Overview

E Pluribus Unum / Out of Many, One
The Sacred Seal of Our Land, the United States

What, Why, How, When, Where, Who

What

WE, the People is a Citizens’ Movement dedicated to reviving the spirit of public service.
As such, the movement is “accompanying” our presidential, federal, state, and local campaigns in the spirit of celebration, a celebration.

The cornerstone of the movement is common sense, an enlightened or consecrated common sense, that 6th sense, or sense of the Self — our shared humanity — that the People, We hold in common.

“I, Eye, Aye!”

What distinguishes the Citizens Movement is that, instead of getting caught up/ bogged down in “the issues,” the legion of issues that inevitably distract, divide and, invariably, conquer us, WE, the People focus on that more fundamental, underlying ISSUE that would unite us: Our common wealth, inalienable “inheritance”.

Thereto: All fellow citizens of good will are honorary members of WE, the People: The Citizens Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service. They need share but 2 fundamental convictions:

1. With all respects due, the current political system is not working, as envisioned by our founding fathers, -mothers, and most revered public servants. A Dis-United States we are becoming.

2. WE, the People can do better. Practical, concrete suggestions abound in terms of how we can improve our political process, transform it into public service. The Citizens' Movement is unfolding as a vessel that offers itself up in service to the harmonizing, melding, and the uniting of the growing cross-currents in the cauldron of our nation. In the words of John W. Gardner, Founder, Common Cause:

“New ideas of where we ought to be headed . . . will emerge from individuals.The material out of which we [the People] shall build a new world is in us, in our minds, in our character, in our memory of things past, in our hopes for the future. We are the source. We shall conceive it; we shall design it; and we shall put it into operation.”

Why

WE, the People have had enough of “politics as usual”. This conviction is voiced by millions of independent voters, whose ranks now all but exceed Republicans and Democrats together. The party is over, on its last legs. As Washington, Franklin and our Founding Fathers themselves forewarned us, partisan politic has not served our nation.

WE, the People: The Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public
Service recognizes that there are certain concerns that are so fundamental, so existential, so tied up with our very existence that — with few and notable exceptions — we can not expect the candidates, our servants, public servants, to address them. For such concerns are not in the interests of the candidates, who
are prospering from the current system.

Rather, the concerns are OURS, our business; they “belong” to us. Once WE, the People awaken to this fundamental fact of life, we will recognize that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. And we will discover that when the People lead, as exemplars of public service, the leaders will follow. Such is the enduring lesson of the Civil Rights Movement and every movement that has brought about substantive change.

Thereto: This is above all the case with the deeper underlying ISSUE of this and every modern campaign. Inwardly, that consideration reveals itself in the ISSUE of sovereignty, the recognition of our “calling” as WE, the People: the 4th, and critical, check and balance in our “participatory democracy,” our constitutional democratic-republic.

Outwardly, the ISSUE manifests itself today, as it has throughout history, in the fact that the Sovereign issues the currency, “coin of the realm” and, thereby, has controlled the “life-blood” of the nation, the fate and fortunes of its people.

The time is at hand for the People, We, to issue the coin of the new realm. An introduction to such long-awaited issuance is at the conclusion of the September 29, 2020 letter to the presidential candidates on our Bretton Woods web site: https://brettonwoods.us/invitation-to-the-candidates/

In our day and age, the age of “Capitalism,” capital, the “Almighty Buck” has become supreme. Money not only “makes the world go ‘round,” but it brings our affairs to a grinding halt.

For every fiscal/spending issues (i.e. health care, jobs, infrastructure, the environment; you name it) — indeed ALL worldly issues that bear a price tag — are money/monetary issues. In, to repeat, an age in which “money [not only] makes the world go ‘round”.

The other “issues” that vie for our attention are, we suggest, secondary. That is, they are symptoms that are tied to the control of the “purse-strings:” i.e. to the creation, issuance, and circulation of money, our common wealth, the “life-blood” of our nation.

