A dozen score years ago great leaders of a fledgling nation came together to form the Articles of Confederation as a first step towards self-governance away from a monarchy seeking unethical control of people. They joined together in their fight against taxation, intolerance, militarization, and all threats to their sovereignty. They wrote about such things as "mutual friendship," "free inhabitants," "times of peace," and "common defense." There was no president, laws required unanimous votes, it could not enforce laws, states could maintain their own currencies, there was no regulation of commerce, term limits reined in delegates, and the one functioning body could not raise taxes, but simply ask for money from the states. This was a true vision of independence and a modest role of government as a body to provide a forum for discourse and common defense.
In their lust for power the Constitutional Convention called together representatives of many states and launched the United States of America. Knowing they could not amend the Articles of Confederation for the bar had been set too high for those men seeking to control others instead wrote a document from scratch and discussed Presidents, Judicial branches, the sole coinage of money, slaves, and did away with term limits. They took it upon themselves to self declare they had the power to:
borrow money on credit of the United States,
Regulate Commerce,
Establish uniform Laws,
Coin Money,
Provide Punishment for Piracies and Felonies,
Establish Post Offices,
Patent Rights,
constitute Tribunals,
Declare War,
Raise, support, and regulate Armies and a Navy,
calling of a Militia to suppress insurrection,
Set their seat of governance and defend it with Forts, Magazine, Arsenals, and dock-Yards,
To make all Laws which shall be necessary for the Execution the foregoing Powers.
This was an act to lay the ground work of planetary tyranny and the Perpetual Siege of the World. A nation designed for perpetual war had been crafted and we've seen the result. A once peaceful community acting in self defense has been at war 224 years of the 241 years it's existed. Today is no different excepting that which has lead to greater extremity. Where peace once ruled now has over 1,000 military bases in foreign nations and military personnel in over 130 countries. The government is waging an active war in no less than seven countries at once. We are not at peace, and this nation is the source of war.
Beyond that abject poverty created through purposeful and perpetual creation of money as debt has crippled the vast majority of people on this planet financially leaving a handful of billionaires while billions have only a handful. We are not abundant while millions of people die of starvation and live in servitude to debt.
And it would seem the era of liberty has passed. When your speech that conflicts with social norms of the day can lead to your imprisonment, when no less than 40% of your income is stolen to wage war, when millions of non-violent offenders are incarcerated, and when official papers must be presented along with sniffing dogs and armed soldiers at every port we are not free. We are not free.
But we must refuse to believe that the bank of Peace, Abundance, and Liberty is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that our great Pact of Humankind is closed for good, nor do we believe that the Universal Spark of the Divine Creator and the Great Collaborator that lies within us all is dead. Instead we know that our birthright for a peaceful, rich life, where we are free to do as we will so long as we cause no harm is in our hands and has been all along.
We have come to this platform seeking change to the status quo. We seek to end the unending violence. We seek to do, say, and be as we see fit so long as we cause no harm, and we seek a life where scarcity cannot be found. We seek the promise of the American Dream, a house, a family, sustenance, and peace but without the shackles and violence that currently prop it for the handful that can achieve it.
Lady Peace cannot wait. We cannot lock her out, nor shut her off. For with each delay we offer there is another life quenched by the machines of war that our forefathers carefully constructed. So, it's on us to to combat the monster of our past's design. And let it be that this combat won't be fought with weapons of war, with blood of our family, and through the destruction of our community, but with the ripple of billions of voices simply declaring "I do not consent."
I do not consent to violence.
I do not consent to taxation.
I do not consent to war.
I do not consent to poverty.
I do not consent to currency as debt.
I do not consent to an infinite series of unjust laws.
I do not consent to be ruled.
And though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I hold a Steem.
With my steem, a block-chain currency that can create abundance at a click, I have faith that we can universally achieve our pursuit of property and happiness.
I have a Steem and a hope it will pass between the wallets of peaceful inhabitants of Baghdad and the soldiers who have laid down their arms in peaceful protest.
I have a Steem and a hope it will purchase food for the hungry in the poverty wracked streets of Caracas, Venezuela.
I have a Steem and a hope it will pass between my two daughters and they'll be able to spend it openly and freely without a heavy hand and the threat of a loaded gun if they don't give a piece of that Steem to the state.
I have a Steem today!
I have a Steem today and it comes with a hope that the many brothers and sisters working tirelessly on behalf of a million different projects can usher in a wave of peace so loud it'll be heard from the steps of the white house, the bells of the Vatican, and shatter the glass on the stock tickers in the City of London.
This is the hope I share with many. This is the faith I have that the swords will become plowshares. That the spilt blood of "the other" will be the garden bed of a peaceful world, and that the cacophony of a planet each playing their own instruments to their own liking will in fact harmonize into an incredible orchestra that may uplift and sooth our souls.
And let today be the day. Where we no longer promise as children in schools to Pledge our Obedience to any state or organization that seeks to rule.
Let today be the day when we stop singing the Battle hymns of any group that perpetuates violence.
Let this be the day when we stop casting body bags and coffins for our sons and daughters who fought one another.
Let this be the day we cease to consent to such things.
If the free inhabitants of the World Wide Web are to be truly free this must be our start!
So let us trade Steem from the oracle of Delphi, to the great wall of China.
Let us trade Steem from the Pyramids in Egypt, to the Coasts of South Africa.
Let us trade Steem from the Pauper in Pakistan, to the Merchants in Venice.
Let us trade Steem from the rolling hills of Pennsylvania to the Peaks of Kilimanjaro .
Not only that but let us post about Liberty from the once controlled streets of North Korea.
Let us post about peace from the former barracks of the Soviet Union.
Let us post about Abundance from the empty buildings of the BIS in Basel Switzerland.
And when this happens, and when our unhindered trading and free speech can be heard in every village and every hamlet, from every city and town, when people of all faiths and continents can walk hand in hand as brother and sister with a virtual upvote and resteem, may then the former controllers of this world shrink in terror of it's free people, and may a golden age of peace, abundance, and liberty be upon us all.
Today I have Steem. Tomorrow I hope to trade it with you.