Our Concerns with Anna von Reitz State Assemblies

We (Heidi Hanson and Alexis Tudor) have some concerns about Anna von Reitz and the State Assemblies. Our concerns arise from everything that happened with the Michigan Assembly – the unanswered questions about the paperwork and the dissolution of the Assembly by Anna.

To be clear, we would like to remain a part of the Assemblies but these moral concerns are preventing us from participating in good conscience for the time being.

Foundational Pillars

The State Assemblies, as an organization, are supposedly attempting to go back in time, as it were, and resurrect our government in the form it was intended to be built by our Founding Fathers. Our Founding Fathers had a number of principles or values that made up the foundation of their vision of a new government that would be better than the tyranny they suffered under the British. These are what I am referring to as “Foundational Pillars” – core principles that led to the founding of the United States. Elements of the disbanding of the Michigan Assembly appear to have been in direct violation of these foundational pillars of the organization. This is like breaking apart the pillars of wood holding up the building itself.

A “foundational pillar” begins with God – we are aligning with God’s design for humans to live on the Earth – which would be considered Divine Law which translates into Natural Law. Under that is Common Law. Then Constitutional Law. The Founding Fathers created man’s laws so that God’s laws would be protected on Earth. We need to continue this design and not deviate from it if we are to build up a new and better government and resurrect the good parts of what the Founding Fathers created. No excuse is ever enough to deviate from these principals. We all know where the excuse “for your safety” ultimately ends up. And that goes for any and all excuses people make for taking actions in violation of the foundational principles.

Pillar 1 – Safe, Solid Paperwork

Is the paperwork solid, trustworthy, and doing what it purports to do?

One foundational pillar is the paperwork. The paperwork is what puts the Members back on the land and soil. If the paperwork has problems this could lead to Members going to jail. The consequences could be dire from even one mistake. As a result, we have to be extremely cautious and careful when creating legal paperwork to make sure there are no mistakes. If the Assemblies and their leadership leave any questions, even small ones, unanswered, it undermines confidence and trust in the effectiveness and safety of the process of becoming a man or woman on the land and soil. Unfortunately, this issue of Anna (or anyone else) not answering many questions Michigan brought up about the paperwork basically destroys this pillar.

Some related Principles are:

• Safety – ensuring Members’ safety
• Openness – open dissemination of knowledge, acknowledging mistakes, the democratization of knowledge
• Service – assistance to those learning and not dismissing concerns
• Accessibility – dissemination of knowledge to the people
• Achievements – movement, progress, always improving – questioning can help improve everything
• Transparency – sharing one’s knowledge and information
• Group level solutions, proactive resolutions through working together as a group
• Collaboration, co-creativity, working with different perspectives in a welcoming and creative way
• Listening

I will elaborate on the importance of a couple of these related principles:

The Democratization of Knowledge

Only Law Scholars like Anna can “Play ball”?

At 57:50 in the video of Michigan’s questions, Justin says, “We need to provide a good understanding for people so that they can comprehend these documents and be able to use them themselves.” I agree with him. (Watch the video of Michigan’s Questions here – MSA_06072021_paperwork Questions and Research, and read the questions here: Michigan Assembly Questions)

Democratization – the action of making something accessible to everyone “the democratization of information through technology”

Justin spent a lot of time making this invaluable contribution to the Assemblies. One part of this contribution was to open up the potential for the Assemblies to democratize the papering up process.

It would be ideal if there were a document accompanying the 928s that has an explanation for each part for lay people. We could call it – Your Paperwork, Translated. It would greatly streamline the process of doing the paperwork; it would be easier to learn about what each sentence means if there was a document that contained that information (reducing the time of doing personal research).

Answering all Justin’s questions (many of which were dismissed) would make all the Assemblies stronger. If Justin had been invited to collaborate in the creation of such a document, we would create:

• Assemblies that are More Inviting. More ease with understanding and completing the paperwork would help us get more people involved. So often the material presented alienates newcomers.
• Better informed Members. Reading through this document would give Members a more complete understanding of what they are communicating with their paperwork.
• Less stress and fear. People would feel confident in the safety of the paperwork and more relaxed about being involved in the Assemblies.
• Streamlining of new Members. It would move things along faster. People wouldn’t have to spend time looking up what every part of their paperwork means before signing it.

