
Mercuriou: "Good evening.  You first saw me floating in orbit two
years ago, and have never known me any other way.  Soon I shall
disappear into prison, so it seems apropos that I bid you fairwell in
this manner."

Mercuriou: "An age has passed and other has come in the brief hours
that we have been apart.  I left a nation confident and at peace and
have returned to one scarred and at war.  Half of my own companions
have perished and our mission seems only able to limp on back home.
Yet here, in the fleet-footed orbital day, I find myself looking
more to the sunrise than the sunset, and feel myself thilled again
with the joy of youth!"

Mercuriou: "For I see a new nation, rising up out of the ocean as if
in answer to a prayer, a nation conceived in peace and dedicated to
God.  I see a young nation, hewn from the sea by fire and storm,
settled by outcasts from remote lands who sought its yet farther
shores.  I see a nation determined to lead mankind away from its
pitiful servitude to Mammon and into the broad light of freedom."

Mercuriou: "Alas, that nation is not America.  She is committed to the
chain, and only a revolution can break it.  Yet how can we overthrow
the American government?  It possesses the most powerful military in
the world, an able, though largely unnecessary police force, and, most
importantly, a majority of 100 million determined to keep themselves
in power on a game show."

Mercuriou: "We will overthrow them with democracy."

Mercuriou: "Impossible, you say?  Let's do the math.  In the last
election, Neil Abercrombie was elected governor of Hawaii with 222
thousand votes; James Aiona lost with 157 thousand.  If all of them
voted together, they'd have had 379 thousand.  If the whole majority
came streaming out to the polls for the election, maybe they could
barely muster 500 thousand."

Mercuriou: "How much is 500 thousand?  Well, in a nation of 300
million, it's one sixth of one percent!  Do you see where I'm going?"

Mercuriou: "Under our laws, American citizens are free to travel
anywhere in the United States and establish residency there.  Hawaiian
law enforces only a one-month residency requirement to vote."

Mercuriou: "So, are one-sixth of one percent of us so fed with up our
leadership, so sick of our own lives, so disgruntled with America,
that are willing to set sail for a foreign land and claim it for our
own?"

Mercuriou: "If so, then let's take Hawaii and get the hell out of this
country!"

Mercuriou: "This will not be an easy path, and many will oppose us who
should know better.  It will take ten years of toil and struggle.  The
first years, especially, will be fraught with hardships."

Mercuriou: "We'll need a common platform, broad enough to draw support
from more moderate citizens, while not comprising our core values.
What is it?  Simply put, it's everything that I'm been talking about
since Launch Day, right?!"

Mercuriou: "My great mistake was to reject capitalism without knowing
what to replace it with.  Some look to communism; some look to their
religion.  I've learned to look to _my_ religion, and it is
Christianity."

Mercuriou: "My first officer embodies everything that I am not.  When
I took the easy way out and stole, she stood cold and lonely by a
highway on-ramp with her thumb out.  When I set out recklessly for
Mars, she told me that our problems were here on Earth.  And I know
that if all she has is a five dollar bill in her pocket, and a begger
asks for change, she'll give him the five.  Even if it means she goes
hungry."

Mercuriou: "Remember that government is a coercive institution, and
you can't force people to be nice to each other.  Yet words are more
powerful than laws.  Seek through _leadership_ to enjoin upon citizens
the need for Christian charity.  Remind the waiters and cooks to feed
the hungry.  If they can't pay rent, ask the carpenters to build them
homes, and ask the farmers supply them produce.  Ask your citizens to
support those who base their lives on charity, instead of supporting
those who know mainly the pursuit of money."

Mercuriou: "Do not work for the capitalists.  If this seems anathema
to you, then approach it this way.  Insist on Christianity.  Tell your
boss that when a customer comes through the door, you'll make it clear
that they can take any product or service they want and will be asked
only to make a donation if they wish.  Does that boss still want you
for an employee?  If not, then part with him and his immoral
lifestyle!"

Mercuriou: "Look at employers the way you look at politicians.  Always
remember that we support the first with our labor as surely as we
support the later with our votes."

