Opening Comments
By January 1, 2025, every American who is determined to live free shall do so. Those who are content with their chains are welcome to keep them, but we who must be free will have our own centerless legal system and free institutions that are not subject to the State.
Welcome to Beyond Ballots or Bullets: Creating a Free America. My name is Kevin Van Horn.
We're here today to make the goal I just stated a reality. It may seem an audacious goal, but we would not be the first to set such an ambitious goal -- and win.
In 1764, Samuel Adams was a lone voice speaking out against the Sugar Act in the Boston town meeting and at the political clubs. He clearly saw the danger the Act posed to American liberty, but nobody else much seemed to care.
Around this time Adams seems to have formed his determination that the American colonies must break free from Britain. But it would be a decade before any of the other major founding fathers joined him in this goal.
Consider the challenge he faced. Britain was the most powerful empire Europe had seen since the fall of Rome. Adams was a near-penniless colonial assemblyman on the outer edges of the civilized world.
And yet he succeeded. He devised and led a campaign of civil disobedience that, by early 1775, had resulted in the collapse of British rule in the colonies. The king had his soldiers, but he had no government in the colonies.
We shall also succeed. I am determined to see that we do succeed, for the simple reason that life as a slave is unbearable.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. In the years to come we'll need to coordinate our efforts and work together effectively. So I'd like to suggest that the first order of business is to introduce ourselves so we can start to know the people we're going to be working with.
(At this point introductions were made. Comments continue below.)
I've spent some time thinking about what to call our movement, and I'd like to suggest the name “Free America”, as you you'll see on the banner I've prepared. I believe this phrase promotes our message on a number of different levels, due to the different interpretations that can be placed on it. In particular:
- If our social movement is Free America, then this suggests that there is also a not-so-free America.
- A free America is our goal.
- “Free America” is a demand and a rallying cry: it is time to free America.
- Perhaps most significantly, the members of our movement will naturally be called... Free Americans.