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Here are some Yankees Gus.
Dashing.
The best.
The colonnaded steps.
Yanks took over the building.
How Johnny?
Richmond's mayor went looking for someone to accept the city’s surrender - and for help with the fires.
Who did the mayor find?
The XXVth Corps.
Never heard of them.
A corps of Black soldiers formed in December 1864.
Black soldiers captured Richmond?
And helped put out the fires.
Good Lord Johnny.
The XXVth was commanded by a white German immigrant, Godfrey Weitzel.
Heard of him.
Western campaigns Yank.
Mississippi River.
West Point before that.

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4 of 13

… Whoa Reb?!
What?
That.
It’s a ship shaft.
No, that side door.
For servants - it’s part of the tour Gus.
Is a servant a slave?
Getting precise.
The two words get slid together.
They do.
What is the distinction Johnny?
A servant slave gives up the right to kill a master.
And a slave never does.
According to Hobbes.
Calvin N. Hobbes?
Thomas Hobbes Gus, in a book called Leviathan.
Sounds Biblical.
Secular tome.
What does the servant get for not killing?
What do you think?

​







Something.
Like?
It would vary Johnny.
It did.
Humanness. 
More liberty, more security, less violence.
Something.
Wouldn't work otherwise Yank.
Did servants run from here?
Yes.
From that door?
I suppose - I'm Johnny remember?
Duh.
One can say for sure people thought about it.
Start to imagine it.
Lincoln declared it.
So a Someday door.
Someday.

​


Who did?
James and Betsey to name two Gus.
Ran from here?
January 8th in that year of your's.
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.”
“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
James and Betsey had to free themselves inside.
Like Bob sings of Yank.
What We the People need. 
A free mind begins within.
None but ourselves.
Can end the Usurpation.
We got the numbers Johnny.
Napoleon said that was essential.
Nearly 350 million of us.
Against 435 of them.
Thus The Return.
Of We the People.
Let's continue.
This way Yank …

Next up: 11 May (part 5/13) The Return of We the People: Rebels and Yankees.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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3 of 13

Got a sign Gus.
Quite a name.
Marketing.
Starfish House wasn't working?
Stingray.
Right.
During the war it was called the Executive or President’s Mansion.
It’s old.
Like us.
The sign Johnny.
Built in 1818.
As a home.
Then Executive Mansion.
Until April 1865.
Then Yanks moved in.
Then a school Reb.
Then a museum.
And now what is it?
Portal.
Davis stepped here.
Lincoln stepped here too Gus.
Some of his last.
True.

So that doorway saw a lot.
Part of being a portal.
Robert E. Lee?
Yes.
Mosby?
Maybe.
Why maybe?
Blur, you know Yank, too many particulars.
Davis had an office?
Here as well.
Let's go inside.
Maybe we see the visitor’s center first?
See Charlie?
There are things inside that best have some context.
Like what?
Context.
There are goddesses.
Good guess.
I took the one on the sign as a hint.

​

​


The Roman Virtus Gus.
Virtus is on the Virginia flag.
Virtue kills a tyrant.
Mortal combat as virtue Johnny.
According to Virginia.
Understandable not using the Virginia story you told me.
Another Roman story.
Father slays daughter to keep her from being enslaved.
Virginius and Virginia.
That would be a tough image to put on a flag Reb.
Especially in a slave state.
You mentioned goddesses.
I did.
Where?
Visitor's center first.
After you.
It’s around back.
To the left?
Follow me.
Okay …

Next up: 4 May (part 4/13) The Return of We the People: Emancipate Yourself 

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner
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2 of 13

Jeffy Johnny.
And Varina.
Sounds like Marina.
Correct.
Grapes of wrath.
Say more Gus.
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
“He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”
Grapes of wrath.
The oppressed.
The enslaved.
We the People.
The hymn is about freeing the oppressed, about ending slavery.
Davis thought God was on his side.
Don't we all?
What's on your mind Yank?
Bob and Elbridge.
Go on.
Why them two?

We met them both along the way.
Bob in Berryville.
Elbridge in DC.
Yet why them two Johnny?
Bob was singing Misty Morning.
We only heard him.
In a cemetery with Johnny Rebs.
Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Then again in Berryville Gus.
Bob told us about rights in the 1960s.
And you represented Yanks in the 1860s.
Til ‘64.
The Wretched of the Earth, Marley taught us that too.
More like taught you Reb.
You get it: it's about the oppressed.
Grapes again.
We are war signs Gus.
Soldiers.
Bob soldiers too.
For peace.
In our way, so did we.


​

1 of 13

Stop!
Sure.
Is this Richmond Reb?
It is.
And it’s Usurpation Day 2026?
April 9th Yank.
Elbridge would love this.
Marley too.
Bob.
Right.
This gray building doesn't look like the other ones.
Stingray is the color.
Stingray?
Yeah.
It’s gray Johnny.
Charlie said it’s called Stingray, rolled eyes included.
Who's Charlie?