Future Security

Has the original problem with Michigan’s paperwork been identified and fixed so it is no longer a concern for the future?

I believe Anna said that the paperwork uploaded to the LRS that Michigan and other states were using sent people back to the Sea and this was one of the things that led her to dissolve their Assembly. Was the paperwork hacked? How are we to feel safe using the LRS when we still don’t understand the hacking of the 928s? Some considerations are:

1. Where was the paperwork located?
2. What was the error in the paperwork?
3. How did this error send people back to the sea?
4. Has the paperwork been removed from where it was?
5. Who submitted the paperwork to the LRS?
6. How did the errors get into the paperwork? Was it a hacker?
7. Did they do this to any other paperwork?
8. Has the avenue that the errors got into the paperwork been destroyed/stopped? Has the hacker vulnerability been found and eliminated?
9. How can we prevent this from happening in the future?

If these questions are unanswered, it points to a huge area of future vulnerability for everyone.

Pillar 2 – Correct Use of Power

Why is there the allowance for top-down uses of power within the Assemblies?

The second pillar is the principle of power being bottom up: The people have more power than the county, the county has more than the state and so on. We are embracing a new way of operating that is not top-down. The activities of the Members, including Anna, should not include any top-down decrees, dictatorial acts, power-over measures. Hierarchical, authoritarian, top-down power is what we are leaving behind.

Some related Principles are:

Equality – being treated like an equal

Fairness – being treated fairly

Truth – the right to have one’s truth be heard

Self-governance. People having power over their own lives. Assemblies self-governing themselves.

Inverted pyramid.

Common Law.

Constitution.

Noninterference.

Sub-pillars in this pillar would include:

1. The right to due process and a fair trial.
2. Freedom of Speech. Avoidance of silencing and censorship
3. Avoidance of ad hominem attacks, dismissal, deflection and distraction.

I will elaborate on the importance of a couple of the sub-pillars:

The Right to a Fair Trial

To protect against abuses of power, the founding fathers established the right to a fair trial. As far as I know, there was no fair trial or due process in the case of Michigan.

Regarding Michigan, a fair trial could have looked like a meeting with a professional Moderator, who is a neutral party, and say, 3 additional neutral parties elected by other States. They could observe and ask questions and give their opinions on the matters at hand. It could have resulted in a vote being taken by the Members of the Assembly on how they -as a sovereign state – should proceed forward. The Federation should be composed of 2 elected members from each state who help with the proceedings in ways in which the powers are all balanced. The Federation should not have the power to dissolve a State Assembly. Rather, they should be there to advise. The power structure is not top-down so power should not flow from top down – ever.

When Anna decided to use a power-over, top-down approach, and dissolved a long-standing, active, hard working and inspiring State Assembly, she wrecked one of the foundational pillars. She destroyed the pillar that we will use power in a bottom-up way in this new government. She did not stand in alignment with this prevailing group-held principle which is expressed in practice by various specific laws such as due process and fair trial. She completely upturned all that and did the exact opposite.

With a fair trial, the truth of this matter would be seen and heard by all. Also, a trial would protect against any potential abuse of power. Without a trial, or moderated meeting, that is open to public observation, we will never know the truth. We can never have an assurance of fairness having been achieved. We will never know for sure that power was not misused. Even in the defacto government, a President can’t dissolve a State even with due process taking place. The Assemblies are supposed to be following principles that are superior to those of the government we have right now, but this is inferior.

Benefits of Fair Trials

If a Member does something that deserves being kicked out or punished in some way, it is good to have a transparent process that demonstrates to the rest of the Members that if one does do something wrong, they will get a fair hearing and a fair punishment. We need to see that, otherwise how can we correct our own behavior? How can we understand how to handle people who need to be punished if we don’t see a fair method being demonstrated? How will we feel assured that if we are wrongly accused, we will be heard in a fair and complete way and given due process? Will we simply be dismissed as well, with no recourse?