Mercuriou: "Make a strong commitment to education; it's one of the
best investments possible.  Rather than outlawing on-line public
libraries, commit to building and maintaining them.  As for the
capitalist publishers, given their current business model, that
information is a commodity to be packaged and sold, so therefore it
must be locked down and controlled, only one response is possible.
Simply abolish all intellectual property laws.  Let us not tolerate a
future where on-line public libraries are outlawed!"

Mercuriou: "Without economic independence, political independence
doesn't mean much.  'You have freedom,' we are told by the cynics.
'We will leave you hungry, homeless, ill-clad, without tools or
training, but you have freedom - you can vote in our elections.'  It's
time to take them up on that offer, too!"

Mercuriou: [ADD SOMETHING ABOUT FREE TECHNOLOGY]

Mercuriou: "Now, free technology isn't just about free software, it's
about going green.  What happens when one of your capitalist gizmos
breaks?  You toss it into the nearest landfill.  Now if the design is
open, that device can be repaired.  The capitalists don't want this.
They don't want technology that can be repaired.  They want throw-away
technology.  Instead of repairing these devices, they want you to buy
a new one.  Going green isn't mandated carbon scrubbers on smoke
stacks.  It's building clean, open, sustainable technology that
everyone can build, improve, and repair."

Mercuriou: "Now let us turn to our political system.  We've got a lot
of problems.  We've built the largest prison state in the world.  Our
military is armed with the most lethal weapons of mass destruction
that have ever been devised by man.  Our flag has become a target of
hatred and oppression to almost as many people as see it as a symbol
of liberty and freedom."

Mercuriou: "There is one central issue, though, that dwarfs all the
others, that drives all the others - CAPITALISM!  It is one of the
most depraved and immoral philosophies that has ever been proposed by
man.  It is a modern day slavery that has corrupted and co-opted our
entire society.  NONE of the other issues can be addressed without
addressing it first."

Mercuriou: "The majority of the American people, those few that are
still listening, are dumbfounded at what they hear.  That the police
are not an instrument of social reform; that goods and services should
be free; that books should be on-line; that capitalists must be driven
out from every post of leadership.  They will never accept this.  They
have built their entire society around rejecting this.  And they are
not going to change."

Mercuriou: "Those of us who reject capitalism face stark choices.  We
can continue to live in a society where we have no voice, no
opportunity, and no future.  We can trickle out in twos and threes,
trying to find someplace in this world that doesn't exist.  Or, we can
unite and we can concentrate.  We can find a place in this world by
making it.  We can win an election in one state, and make that nation
our own."

Mercuriou: "Finally, let me tell you the three most important things
about democracy."

Mercuriou: "We've been told that democracy gives everyone freedom.  It
doesn't."

Mercuriou: "We've been told that democracy will save the world.  It
won't."

Mercuriou: "Freedom is choosing your own leaders."

Mercuriou: "I'm open to compromise.  I am serious about secession, but
the issue is not beyond compromise.  We do, however, need serious
political reform to avoid such a break.  Several issues absolutely
_must_ be addressed to avoid such a break."

Mercuriou: "First, it is high time we put the mistake of Lincoln
behind us, and grant states the right to secede.  American states have
no fewer rights than Russian satellites, and the causes of
disenfranchised minorities here are no less noble than of those
oversees."

Mercuriou: "Next, federal authority, beyond that granted to it in the
Constitution, must be solely that granted to them by individual
States.  It's unbeliveable to re-iterate what the Constitution already
states, but we're still stuck with this rubber-stamp Supreme Court
that Roosevelt put in in the thirties!  Washington has no authority to
regulate drugs, weapons, communications, abortion or agriculture, to
name but a few of its extraconstutional powers.  However, if state
legislatures want to maintain coordinated policy on these issues, they
are amply able to grant powers to these national agencies themselves."

Mercuriou: "Also, federal authority to regulate patents and copyrights
must be repealed.  I don't know what the states will do with this
power, but hopefully it will be something better than outlawing
on-line public libraries.  This 'freedom' has been so abused that it
must be abolished entirely, but we can leave that decision up to the
various legislatures."