As WE, the People devote ourselves to taking up this deeper underlying ISSUE of our Sovereignty, inwardly, that decisive step will lead to our outer control of the “Coin of the Realm,” that is to the elevation of the spirits and fortunes of the People.

Indeed, the Massachusetts Bay Colony of 1690 became the first non-native government in the western world to issue paper currency on behalf of the People, in order to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. This public “utility” was not backed by gold, interest-bearing bonds, or other debt-based contracts, “financial instruments.” Rather, it was based in the full faith and credit of the People, We. In his “Cross of Gold Speech,” William Jennings Bryan spoke to the heart of the matter:

“When we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary
reforms will be possible, but, until this is done, there is no other reform that can
be accomplished.”

How

The Citizens’ Movement will not campaign. WE, the People seek no funds, no publicity, will hold no rallies, not strive to impose a party structure on anyone. Nor will WE, the People allow ourselves to be divided and conquered by “the issues.” That is, we will not allow ourselves to get entangled in “politics as usual,” Rather, to repeat, our campaign is one of Celebration. As such, its focus is a singular: To Revive the Spirit of Public Service.

Inspired by Ben Franklin’s “United Party of Virtue” (a veritable movement), candidates/Celebrants are encouraged to assume the mantel of the constitutional office that they seek, without expectation or fanfare. That is, instead of saying, “If I’m elected, I will do a, b, c” (and if not, see you later, I’m out of here), the Celebrants are encouraged to do what they envision: To walk the talk, govern/serve by coming up with actual solutions to our pressing problems.

Politics aside, if the solutions are real, actual, if they serve the people, the celebrants voices will be heard. They will become the talk of the town.

Toward that end, celebrants are invited to address what we speak of as the deeper underlying ISSUE, through those realities that are nearest and “dearest” (most costly), that bring the ISSUE closest to home: our roads, bridges, school, water/ sewage systems — our public works, infrastructure, the very foundation of our
nation.

Toward this end, “The Concord ~ Bretton Woods Resolution” < https://brettonwoods.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/0-Bretton-Woods-Concord-Res..pdf > provides a common sense platform for getting our “house” in order. As such, the resolution can be taken up and adapted and adopted by communities across our nation.

The point being: We, the People can not lose such a celebration, regardless of how the votes fall. For what stands behind the Citizens’ Movement is a recognition that not only every candidate/celebrant but every fellow citizen can act upon immediately. That recognition is service, public service, servantship.
Calling to mind Dr. King’s words:

“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”

That is: We live in extraordinary times. These times ask of us extra-ordinary efforts with those with whom we come in contact, in the circumstance of our lives.

Once this is recognized, our calling as We, the People is to become the change we seek — to give it our best. If we can rise to such occasions, we will generate, together, the force that can avert the impending disasters, the specter that Washington spoke to in his Farewell Address.

WE, the People are called to awaken, awaken as Americans from, and to, our dream — our true dream. Before that dream becomes the nightmare that many fear, before the awakening becomes a rude one, indeed.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens [to begin with] can change the world for the good. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Meade

Thereto: Toward the formation of its vessel, WE, the People: The Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service is reaching out to former cabinet members who: i) have run a department, i.e. have experience; know what is involved in administering the affairs of our nation; ii) have left their administration on the basis of principle, i.e. have had enough of “politics as usual”; and yet iii) have not given up on the spirit of public service.

Further conversations are arising with recognized public servants, who bear vital initiatives, such as a Department of Peace. The conversations focus on the fundamental prerequisites for peace — so that peace need not continue to remain an elusive dream, ever un-fulfilled aspiration.

A Circle of the Poor is being formed to work together with the billionaires in order to strike, gently, the balance between the bottom and TOP Lines.

Circles of Elders and Youth are being formed. The former would bless us with the wisdom of the past; the latter remind us of the promise of the future, the generations to come.

Finally, recognizing the time honored tradition of the “Court Fool” in administrations of old, as Shakespeare has vividly portrayed, such inspired spirits are called to step forward to help us keep our labors “honest.”

When

The vision of WE, the People: The Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service was kindled during New Hampshire’s “First-in-the- Nation” primary season on January 7th, 2016 in Littleton, NH, at the conclusion
of a county political party meeting.

