by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
NWS Columnist

If you understand the real strength of Americans this time should give you hope, not despair or .... [Editor Note: This was written Oct. '08 - foresight indeed - as Tea parties rise '09.]

When you lose your illusions you see yourself and your own actions clearly. We need to see our present circumstances as they are and not as we want them to be. We have an opportunity to take back our country but that window of opportunity will close rapidly. We need to return to the form of government experienced by our Founders. We need to stop talking about freedom and set tasks that return control of government to the people at the most local level and change our economy from one that has us hemorrhaging jobs and money to one that keeps money local.

Each of these goals takes us to freedom; not just words but the reality. And despite appearances to the contrary, the establishment of a real freedom has never been more possible.

To accomplish that we need to build coalition from all ideological viewpoints. Without coalition we will not be able to come together as a people who govern themselves at that most local, community level. It is possible; we need to lose our illusions. The government we see today does not work and it cannot be fixed. All hierarchal systems are subject to the same problems.

When people are remote from you they seem alien and therefore less human. This was true with all people. Those they do not know they are willing to abuse and manipulate.

All movements experience the same problems, left to right, Patriot, Progressive, Libertarian, Liberal, Ron Paul, Environmental, Conservative, Free Market, Election Reform, Peace, have been created from frustrations with the present systemic conversion and corruption. All of us have spent to much time spinning our wheels, engaging in action that did not advance the agenda for freedom or justice. We need to change that, starting now.

A people who govern themselves must first free themselves, starting with their prejudices, misconceptions and illusions. We cannot free America; each of us must do that for ourselves, but we can give Americans the tools to do so.

Only by coming together and seeing the truth can we bring America back from the precipice. The community is our exit from fascism.

Over the last more than 200 years our form of government has been converted from a people who governed, handled it themselves at the most local level, to a serial monarchy that rules from the Federal level as subcontractors and partners to that small clutch of European bankers.

The present states, counties, cities and towns, have nearly all incorporated. This allowed those European Bankers and their domestic partners to limit liability, turn money entrusted for the common good into profits for a small cadre, now including judges, the local comptroller, and others. They had a real growth industry on their hands and they were willing to share the stolen property in small increments. In this way control was solidified.
The use of disinformation and ideology to divide Americans began very early, longer ago than the life of any living among us today. Terms such as Communist, Socialist, Radical, Constitutionalist, Right Wing Nut, Environmental Crazy and so forth all came into use as ideas used to divide and control us. When they started buying up the media it was the final nail in the coffin for freedom existing in a hierarchal world.

Those who laid out that strategy to ensure their own profits intended to destroy the foundations on which our freedoms rested. They wanted us to forget what freedom really means. They failed but they came close. Our freedom rests on cultural roots, values and practices and in our very nature.

We have focused on politics and ignored the local and cooperative institutions that made America the most powerful force for prosperity and security that has ever existed. It wasn't hidden from us, we just overlooked it, taking it for granted. Americans had problems in the 1800s and they solved those problems using innovation, initiative, sweat equity, and their own hard earned money.

The often repeated dichotomy between “Private Sector and for profit” and “Government Solutions” ignores neatly what actually works best. When you see it you understand why and how a free people could and did govern themselves. They cooperated.

Many call it the Civil Sector. It is made up of churches, fraternal orders, civic organizations, charities and other groups, who solve the problems that occur in any community. Those are the people who see problems and take action. They are staffed and run by the people who raise the money and do the work. Staying local works. That is the core of the solution.

The Civil Sector generated enormous profits from what they did and do - but those profits are not calculated in money but in social benefits, stability, and security enjoyed by all of us.
Such organizations came in all flavors for every taste and need, you can take your pick. Americans did just that.

The Elks started the first member support program when they were still 12 out of work actors in New York in 1867. One of their number died. Looking at each other the remaining 11 ponied up the funds to bury their dead friend and support his wife and children. In just three decades they had over a thousand chapters.

The Grange, known also as the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, started on December 4, 1867 in Washington D. C. Its major objectives were to support stewardship of America's natural resources; promotion of world-wide free trade; a combination of local and federal support for rural education, medical, communications, and road systems; non-partisan political participation; assurance of safe and properly labeled food products; organization of cooperatives and other economic services to support rural Americans; and elimination of direct government farm programs so as to assure a competitive and efficient farm system. It is the first organization that allowed women to hold any office.

Those are two examples. There are thousands.

Today our civic sector is struggling because all such organizations have been sidelined by government in ways overt and subtle. But they remain with us and they and new ones can be used or rebuilt.

We have the tools for rebuilding. Community. Cooperate. Constitution. Common Law. The three Cs.

Instead of using the word, “govern” think “how do we handle it ourselves?” The Civic Sector can help solve the problems that we will encounter at the local level. It was the tool Americans built to solve their own problems. It is still there, waiting. Go home to your community. Look at what is there and how many solutions others have built for us.

The institutions we pay for, courts, government, and so forth are presently under the control of a small group. We are locked into an economic system enforced by corporations. We can break out. We can enact change that affirms our inherent nature for individual freedom. The solutions are already there because Americans innovate like no one else on the face of the Earth. We do not need to politically persuade, just show others why those solutions will make their lives better. When that becomes obvious the opposition will be trampled into goo.

We can go home to the real America. America Goes Home is coming. Until then find the exits at The Melinda Show on The Micro Effect.

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