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There were moments in our life when her commitment and trust in me were tested. That was one of them. Many of our friends stopped calling and watched in silence my fight with Uncle Sam. 
 The Possessed 2003  WRITE : nonfiction SummaryReading a few pages by George Mason in Virginia and Alaska, almost twenty years apart.QuestionsWhen? I don't know, but I want to come back and finish my American Story, a short-story.NotesI don't read what I write, I rewrite it. 2004 & After
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What rights do we have for our rights?[ image ] or [ pix ] -- something I know is there, but I don't see it yet."A Soviet playwright defects to the United States, meets and falls in love with an exiled Ethiopian princess, and they settle in Roanoke to raise their family.Nothing quiet was about my first presidential election. Letter writing, phone wars, press conference at the garbage can in front of the Roanoke Courthouse, and threat of a hunger strike earned me right to vote in November.
It's the kind of story President Reagan loves to tell...""American Dream Elusive: We Have Bureaucrats, Too" was the title of this article by Brian O'Neill in Roanoke Times in the Summer of 1988. It was my story President Reagan haven't heard.
"The kicker ending would be the two new American citizens, with little ones in tow, walking quietly to their local polling and realizing their dream of voting for an American president.
Too bad it ain't gonna happen."The kicker ending was that I couldn't force myself to vote Republican. Not for Bush. His nomination alone was corruptive. What did I know? Ever since I've been voting libertarian. Why, why? Let me tell you.
I studied the Constitution, the way they taught me to study Lenin and Marx. I even read THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. My notes on my readings and my thoughts of a new American made me nervous. I knew what happened to me after deep studying of the communist literature.
The scene at the INS in Arlington, VA. Indians from India and Africans from Africa. The real ones, not the American simulacra. The black (simulacra) woman asked about strips and stars, how many? She was looking at me with suspicions as if she read my notes.
My fight for my rights of pursuing and obtaining happiness.... My new Mazda 323 was towed away for $75 of a violation somebody's rights -- wrong parking.
And after all the troubles I went through, after the hours with the Republican local (central) committee, which had no idea how to embrace the black (I knew but didn't tell them), I had to vote for a Libertarian (don't remember his name, the libertarian presidential candidates have tendency of disappearing forever from American political stage). I couldn't force myself to vote for a vise president (Bush), who thought that rights of political seniority (Dole) make his a president. In my ex-Soviet mind it was an indication of power corruption. In 1988 I thought that my hard fought and misused vote was an accident. In 1996 this accident has a history of three elections.
OUT OF THIS WORLD FEELINGS
I might say that I studied English by reading American history. Oh, boy, did I have a problem?!
"I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights..." The very opening is a quite a challenge to mind. This line could be written by the gang members in L.A. if they knew how to read. "By nature?" "Equally free and independent"? Everything I knew about life was contradicting such a statement.
...of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
Prosperity. The enjoyment of life and liberty. Acquiring and possessing property. Pursuing and obtaining happiness. And safety... I knew nothing of it. I was staring at those words, trying to find in me something to attach to the statements of good Virginians. I didn't object, I never experienced "safety," or even "property"!
.... I bought a house, a mansion, with no money down!
STRUCTURE OF HAPPINESS
I took it serious, because Americans are dead serious about it -- the happiness. Let see. How it's produced, maintained and improved. Happiness, is freedom a part of it? Illusion of freedom is enough. Is God needed? Not in KOG, not when you are happy.
[Formal freedoms -- diversity... don't you hear the sound of it?]
peace, stability and security -- parts of happiness?
price of non-violence? We set everything for conflict and the state takes place of a judge for the resolutions!
I was ready for the article two: "II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them." No, I wasn't ready.
III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.
I have my right to be wrong. I suspect that most of my choices are the wrong ones. She has her right to be wrong. Now put together my and her wrongs and think about the fate of American family. No government can get between us, no church, no God...IV. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge be hereditary.
If I can pass anything to my children, what is family for? Not even the property? Not really. This is why America loves "self-made-men"... I ran from USSR, when I understood that my son will never get anything from me, a slave...V. That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative; and, that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections in which all, or any art of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct.
.... Separation of powers. How long will take for the rest of world to read this short document from Virginia. Are you surprised that American Revolution, inspired by the French Thought, took place before the French Revolution? [ I write it during the first week of "Iraqi Freedom" campaign of 2003. ]VI. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good..... [ image ]"VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority without consent of the representatives of the people is injurious to their rights and ought not to be exercised."[ pix ]VIII. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers..... I don't know if George Mason fully understood what he wrote, but he and they had their right to be wrong. They happened to be right....IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted..... "nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted" -- God bless you, silly Americans. The last is very touchy -- "unusual"....X. That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive and ought not to be granted.XI. That in controversies respecting property and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other and ought to be held sacred.
XII. That the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
.... Should I give another century or millennium for the rest of the world to write it? Or at least to read and understand....XIII. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power..... My students took my kids to shoot. Yes, all possible guns. It's Alaska, USA. Too bad that I still have no guns in the house, but I am not to do it because of the principle. Maybe I am wrong again.XIV. That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.XV. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
.... "the blessings of liberty" or "virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles" -- you better read my "anti-people" pages (People Chapter and One-Dimenssional-Man, for example). America made my peace with the mass-man....XVI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other..... Should I repeate it? No, I will take it. Including the "Christian forbearance"....Adopted unanimously June 12, 1776
Virginia Convention of Delegates
drafted by Mr. George Mason
NOTES
In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I did not speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came up for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came up for the Trade Unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist. Then they came up for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, by the time no one was left to speak up.In Russia, they came first for the nobles, and I did not speak because I was not an aristocrat. Then they came up for anarchists I didn't speak up, because I was not an anarchist. They came up for Christians, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Christian.
Martin Niemoller. A German theologian, W.W.IIIn China, they first came for the rich, and I wasn't. Then they came up for non-communists, then -- for the college graduates, then for people with glasses. Twenty millions died.
In America, when they came up for the internet porno users, and I did not speak up because I wasn't. Then they came up for the drug users, and I didn't speak -- I wasn't a drug user. Then they came up for the hunters, I didn't hunt. Then they came for the smokers, and there were no one left to speak up.
"I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights..." (Virginia Constitution). Free and independent.
...of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
That was two centuries ago. In another country.
We should re-write our constitution, there are many models already tried; all we need is to learn from the great teachers -- Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
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