​

​




​
​
Tour guide.
Of what?
The Stingray building.
When did you tour this Johnny?
Last Usurpation Day.
We spent that in DC.
With Bob and Elbridge.
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Bob sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Unforgettable.
Elbridge told us an eyewitness account of 9 April 1792.
The chief contemner himself.
That's when.
You just went poof without saying so?
After we smoked.
Bob's smoke.
Right … and I poofed.
To recon.
Richmond.
And thus Charlie.
And another chief contemner.
Charlie?

​
Jefferson Davis.
Jeffy?!
This is where he lived during the war.
Stunned Reb.
Okay.
That the backdoor?
Front, the back is collonaded, to the right.
Odd.
Garden area, privacy.
Makes sense.
Street smells too Gus.
Horse manure.
All kinds.
Clean today.
Let's cross the clean Richmond street Yank.
On Usurpation Day 2026 Reb.
“So the world shall be His footstool,”
“And the soul of Time His slave,”
[In unison] “Our God is marching on.”

*Next up: 20 April and The Return of We the People: Bob and Elbridge.

Posted by Bryan W Brickner

#1
That was something Johnny.
Washington DC has changed.

#2
It is a creation of The Usurpation.
The Usurpers, Yank, they get it now.

​
#3
They get the necessity.
Of a constitutional Republic.

​
#4
And that's the news Reb.
Where to now Yank?

#5
Richmond.
On to Richmond …

#6
A law made outside the law is never a law (at all).
See Hubbard v. Lowe 1915: “That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.”

Posted by Bryan W Brickner​

​3
Usurpation Day is a day of remembrance for those who serve for the duration even when they are torn and tattered, nerves completely shattered. 

Tippy Rowe didn’t want to be a bomber anymore and yet kept being a bomber. That’s a spirit of perseverance in the face of death: just my number, nothing more, just my spirit, nothing more.
​
Lt. Rowe was killed on 5 Nov 1944 while on a bombing raid over Mannheim Germany; the B-17 he was in was hit by anti-aircraft fire, went out of control, into a spin, and was nevermore.

Then at last to my elation
I caught up to my formation
And the ME’s turned and left me
By the tens and by the score.
But my wings were torn and tattered
And my nerves completely shattered
And as far as I’m concerned
The war is over, forevermore.

Now I’ve found the joy of living
And my secret I am giving
To the rest of those among you
Who might care to live some more.
For my sinus starts to seeping
Everytime they mention briefing
No more flying, no more combat
No more missions, Nevermore???????

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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​

A 1973 book, Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich, argues our dream was to build machines to replace slaves, and instead we have become enslaved to machines.
 
“To formulate a theory about a future society both very modern and not dominated by industry, it will be necessary to recognize natural scales and limits. We must come to admit that only within limits can machines take the place of slaves; beyond these limits they lead to a new kind of serfdom. Only within limits can education fit people into a manmade environment: beyond these limits lies the universal schoolhouse, hospital ward, or prison.” (xii)
 
Fifty years on and Illich is still apt.
 
“The foreseeable catastrophe will be a true crisis – that is, the occasion for a choice – only if at the moment it strikes the necessary social demands can be effectively expressed. They must be represented by people who can demonstrate that the breakdown of the current industrial illusion is for them a condition for choosing an effective and convivial mode of production. The preparation of such groups is the key task of new politics at the present moment.” (114, bold added)
 
Illich argues the available convivial tool: “can only be the formal structure of politics and law.” (115)
 
Our foreseeable catastrophe is the true crisis of We the People not being represented according to numbers.
 
Our politics is the usurpation and its supporters.
 
Our law is Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution … and its supporters.
 
The choice is between usurpation, which is the law of rule, and the US Constitution, which is the rule of law.
 
Choose.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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​
​​Part XIII of XIII
 
“… We were going to summarize.”
“Treasonous acts.”
“And then to Washington to see the smudge.”
“Sounds good.”
“What’d we learn Yank?”
“Look out for people who leave their flank in the air.”
“How’ll that work in DC?”
“Dereliction of duty.”
“That does work.”
“You Reb?”
“Look out for people wasting resources.”
“The batteries.”
“Time.”
“Choir.”
“Cavalry.”
“We are talking about the moves of usurpers.”
“What else Gus?”
“Kyd …”

​

​“… People change.”
“Some might act one way and then differently.”
“Gotta let people come back.”
“Sounds like grace.”
“Grace vigilant.”
“Word.”
“Lots of people in Washington Reb.”
“We’ll fit in.”
“May we see some sights?”
“Imagine so Gus.”
“I never went there and you helped build it.”
“And tried to destroy it.”
“Forgive yourself Reb.”
“On it.”
“Shall we land on the Mall?”
“Up to you.”
“Let’s wing it.”
“Wing it let’s.”
“Up Reb!”
“To Washington!”
 
Next Up: To be determined.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner