the road to bankruptcy.
– Obstructing my right to educate my children as I see fit; instead, subjecting them to government brainwashing and outright falsification and censorship of textbooks.
– Made it quite impossible to lead a decent, quiet, productive life in any ordinary sense. Any person of integrity must devote most of his energy to protecting himself from direct predation of the State upon his property and common facilities of life – and if he be of morally compassionate character, he must devote whole of life work to resisting the State's lust for its hideous foreign wars and exploitations of the rest of humanity.
– Breach and violation of my substantive rights to control my own life and property, to wit:
Unimpeded right to life, liberty and property Freedom of speech and press Right of Habeas Corpus Right to trial by jury Freedom to travel Freedom to educate my children as I see fit Unimpeded right to own and operate my own business Right to defend myself, including the right to bear arms Right to security of my home and papers against government intrusion Right not to be spied upon.
The government has perverted justice and the public morality into such grotesque forms as to be unrecognizable by a rational man with a conscience. The preceding list is by no means exhaustive. I doubt that I would live long enough to complete a full tabulation.
This government is an abomination so vile, corrupt, vicious, destructive and murderous that it is unfit to exist. It has become the single greatest threat to survival of the human species. As will be set forth, I renounce it.
“I am sending a voice, Great Spirit, forgetting nothing you have made the stars of the universe and the grasses of earth.” ~ Nicholas Black Elk
MY PERSONAL DECLARATION OF SEVERANCE AND INDEPENDENCE
For a time beyond memory of people now living, the government of the United States has committed a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing the object of reducing to absolute subordination and servitude the individuals subject to its power. It has methodically undermined and abrogated its foundation documents, comprising the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It has systematically violated established and long standing principles of the international community of nations. It has committed heinous crimes against humanity and its own citizens as partially listed in my Statement of Abuses and Violations. It has so perverted the precepts of justice, liberty, public morality and human rights as to make them unrecognizable to a rational man with a conscience.
Sincere respect for my fellow human beings – brothers and sisters during this earthly sojourn – demands that I declare the causes which impel my severance of relations with the government of United States, and my assumption of an equal and independent station free from the domination and subordination to which I have been subjected. These causes are enumerated as Statement of Abuses and Violations in that certain booklet authored by me under the title Experiments in Moral Sovereignty – Notes of an American Exile, by this reference incorporated herein and made a part hereof.
I hold these to be self evident truths: that all people are endowed at birth with equal, inalienable and independent rights, among which are sole possession of their own life, liberty and the seeking of happiness in their own way. That to secure these rights, associations may be formed among humans, deriving their just delegations of responsibility from the full consensus of their members; that it is the right of any member to secede from any such association without reason given, to cease all relations of any nature whatsoever, and either to abstain from or to create or join different associations which adopt such precepts and principles, and organize their responsibilities in such form, as to their members shall seem most likely to effect their safety, enterprise and happiness. ~ by Jeff Knaebel
“Conscience does not exist if not exercised” We have lost control of our lives to a force we cannot see, cannot reckon with, and have no influence over. It is far away while simultaneously all-pervasive. We must take back control of our lives. To do this we must take back personal responsibility for our human duties to family and community. We must not abrogate our responsibilities to faceless unaccountable institutions.
OFFERING
I add my breath to your breath that our days may be long on the earth that the days of our people may be long that we may be one person May our Mother bless you with life May we finish our roads together ~ Zuni
November 3, 2006
