We The People’s Bob Schulz at OWS
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Note from Elias Alias: I have personally been following Bob Schulz and his “We The People Foundation For Constitutional Education” since 1999. The man is one of America’s greatest Patriots and his story is remarkable. All readers here who have not discovered his “We The People” foundation, please take time to explore his site: http://www.givemeliberty.org/
The following was posted on the Oath Keepers national forum. Below the message from Bob Schulz is Stewart Rhodes’ comment.
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Bob Schulz
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October 29, 2011
SCHULZ GOES TO WALL STREET
Gives The Constitution A Voice
At 9 AM on Saturday, October 8, I was tuned into CNN, broadcasting from Atlanta. The Host was interviewing three young people who had participated in “Occupy Atlanta” the day before. One was a 26 year old female veteran back from the hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and enrolled in College. The other two were males in their 20’s who were employed.
The host asked what the Occupy movement was all about. The young people said, “We want to fix the system.”
The host asked how the system could be fixed. The young people struggled to find an answer but had none. Eventually they suggested more people should vote.
I turned to Judy, my wife, saying, “That’s it. I’m going down there. These folks need to know about the Constitution and how it can solve their grievances.” Four hours later, we were in New York City. I had a thought to find a meeting room somewhere near to the protests so I could talk about Liberty and the Constitution to whomever might come. Research uncovered a new community center two blocks away called Charlotte’s Place.” We were able to make contact with and then meet with the director in between visits to the Park who agreed to give us time to meet there with interested people.
As we walked among the protesters, we observed many who were clean-cut, bright eyed as they moved throughout the crowd open to exchanging ideas with strangers.
I noticed a table with a homemade sign, “INFO.” I approached and asked, “How can I conduct a teach-in on the State and Federal Constitutions? The young man said, “Start a Working Group.” I asked, “How do I do that.” He said, “Announce it.” I asked, “How.” He said, “Get up on a bench and yell, ‘Mic Check.’” That will get the attention of the People.”
I did just that. The People turned their attention to me and began to repeat, in waves, every few words I said. I announced I was starting a Constitution Working Group, that the Constitution can be used to control the Bankers, the Corporations and the Politicians, end undeclared wars, end Bailouts, end the Fed and end our debt-based, fiat currency. Each part of the message was repeated two or three times as the crowds carried the words and energy back to others farther away. I announced the first meeting of the State and Federal Constitution Working Group would be at 6 PM on the steps at the east end of the Plaza.
Cheers were heard and People raised both hands, pointing all their (wiggling) fingers upwards. I learned later that was a hand signal expressing approval.
Before I could descend from the bench, 20-25 people surrounded me, some asking questions. What became clear to me was they knew little to nothing about the content, history, meaning, effect and significance of any provision of their State and Federal Constitutions. I lectured from the park bench for more than 30 minutes, before someone else from a distance yelled, “Mic Check,” drawing attention to the new speaker.
Before my 6 PM meeting I learned OWS had a General Assembly (GA) meeting every evening about 7 PM, run by a group of “facilitators.”
At the 6 PM meeting people signed up to be on the Constitution Working Group, providing their names and email addresses.
Before the start of the GA, I engaged in a loud conversation with a student from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York about his grievances and the Constitution. He started out expressing his anger at the greed and corruption on Wall Street, Again, dozens of young People, apparently genuinely eager to learn, gathered around to listen to the conversation.
After more mingling, I did another “Mic Check,” announcing there would be a meeting of the State and Federal Constitution Working Group on Wednesday at Charlotte’s Place and those who would like to be on the Working Group should meet me on the Steps. More people signed up, bringing the total to 29, including two attorneys (one of whom is a professor of Financial Law at Cornell and under contract to teach Financial Regulations to folks at the New York Federal Reserve (ponder this for a moment), a young veteran combat photographer, another young veteran, a high school math teacher, a full time student at PACE U., and so on. Again I was impressed at the level of intelligence and sincerity of the people who were there.
On Wednesday, eight of the 29 met (we have since learned it is difficult to schedule meetings when all can meet, given the diversity of everyone’s professions and occupations).
A consensus was reached regarding a simple, one or two word definition of the overriding grievances of OWS: Money, Debt, Bailouts, Federal Reserve, Corporate Personhood and the (Undeclared) Wars.
