PATRIOT GROUP ORGANIZES MEETING AND ISSUES INVITATION TO ALL ALABAMA COUNTY SHERIFFS
by Sharon Rondeau, Interview by Kevin Cannon, President, We the People – Alabama
(Jan. 5, 2012) — The Post & Email was recently made aware by a reader of a constitutional newsletter published by a group of patriots in the state of Alabama. The newsletter, entitled The Alabama Minuteman Reports, recently announced that a meeting with Sheriff Richard Mack has been organized, and Alabama’s 67 county sheriffs have been invited to attend. A flyer detailing the event states that it will take place on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville at 1:00 p.m. Admission is $20.00 per person. Directions can be found here, with an enlarged version pictured on the second page of the publication as well as contact information.
The referenced article has a listing of all 67 Alabama sheriffs and their phone numbers.
The organization’s membership application is available in PDF format. A one-year subscription costs $17.76.
Their mission statement begins:
In recent decades We the People have observed, with increasing disgust, the accelerated “fundamental transformation” of our constitutional republic into a socialist democracy on its way to being part of a communist one world dictatorship.
The statement concludes:
…it is going to get worse until a sufficient number of us come together to halt our slide into political and economic slavery and begin to undo the damage that has been done over the last 100+ years.
The Post & Email interviewed Kevin Cannon, President of We the People — Alabama, about the upcoming meeting with Sheriff Mack, how it was put together, and what he sees as the role of the newsletter and organization for his state.
1. About how many readers does your newsletter have, if you know? Is it published in hard-copy form or internet-only?
We have no way of knowing exactly how many readers of the newsletter we have, but we have gotten feedback from places like Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Indiana, Ohio, Alaska, Florida, Georgia and so on. There is no way of telling how many times the newsletter notification is forwarded.
The newsletter is published on-line on the We the People – Alabama website at: www.wtp-alabama.com in PDF format. Every newsletter we have published is located in the “Newsletter Archives.”
2. Whose idea was it to invite Sheriff Mack to speak, and what kind of lead time did he need? How long do you expect his presentation to be?
The We the People – Alabama Board of Directors came up with the idea of having Sheriff Mack come to Alabama as one of the ways to educate Alabama’s County Sheriffs and the people of Alabama as to the constitutional responsibilities and power of the County Sheriff to stop the Socialist tyranny being imposed on us all; and to introduce our elected public servants at all levels of government to the organization of their constituents that will hold them accountable to their oath of office during their term of service and not just at election time by providing an ongoing “Job Performance Report” to the people based on the Constitution, their oath of office and the Public Servant Standards created by We the People.
We the People – Alabama will work with and support those elected servants of the People who honor their Oath of Office to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and will hold accountable to their constituents those who do not.
We first contacted Sheriff Mack about the possibility of coming to Alabama back in mid-September and gave ourselves plenty of time to make all the necessary preparations and arrangements in order to have as successful an event as possible.
Sheriff Mack’ will speak for approximately 90 minutes followed by a question and answer period. Afterwards he will be available for book signings, as we plan to have several hundred copies of his book available.
3. What will be Sheriff Mack’s main topic?
The main thrust of his presentation will be how government has exceeded the authority We the People have loaned to it and how the County Sheriff is obligated by his/her oath of office to defend the freedoms of his/her constituents.
4. About how many people do you expect will attend the event?
We have arranged for comfortable auditorium seating that will accommodate 1,000 people and hope to fill every seat.
5. What kind of response have you received from the 67 Alabama sheriffs you have contacted about the event? Is there any way to know how many of them closely adhere to your state constitution and the U.S. Constitution?
So far we have received a response from only two. We are hopeful that our efforts to reach all of them through the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association will bring more to the event. Whether they attend the Sheriff Mack event or not, the appropriate grade will be entered into their job performance report that is available for public review in the Alabama Office of Citizen Vigilance of the We the People – Alabama website.
Until we establish a line of communication and working relationship with each one of them, we are prudently assuming that none are aware of their constitutional responsibilities.
6. How aware do you believe most people in Alabama are of their constitutional rights? How well do sheriffs know them and protect them? Have there been any recent reports of police brutality against the people?
Based on the level of apathy we have run in to so far, we believe less than half are aware of their God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and even fewer are willing to stand and defend them.
As to the Sheriffs, that is yet to be determined, but the Sheriff Mack event will begin the process of both educating them and holding them accountable to their oath of office to defend the rights of the people.
As with all states, there are those in positions of public trust who exceed their authority and/or abuse the public trust. One of the ultimate functions of the We the People – Alabama organization will be to protect our supporting members from such governmental abuses by shining a bright light on them. “There is no better disinfectant than sunlight.”
7. Do you expect that the topic of constitutional eligibility for your state ballot in 2012 will come up? It will be interesting to see if Sheriff Mack believes that it is a sheriff’s responsibility to ensure the integrity of the ballot in his county.
Yes. That is an interesting point. We will ask him.
8. Does your organization have face-to-face meetings often? If so, what topics have you covered this year?
Most of the Board of Directors talks on a daily basis and the entire board meets formally about twice a month. We are currently in the process of building the Executive Committee that will consist of We the People – Alabama supporting members in each of Alabama’s 67 counties who are the most passionate and active in the effort to preserve American exceptionalism. What their individual role, functions and responsibilities will be is for them to decide… with the approval of the Board of Directors.
We discuss and try to deal with whatever comes up. We are currently absorbed in the details of setting up the Sheriff Mack event, after which we will be:
- Setting up the Executive Committee
- Writing the Public Servant Standards for Alabama Legislators and Alabama’s County Sheriffs, on which their job performance will be rated.
- Growing the Alabama Institute for Constitutional Studies on the website.
- Seeking out those wanting to participate in and/or support the efforts necessary to restore our constitutional republic.
- Looking for like minded people in other states to help them establish their own We the People organization.
This is just a partial list, but as you can see, we have a full plate, with a lot of goals, the primary of which is to establish permanent ongoing citizen oversight of government, for which we need no one’s permission.
9. What else can citizens who are concerned about encroaching government do to educate their friends and neighbors?
The American Revolution was fought and won by less than 15% of the population at the time. Unfortunately, it is no different today. About half the population hasn’t got a clue, doesn’t care or simply doesn’t want to get involved and doesn’t even bother to vote. Our Republic is at such a critical juncture that one would be wasting his time trying to get through to that part of the population. What we have learned is that we have to seek out individuals who actually do want to make a difference, as well as develop working relationships with other groups like Oathkeepers, both of which we are doing with the Sheriff Mack event January 21st.
Beyond that, as individuals, we have much to learn before we can educate friends and neighbors. One of the unintended consequences of this effort is that along the way we have met and gotten to know some really great people that we would have otherwise never met.
I hope the answers are worthy of the questions you asked and will enlighten your readers as to the who, what and why We the People – Alabama was created and what we intend to do.
With your permission we intend to publish this interview in our newsletter as you asked some very good questions, which afforded us the opportunity to explain We the People – Alabama.