There is currently an urgent need for a new movement in America - one that will enable a shift in public consciousness and a restructuring of civil society. This movement is already taking shape, and it is inherently non-partisan in nature. I believe that, in order to maintain momentum and to gain the widest possible following, this movement should focus on five interrelated and mutually reinforcing issues that, taken together, threaten the very essence of what America has stood for since its inception - an open and free society in which power is held by the people. These five issues are:

1. The debt-based monetary system.
2. America’s imperial / interventionist foreign policy and an endless “war on terror.”
3. The creeping rise of fascism – the beginning of the end of our open society.
4. The unchecked power of corporations over every facet of our lives.
5. The broken system of “representative” government, and the two-party duopoly on power.

These five areas of concern are part of a cyclical feedback loop that has gotten out of control. Our central banking system allows the government to create vast sums of “money” to fund imperial projects of which a majority of Americans disapprove (and would be unwilling to allow if they were asked to fund them with higher taxes). Our irrational foreign policy creates anti-American sentiment all over the world, destroys our nation’s claim to moral leadership, and leads to acts of suicide terrorism against our citizens. The “war on terror” establishes a climate of fear in which the federal government is able to claim more power for itself and restrict our civil liberties, and in which ordinary citizens either accept the loss of their freedoms or are too afraid to speak out against it. Corporations profit immensely from a perpetual war footing and, motivated by profits, use their money power to control our “elected” representatives, ensuring that the status quo is not disturbed. To complete the loop, our federal government, ruled by two parties who are controlled by special interests, is thus unresponsive to the people’s needs, and refuses to address important issues like monetary reform. If we allow this cycle to continue, we will move closer and closer to a closed society; or in more blunt terms, a fascist state.

Political activists of varying ideological backgrounds can agree that we have reached a critical moment in American history. There are grass-roots movements all over the country that are struggling to reform or leave this pernicious system, but they are isolated from each other, and they lack the support of a majority of the American people. I hope that a mass movement drawing upon the basic principles of liberty and non-violence can unify these disparate groups, and become a force that our leaders will no longer be able to ignore.

I call on all true American patriots, from all parties, from both ends of the political spectrum, to put aside their differences and work together to address these critical issues! My road-trip is a grass-roots organizing campaign. By the end of the summer, I hope to have met and conversed with thousands of people, as the first step towards bringing a new political organization into existence. In this stage of the struggle, I have chosen to focus of the issue of monetary reform. I think this particular issue has the greatest potential for drawing people together, for the following reasons:

First of all, the American economy is in a tailspin. In the event of a serious economic collapse, the public must be aware of what the true reasons are for their sudden descent into poverty. A well-informed citizenry will be less apt to panic – we cannot give the government an excuse to declare martial law, suspend the constitution, or further restrict our freedoms to “keep order.” Secondly, money underpins and affects all other issues. For example, if you want to know why our government spends so much money on programs that enable them to clandestinely monitor law-abiding American citizens, it might be helpful to know what companies are profiting from the boom in the surveillance-technology industry, and which of our elected representatives are being lobbied hard by these companies. Thirdly, many of the issues that are most important to Americans cannot be effectively addressed until we come up with the means to pay for solutions. When so much of the wealth of our nation is concentrated in the hands of so few, we cannot expect that our money will be put to work on issues affecting the average citizen. Fourthly, the issue of monetary reform, being largely overlooked by the American electorate, is saddled with none of the ideological baggage of some of the more divisive political issues of our day. If there is any one issue on which patriots of the left and right can base a non-partisan alliance, it is monetary reform.