Mercuriou: "Our courts must be reformed as well. Evidence shall not be
excluded from juries, freedom of speech must be respected in the
courtroom and juries must judge not only the fact, but the law.  The
suppression of defense evidence in the prosecution of Jack Kevorkian
was terrifying, as were the contempt of court charges that have been
handed out against journalists.  We do not lose our freedom of speech
when we enter the courtroom; in fact, that is often when we must rely
on it the most!  Juries are a crucial safeguard in a system of checks
and balances, and must judge whether a law is just, not mearly whether
the defendant broke the law.  We also need fair and independent
judges, well versed in the law, ready to limit overreaching
governments or juries.  Both judge and jury must convict.  The law,
the prosecutor, the judge and the jury may each limit the sentence;
only the least of these is imposed."

Mercuriou: "America is unlikely to accept these changes, so instead I
propose that we organize the Christian Commonwealth of Hawaii, to be
governed by a bicameral legislature whose lower house suffrage shall
be extended to all Hawaiian residents, and whose upper house suffrage
shall be reserved for citizens.  The elections will not be determined
by simple majority rule, but will use a more complicated formula,
similar to the Australian system, to promote representation of
minorities.  The chief executive shall be selected by the Christian
churches of Hawaii, in conclave.  There shall be neither oaths nor
qualifications to hold elected office."

Mercuriou: "We'll build a new Hawaii, an industrial Hawaii, whose
industry must be centered on the big island, since only there, in the
heat of the volcano, has Hawaii the energy reserves necessary to power
a modern, industrial society.  There, water can be pumped into wells
drilled down near magma formations, extracted boiling hot and driven
through steam turbines to generate electricity.  That electricity can
then be converted to petroleum, or even better, processes can be
developed to make petroleum directly in the hot wells.  We'll need
petroleum not only to sustain our economy until we can switch to more
environmentally friendly solutions, but also to make plastics and
other polymers."

Mercuriou: "Any modern state requires a supply of silicon.  The easy
route would be to consume our beaches to obtain it, but a better route
is to dig for our sand undersea and leave our beaches intact.  Once
purified, that silicon makes two great products: glass and
semiconductors.  Quality glass is needed not only for buildings and
cookery, but also to make much of the laboratory and production
equipment needed by modern industry."

Mercuriou: "Our need to develop and protect our existing energy and
technology should not lure us to neglect research.  In many fields,
but especially in computer technology, vast rewards lie ripe to be
reaped."

Mercuriou: "IBM has demonstrated 'Watson', a machine that can answer
trivia questions well enough to beat Ken Jennings and Brad Ritter at
_Jeopardy_!  We need our own Watsons, in our airports to direct
travelers, in our universities to aid literature searches, and
ultimately on our desktops as the successor to Google.  Will IBM
release Watson's source code?  If not, it must be duplicated."

Mercuriou: "Let me emphasis this point: if IBM will not release source
code, then Watson _must_ be duplicated.  It is as essential now as
launching a satellite into orbit became after Sputnik.  We are engaged
in a technological arms race with a global capitalist network, powered
by the forced or coerced labor of much of humanity, and dedicated to
the principle that access to almost all of humanity's usable products
will be controlled by money.  Capitalism, especially globalization,
must be stopped.  If people wish to live in small communities
government by sick principles of social Darwinisms, coupled with a
slick ignorance of the Christian Gospel, our commitment to freedom
demands that we let them."

Mercuriou: "Our revolution is not merely technical, though, it is
spiritual.  We seek not only free technology, but free food, free
housing, and free beer.  'Free' does not mean without cost; none of
these things are free in that sense.  All must be strived to, worked
at, and sacrificed for."

Mercuriou: "Finally, let us remember why we bother to do this at all.
We seek not merely to duplicate capitalism, but to supplant it.  Our
factory floors will be open to visitors; our blueprints will be
published; our source code will be free."

Mercuriou: "One of the biggest challenges we face is energy.  We need
energy for lights, heat, transportation, communication.  We need
energy to drive our machines and energy to - our -.  And we are
dependent for that energy on Arab governments and petro-conglomerates.
Energy, short of the spiritual crisis of capitalism, is the greatest
challenge we face, because practically our entire society depends on
it, and nobody can claim true political or economic independence
unless we have energy independence."