In the Assemblies right now, there might be people who have been punished (thrown out) who had done nothing to deserve any punishment. But we will never know if this is the case or not. If their punishment happens to have been unfair, then they were harmed – they had harm perpetrated against them. They would have been unfairly accused of something and unfairly punished. How are we supposed to know if this did or did not happen, without a transparent process?

Silencing and Censoring

Anna effectively silenced Michigan. By denying a trial she silenced their voices, their truths, everything they have to say. By creating Assemblies, we are trying to get AWAY from people who have so much power they can decide that we can be silenced and eliminated.

And, there was censorship as well. When the discussion was happening on the Telegram Chat, someone completely deleted the chat. This is clear censorship. Censorship is what we are trying to get AWAY from by forming Assemblies.

Ad Hominem Attacks

To make it worse, the Members of the Michigan Assembly note that Anna was calling them whiners and teenagers for asking legitimate questions about serious issues in the paperwork. Rather than being recognized for their hard work, they have been called names.

This is not right. It is better to focus on the issue that was raised and simply solve it and move forward than to call someone names but never solve the actual issue.

Calling names is exactly like the current government where politicians launch ad hominem attacks all day long in order to deflect from real issues. This is the government we are all trying to GET AWAY from. All this has done is put an acrid taste in the mouths of the Assemblies that are not involved. Anna very likely got feedback from various different members similar to what I am pointing out here. Instead of reflecting on it, she has become belligerent with ad hominem attacks against then too. Does this make a good leader or a good dictator?

Ultimately, there really cannot be the use of authoritarian rule within the group because that violates the foundational pillar. The whole group needs to stop and make the proper corrections before proceeding forward. We should hold a fair trial meeting for Michigan and any other State that Anna dissolved without due process and that wants to have due process.

Self governance comes with self-consequence. Leaders have to have the largess of spirit, big-heartedness and magnanimousness to allow others to lead themselves as adults.

Consequences

After a leader behaves in violation of their own principles, and their followers accept this, then the followers are saying that they approve of this behavior. From that point on, every ramification from that behavior is not just the leader’s responsibility, it is also every follower’s responsibility as well because they did not insist that this behavior be corrected.

Right now, there are people in Michigan whose lives have been changed. As far as I can tell, they are not being heard. Their Assembly, which they worked on for years, was disbanded. All of their efforts and contributions are not being seen or recognized. There are real effects in their lives. There are real effects on any individual who has been unfairly accused or accused or something they didn’t do. Being thrown out of a group has serious effects on anyone’s life and existence. Every sincere and dedicated Member affected negatively right now – that consequence is on everyone else in all other Assemblies because by not stopping this, we are saying it’s OK.

How is this different from people being carted off to jail with no trial in third world countries? How is this different than the Patriot Act? How is this different than the people who were at the Capitol on January 6 being punished for wandering around the Capitol building? Although – those people ARE being given some kind of trial and due process, even if biased and rigged against them. So technically they have a little more rights than we do as Members of Assemblies that can be dissolved by the Foundation leader.

There are not just effects on people in Michigan, There are also effects on everyone else observing this take place who will never know whether or not these were innocent people or not. There is uncertainty and doubt. Lack of confidence, worry. Sadness and grief.

Everybody who sees these things happen and chooses to continue business as usual without correcting them is saying that they are okay with aligning themselves with these ways of doing things. They’re okay with questions remaining unanswered about the wording of the paperwork. They are OK with people bringing up questions being called names. They are OK with honest sincere questions being dismissed. They are OK with Anna having the power to disband an Assembly. They are OK with weak excuses.

They are also Okaying all of the potential results of this behavior in the future. If there is someone far into the future who gets into trouble because their paperwork has some word that can be used against them, but that would have been prevented by working with Justin on his questions, we are responsible for their suffering. Their experience is every Member’s responsibility who decided to keep going without making sure that those questions were satisfactorily answered.

Some might say we don’t have time for such a process. However, just add up all the time and energy that was put into the Michigan Assembly over the years and ask just how much time and energy that is.

Everyone who continues forward without correcting these problems – unanswered paperwork related questions, the improper use of power, the absence of a fair trial and censorship – is also partially responsible for all ramifications of this for the individuals affected now as well as anyone affected in the future.