There was a discussion of the five Rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, with emphasis on the meaning of the fifth: the Right to Petition for Redress. Packets of study materials were distributed including copies of the State and Federal Constitutions, the Articles of Freedom, WTP’s “Interpretation of the Meaning of the Right to Petition Government for Redress of Grievances,” the lawsuit filed by me in 2008 against the AIG bailout, the lawsuit filed by me in 2008 against the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, We the People of New York, Inc.’s Certificate of Incorporation and the pamphlet written by Benedict D. LaRosa, “Democracy or Republic, Which Is It?”
Since then, we have had two more meetings in NYC and one Webinar. Judith Whitmore has joined me in this effort. Thus far, an agreement has been reached on the Beliefs of the State and Federal Constitution Working Group as follows:
All People have Natural Rights — Simply Because They Are Alive.
We the People have Instituted Government to Secure our Rights.
According to our Governing Documents, Sovereignty rests with the People.
The Constitution & Declaration of Independence are inextricably intertwined.
Every Principle, Prohibition, Restriction and Mandate of our Governing Documents represents a Guaranteed, Individual Right.
The People are the Source of All Political Power
(after all no one gets into office unless we put them there).
All Elected Officials are limited by our written Constitutions
(if not authorized in writing, such acts are unlawful).
The Constitution is not a Menu.
The Constitution cannot Defend Itself.
Individuals and Small Groups cannot prevail in attempts to hold government accountable to their State and Federal Constitutions.
A Critical Mass is needed, say 3-5% of population.
Very few in and out of public office can recognize when government is obeying or violating the Constitution.
The way our system of governance is working is in sharp contrast to the way it is designed to work.
We don’t change the Constitution by ignoring it; There are provisions within it to make changes.
All that is happening is our fault; the People have allowed it to happen.
The People have always had the ultimate power in our society and have always been the final arbiters of constitutionality.
Most of what is causing our National distress NOW can be traced back to violations of the Constitution.
The next step, before next Monday’s Webinar is to prepare drafts of Petitions for Redress which will include Instructions to the President and Congress to Remedy the agreed upon Grievances, each involving a violation of the Constitution: Money, Debt, Bailouts, Federal Reserve, Corporate Personhood and Undeclared Wars.
Once a consensus is reached on an Instruction, it will be forwarded to the OWS facilitators and announced at Liberty Plaza following a “Mic Check.” If there are enough people who support the Petitions/Instructions, this is a peaceful legal way that the “99%” and the Constitution can be heard.
From those I have talked to or heard from, there has been real relief expressed that someone is pointing the way back to the Constitution. However, there are different viewpoints on who is back of OWS; what its real purpose is; what is going to take place because of it.
IMHO, the OWS may morph into a more formal, national organization something like our Constitution Lobby, albeit possibly without incorporating. The danger is it may be co-opted by a person(s) with an agenda contrary to that of the Constitution Lobby. With that in mind it will be interesting to see how much respect the Constitution Working Group actually receives from the powers behind OWS, whoever they are.
I will continue until the Constitution is back as the main-frame for America and our Nation is back on track.
Bob Schulz,
Founder, We The People (We The People Foundation For Constitutional Education)
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Message from Stewart Rhodes:
Bravo for Bob Schulz! Yet another great example of what needs to be done. Bob knows that it is critical to give the people in attendance an alternative path to the one the socialists are offering. Give them the message of freedom and of the Constitution. Teach them. They are ignorant of the Constitution. Cure that ignorance. It takes courage and intellectual honesty to do what is right. Bob has both.
And that is what Peter Schiff has been doing there in NY too. You can see video of him down on Wall Street, talking to the protesters, curing their ignorance by teaching the truth about how a free market works, and about how we got in the mess we are in, and especially teaching that centralization of power and government control of the market is what caused the problems, and more of the same will not fix it, but will instead make it worse.
And also Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change. He is there in the streets of NY doing the same thing. He is teaching them. Luke knows from his own family history where communism leads, so he can share that knowledge with the protesters there in NY to counter the communists bull. Luke comes from a family of Polish immigrants. Luke’s father, back in Poland, was an anti-communist activist who was tortured and beaten by the communists on many occasions because of his speaking out against the communist regime of Poland at the time. He sent his family out of Poland, and to America, for safe keeping while he stayed and fought on. And that is why Luke has such courage when he steps out into the street to confront corrupt power elites who are killing our nation (the boy has balls of steel the size of an elephant, frankly). He knows that whatever he goes through, such as being arrested at the G-20, is nothing compared to what his father went through back in Poland.
During the G-20 in 2009, Luke was on a bullhorn urging the police there to keep their oaths by respecting the rights of the people to free speech and to peaceably assemble. At that time he was a member of our Ning group and was clearly spreading the Oath Keepers message to the police at the G-20 in Pittsburgh.
