Brian’s Column: Warm Bodies for Liberty (WBL)

That is: Warm Bodies (Acting) for (Truth, Justice, and) Liberty
“80 percent of success in life is showing up.”

SymbolThe adage about showing up, most often attributed to Woody Allen, expresses a profound truth especially germane to achieving benign political goals. How many times have you joined a group of people working to end some aggression of the state—in court, on the streets petitioning, attending or speaking before your city council meetings, and so on—and the total entourage numbers three individuals!? Way too many times, I’ll wager. It’s totally discouraging. No one wants to go to the ramparts alone. This has to stop. We need to bring masses of bodies to bear on government crime and corruption.

I’m thinking of three notable incidents of my own experience where not nearly enough people showed up:

  1. In summer of 2014, Doreen Hendrickson was tried for criminal contempt of court—a second time—for refusing to commit perjury on a tax form. The judge instructed the jury that it was not to consider the lawfulness of the contempt order (which suborned Doreen to perjure herself). Hundreds of thousands of Americans have benefited from her husband Pete’s discoveries in his book Cracking the Code, with an average recovery of $10,000. At no day of the trial, nor in the subsequent sentencing hearing, did Doreen’s supporters in the courtroom exceed 25 persons.
  2. A couple of years ago, an electrohypersensitive woman in Oakland County, Michigan, Dr. Georgetta Livingstone, removed her biohazard surveillance electric meter for health reasons. She replaced it with a safe analog meter. The power company in Michigan, DTE, shut off her electricity. She installed energy alternatives. Her homeowners’ association (HA) has been fining her hundreds of dollars a day for refusal to use a ‘smart’ meter. The HA is taking her to court for the fines—scheduled for October 2016. She countersued, the HA moved for summary dismissal, which was granted by an Oakland County judge on May 11. In attendance to show support for Georgetta were perhaps 10 people. [This is a significant case and ‘smart’ meter opponent-activists in Michigan number in the several thousands.]
  3. The third incident is recent, a petition campaign put together by a few ‘liberty Republicans’ to put a Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture ordinance on the ballot for several communities in Oakland County. One of the key fiefdoms is Auburn Hills, which also has one of the highest signature count requirements (726). We go door to door, mainly, and the measure is an easy sell: anyone can typically get 10 signatures per hour, with practically no rejections. We’ve collected perhaps half that total with only three weeks to go. A lot of people show up at the organizer’s place to talk but thus far only perhaps a dozen persons have come to walk (gathering 10 signatures or more).

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