Prior to the party meeting, NH’s gubernatorial candidate, Frank Edelblut had expressed an interest in Stuart-Sinclair Weeks lending a hand with his, Frank’s campaign. Stuart-Sinclair expressed his openness, if Frank was in agreement with two essential points:

1. That Frank would bring his campaign to his fellow citizens, not to the “political operatives”. It would be a campaign of, by, and for the People;

2. That instead of saying to the voters, “Give me your time, money, energy, give me your very hopes, and if I’m elected I’ll do a, b, c . . . . If not, I am out of here.” DO IT. Walk the talk, serve. For one can’t lose, if we give it our best.

Stuart-Sinclair asked if Frank could make that commitment clear at the beginning of each rally: “I will carry on, regardless of the final count. I am committed to service, public service.”

Frank was committed. And, a new-comer on the political scene, he all but upset his opponent, a member of one of NH’s most established political families. Frank’s committed service has continued as NH’s "Commissioner of Education."

WE, the People: The Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service was born at that Littleton, NH rally.

The vision unfolded en-route back to neighboring Lancaster, NH, the “seat” of Coos County, one of the poorest counties in the state and nation. Recognizing this fact, a growing number of citizens in Coos County are dedicating themselves to fulfilling the vision of “the last becoming the first” thorough the adaption and adoption of the foregoing “Concord ~ Bretton Woods Resolution”.

The celebration, Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service, was formally launched over the weekend of February 6 & 7:

* On Saturday, Feb. 6th, 2020 fellow citizens gathered at the old North Bridge in Minuteman National Park, Concord, Massachusetts, where the “shot was fired heard ‘round the world.” At the successful conclusion of the War for Independence, Concord became the first town to call for a Constitutional Convention, in order to establish a government of, by, and for the people.

* On Sunday, Feb. 7th, 2020, the threshold of New Hampshire’s “First-in-the-Nation Primary,” the celebration continued at the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH, the site of the establishment of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Thereto: As understanding of The Concord ~ Bretton Woods Resolution grows, we trust that a show-case will arise in New Hampshire’s “North Country,” a model for regional development that will inspire counties across our land and beyond our shores. The creation of such a model is but one of many examples of how The Citizens’ Movement is devoting its energies to actions on behalf of the People, walking the talk — as opposed to merely proclaiming campaign promises.

Such extra-ordinary efforts lie at the heart of our labors. That said, it is clear to us that the vision could not have arisen, unless it was already “in the air” — in, that is, the heart and minds of a large and growing number of fellow citizens.

Since our focus is public service as opposed to “politics as usual,” WE, the People look forward to a bright and enduring future.

The party is over; the movement has begin.

Where

The Citizens’ Movement is arising where ever two or more fellow citizens gather in the Spirit of WE, the People, in order to encourage one another to make the extra-ordinary efforts spoken of.

As, we trust, such encouragement grows, we’re confident that the rising platform/Celebration will include the best thoughts of many fellow citizens and kindred movements both nationally and internationally, who/which share our dedication to the revival of the spirit of public service. In Citizen Tom Paine’s
words:

“The cause of America is the cause of all mankind”

Who

WE, the People: The Citizen’s Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public Service is constituted of representatives of the different ages, races, nationalities, socio-economic groups, and political persuasions, which constitute our land, our ever “New World”. Every person of Good Will is an honorary and honored member. No formal membership or dues are required.

What unites us is the recognition that We, the People are the ones we’ve been waiting for. What unites us is our commitment to the promise of an ever “More Perfect Union,” as given voice by Alexis DeTocqueville and by the resounding refrain of our national song:

America is great, because America is good.
And if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
“America, America, God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

New ideas of where we ought to be headed . . . . will emerge from individuals. The material out of which we [the People] shall build a new world is in us, in our minds, in our character, in our memory of things past, in our hopes for thefuture. We are the source. We shall conceive it; we shall design it; and we shall put it into operation.

—John W. Gardner, Founder, Common Cause