This is what needs to be done. The answer to communist and socialist bull being fed to the protesters is to get down there and kick their asses in an intellectual and ideological STREET FIGHT. It should be done in a spirit of teaching those who will listen, but make no mistake about it, if some communist or socialist steps up to debate, a constitutionalist who is ready and willing will dish out a royal intellectual butt kicking on the communists and socialists and that too will be a great “teaching moment” for the rest of the crowd listening and watching.
Bob Schulz is spot on.
Stewart
PS- And note that Schulz is aware of the very distinct possibility that the organizers behind OWS will try to stifle his work there. If or when they do, that will simply reveal them for the frauds they are. They talk about being open to all views, about welcoming Tea Party people, etc. but I suspect that when it comes down to it, they will try to stop Bob. And they will have to tip their hands to do it, because Bob is himself a formidable organizer, and knows how to get it done, so unless they shut him down in a very overt way, he WILL turn the majority of that crowd into constitutionalists. If anyone can do it, he can. So, whether they shut him down or not, what he is doing has great value. Every other liberty and Constitution loving group and leader in America should be doing the same thing.
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October 30th, 2011 at 11:22 am
Wake up, takers and keepers of the Oath to the people and the US Constitution which protects the people from the government. There is a battle going on for the hearts and minds of the young in this country. Are you going to keep crying and parroting the controlled main stream media’s talking points about how the battle is lost and all these people in the streets are nothing but committed communists and socialists? Turn OFF the TV and controlled pundits, and go talk to people everywhere about the Constitution. If you don’t want to do it at an Occupy event, that is fine…but go out and do it somewhere. The Constitution is the Solution.
Some of us have chosen to take the fight directly to the enemy at the Occupy events. The enemy is not every person out there. Be sure that there are committed communists there, but what we have found in Los Angeles is that they are in the minority. Many of the people we have met are newly awakened sheep who are rightfully upset about what is going on in our country. They need the correct information and the Constitutional solution. We have passed out over one thousand dvds and pocket constitutions which expose the hybrid banking/government cartel which controls the Federal Reserve, World Bank, and IMF. And, the dvds also discuss the Constitution, true free market solutions, our form of Republic government, the false left/right paradigm, and the dangers of collectivism whether it is Leninism or Fabianism, etc. Do you even know these issues, players and puppet masters? Do you really understand the truth about how they are out to destroy our sovereignty from within, with your help, along with the help from the enemies of freedom and liberty?
Are you willing to just cede the field of battle to this small but vocal minority? Bob Shultz and others (including some Oath Keepers) are not ceding the field of battle and are fighting back. I will testify to the fact that the communists would agree with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck that all of you should stay home in fear of supporting the commies. All three (and others), along with the puppet masters aka the criminal hybrid banking/government cartel which controls the Federal Reserve and the vast majority of our politicians as well as our economy, DO NOT WANT YOU OUT THERE spreading the truth and the Constitutional solution.
Let me share just one individual win at Occupy Los Angeles. There was a young adult running around with a Che shirt on yelling about revolution. Well, one of our fellow Oath Keepers, holding a Gadsen Flag mind you and pocket Constitutions in hand, went and spoke with this young man. She calmly explained that her parents had escaped Cuba and what the rest of the family, of those that remain in Cuba, has gone through. She explained who Che and Castro were and the murderous crimes they committed against the people. This young man had no idea….all he knew is that he was upset about the lack of opportunity in the country and was parroting what he had learned in school and heard from the collectivists. This man was embarrassed and right then and there turned his Che shirt inside out in shame and took a pocket Constitution and Oath Keeper information. This story is repeated in many various ways while we were there. Young people were upset and thirsting for knowledge….and not enough people were there to give them the truth and a Constitutional solution.
Let me tell you one more story about our Oath Keeper whose parents escaped Cuba….she called into the local KFI radio station talk show two days ago. Bill Carroll was parading interviews with many of the uneducated dolts one can find at these events and asking them what it was they really wanted and how the problems could be solved. It was the typical media sensationalism where they only let people talk who will prove their so-called point or position on the subject they are discussing. You know….the talk shows so many people listen to who think they are really getting the truth and news but get mostly propaganda. They took her call and when she started to talk about the Federal Reserve and the real truth, they hung up on her. Of course, the show is delayed, and she did not make it on the broadcast. There were a dozen who witnessed this and were shocked by it. Are you listening to these types of programs?
So, are you going to make a stand or sit behind your keyboard and be a keyboard commando? The time has come, Oath Keepers.
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
Paine, Thomas
October 30th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Thank you, John Oetken, for an excellent explanation of why Oath Keepers need to be reaching out to fellow citizens to offer them the truth.
The hour is short. Every American who can be awakened to the massive programming under which the national consciousness now marches to Marxism’s mandate, is one less on the side of the enemy of freedom and one more on the side of America. I salute Orange County Oath Keepers and Los Angeles Oath Keepers for upholding the vision of freedom and sharing it with those who need it the most. Well done, John, George, Dani, and well done to all of your chapters’ Oath Keepers who are meeting the great ignorance with information, and who are sowing the fields with smiles and seeds of Constitutional virtues.
Salute!
Elias
October 31st, 2011 at 11:46 am
Thanks for sharing this. I’m very happy to hear of Bob and the Oath Keepers reaching out to the OWS movement. In respect to the comments, I would just say that regardless of where you are on the socialism vs. capitalism spectrum (I am definitely someone who identifies more as a socialist), I think it’s important at this time that we focus on the more fundamental issues that Bob raises related to the constitution and avoid getting bogged down in this old left/right dispute. Once the constitution has been restored and the citizens of the U.S. are reinstated as the true source of political authority, then we can discuss the proper role of the government in regulating the economy. But until that day, we should all work together with our shared critiques of “Money, Debt, Bailouts, Federal Reserve, Corporate Personhood and Undeclared Wars.” Once the constitution has been restored, then we can return to our debate over the economy. Until then, this debate is just a side-show anyway.
October 31st, 2011 at 3:29 pm
QUOTE from above article “Bob is himself a formidable organizer, and knows how to get it done, so unless they shut him down in a very overt way, he WILL turn the majority of that crowd into constitutionalists.”
Umm guys, the Occupy Wall St.demands and grievances are demands and grievances made by INDIVIDUALS in a group sphere. Oath Keepers is a very defined group.
Instead of trying to force your worldview and change-process on an ever-morphing entity like the Occupy Movement, why not use the energy of the Occupy Movement to increase your own group’s energy and agenda? Work with and try to understand the Occupiers views where effective, but remain autonomous to maintain your group’s identity and purpose where necessary?
Those who function best in a clearly defined group might join your group. But those like me, who require much more flexibility, can respect your view but not want to operate from it.
I agree with what jaws says above. Target the 1%, then sort it out from there.
October 31st, 2011 at 8:52 pm
For “Jaws” @ comment #3:
Jaws, thank you for a lucid and dignified post. I also want to agree with your take on the “left-right paradigm”. I suggest to all Americans that the left-right paradigm is a trap in which we have unconsciously allowed ourselves to be ensnared, and that we each, as individuals, must see a grander vision of life as Americans, a vision in which we come to realize that those powers who would manipulate us have played to our basic conflict to accomplish their goals. That conflict is of course just what you’ve said – the false left-right paradigm.
Oath Keepers is attempting to help Americans break out of that mold and stand as individuals for something higher, something above the political fray – the Constitution for the united States of America. We note that Oath Keepers is a “non-partisan” organization, just like our peace officer communities and our military. A person does not have to be a Republican or a Democrat to become a cop any more than one has to be an “R” or a “D” to join the military service. The Constitution rides above the two directions of the political spectrum. The Constitution hovers above the center point on that political spectrum, the point on that line at which Left meets Right. As Americans, we must always retain knowledge of that, because whenever in our history we’ve lost sight of that, we’ve been manipulated and abused by the forces of power, be it governmental power or economic power or, as is our current dilemma, a combination of both. As Dr. Edwin Vieira has noted, the Founders looked with disdain on “factions”, which would be what our founding generation knew in place of what we today call the “political parties”.
Also, I would like to state that I, personally, in my private capacity as an individual, am in agreement with your assessment of the following symptoms which we as Americans must come together to heal (including healing the sources of the symptoms) – “Money, Debt, Bailouts, Federal Reserve, Corporate Personhood and Undeclared Wars.” While I’m still trying to learn the intricate fine points involved in the topic of “Corporate Personhood”, I am fully on board with each of the other symptoms you’ve listed, and I salute you for coming up with a potent list of grievances. I would add two others to your list – Ending the so-called War on Drugs; and ending the so-called War on Terror. Those two abortive misfires of a misguided government have totally damaged our Constitution and the Spirit in which the document was written.
Please be safe and continue to speak your truth to a world gone mad. Thank you for reading and posting here.
Salute!
Elias Alias
I also would like to quickly touch on another excellent point you’ve raised. That
October 31st, 2011 at 9:07 pm
For Keefski, @ comment #4 -
Keefski, you said above – “Instead of trying to force your worldview and change-process on an ever-morphing entity like the Occupy Movement, why not use the energy of the Occupy Movement to increase your own group’s energy and agenda? Work with and try to understand the Occupiers views where effective, but remain autonomous to maintain your group’s identity and purpose where necessary?”
Keefski, that was a great suggestion and I thank you for sharing it here for our readers. I especially appreciate your descriptive “ever-morphing entity like the Occupy Movement”. What leadership in Oath Keepers is hopeful of is that our members and supporters will be out there talking with the folks at these Occupy events about the Constitution and the protections it furnishes for all Americans to peacefully assemble, to redress grievances, etc. As I mentioned to Jaws, Oath Keepers is a non-partisan organization focused strictly on the Constitution and specifically on the Oath. In looking into the full contexts of the Oath itself, and the reason why that Oath is required by the Constitution, and by also pointing out that the Oath is sworn to the Constitution and not to the damned government which came out of that Constitution, we intend to share an awareness among our cops and soldiers which would remind them that it would be unlawful, un-Constitutional, for them to turn their guns on the American people – as is noted in our listing of “Ten Orders We Shall Not Obey”. In a word, as an organization, Oath Keepers hopes to influence the guys and gals with the badges and uniforms and the guns to remember the sanctity of the “individual citizen” as enshrined in the Constitution, and to realize that not all orders they may receive during their time of service will necessarily be “lawful” orders. Oath Keepers is fighting hard to prevent the establishment in America of a damned military-industrial complex police-state.
That is why it is good to see folks like you display a willingness to reach out the hand of friendship across the imaginary political aisle to unite as fully-endowed Americans who share in common a Constitution which was designed to protect our divinely-given “unalienable rights”. Ours is a vision of unity, not perpetual conflict between philosophical and political differences. Thank you for posting your comment here.
Salute!
Elias Alias
October 31st, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Thanks for your kind words. I was fully expecting to be flamed when I posted here. I can’t take credit for the short list of grievances shared by both ends of the political spectrum – they came straight from Bob. But I think your additions make a lot of sense. Ending the war on terror, could be encompassed by the goal of stopping undeclared wars. But I think the war on drugs deserves a mention. Maybe it could be added under a more broad category of protecting personal liberties which would apply to patriot act infringements like illegal surveillance, suspension of habeus corpus, etc. but would also apply to the criminalization of non-violent activities like drug use, prostitution, gambling.
November 1st, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Jaws @ comment #7,
You mentioned the broader category of the criminalization of non-violent activities.
You might like the following playlist, as it deals with a lot of these issues.
Walter Block: Defending the Undefendable
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0E73CFA92EA01B1
Topics covered are listed below; and the case for the defense of each of the kinds of people or professions listed is based on each person’s right to own his own body, to own that for which one works, to be free to contract with other willing parties, and to have those contracts enforced – all of which are America’s founding principles of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The topics are:
1. The Prostitute
2. The Pimp
3. The Male Chauvinist Pig
4. The Drug Pusher
5. The Drug Addict
6. The Blackmailer
7. The Slanderer and Libeler
8. The Denier of Academic Freedom
9. The Advertiser
10. The Person Who Yells “Fire!” in a Crowded Theater
11. The Gypsy Cab Driver
12. The Ticket Scalper
13. The Dishonest Cop
14. The (Non-Government) Counterfeiter
15. The Miser
16. The Inheritor
17. The Moneylender
18. The Non-Contributor to Charity
19. The Curmudgeon
20. The Slumlord
21. The Ghetto Merchant
22. The Speculator
23. The Importer
24. The Middleman
25. The Profiteer
26. The Stripminer
27. The Litterer
28. The Wastemakers
29. The Fat-Capitalist Pig Employer
30. The Scab
31. The Rate Buster
32. The Employer of Child Labor
November 2nd, 2011 at 7:52 am
Walter Block is wrong, of course, when he equates a fetus with a woman’s womb in such a way as to deny the fetus its personhood.
Be this as it may, it is a state issue, and the federal government has no say in the matter of abortion.
November 8th, 2011 at 9:39 am
The Republican/Democrat Left/Right is a false political spectrum. They are statists inventions designed to divide and conquer. The Constitution does not hover above the center point on this imaginary political spectrum.
The realistic political spectrum is tyranny vs. anarchy as presented in The American Form of Government video…
http://vimeo.com/20148073