Learning Sovereignty
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Someone who wants to become a sovereign has a big job ahead of him.  The first problem is that most people don't understand sovereignty very well.  It isn't a new idea but, so far, it's been applied mostly to kings, emperors, pharaohs, and so forth.  Governments would like to perpetuate that notion.  I've developed a different understanding of the concept.  That is, anyone can become a sovereign.
Someone who wants to become a sovereign must first learn to understand sovereignty.  My essay The Long and Winding Doctrine:  Social Contract is a good place to start.  It's available on Pharos.  More information about personal sovereignty is available in my articles The Doctrine of Personal Sovereignty, on page 1 of the August 2005 issue of this newsletter, and Status, on pages 1 - 3 of the December 2010 issue of this newsletter.  In addition to study, an aspiring sovereign will need to start positioning himself.  That's true because governments today don't recognize sovereignty as a legitimate status for an individual.  Even when they don't view personal sovereignty as criminal behavior, which they usually do, they still place every achievable obstacle in its way.  Anyone who aspires to sovereignty will have to modify his own personal circumstances in such a way as to circumvent those obstacles.  A good example is the so-called driver's license.  See Show And Tell, on page 1 of the August 1998 isue.  Most of the necessary things in life are available nowadays only to people who have a driver's license or some authorized substitute for it.  Such ID can be obtained only by submitting to the jurisdiction of the government, which constitutes an extinguishment of any personal sovereignty that might otherwise have existed.
An aspiring sovereign must find other ways to accomplish the things for which a driver's license is a prerequisite so that he can divest himself of the license.  Such positioning isn't optional.  It's a prerequisite to such divestment.  Anybody who rescinds a driver's license "cold turkey" will discover that he can't live without it.  He'll soon be back at the motor vehicle department, begging to get his license back.  My efforts to position myself are a part of the story that's told in my memoir Outward Bound.
Many things besides a driver's license create obligations to government.  An aspiring sovereign must divest himself of such things in the right order because some such things are prerequisites to others.  For example, government ID is a prerequisite to financial investments but financial investments are not a prerequisite to government ID.  So, an aspiring sovereign should get rid of the financial investments first.  I suggested some divestment ideas in my essay Abandonment.  It's available on Pharos.
Personal sovereignty is a daunting goal.  It shouldn't be attempted lightly.  It isn't for sissies.  I began my pursuit of personal sovereignty back in the 1980s.  Since then, I've come as close to personal sovereignty as it's presently possible for me to get.  Whether or not I can maintain my status for the remainder of my life is a big question.  For example, the U.S. government is in control of access to most non-trivial medical treatment in the USA.  Access to such treatment is restricted to people who have government ID.  To get medical treatment, I'd have to sacrifice my sovereignty.  So, here I am, 65 years old, without an income, without insurance, and without government ID.  When I eventually acquire a malady that requires medical treatment, which seems likely, my choices will be to suffer from it, to die of it, to recover from it on my own, or to sacrifice my sovereignty in exchange for medical treatment.
So far, sovereignty has made my life inconvenient and insecure.  Things would be better if there were more of us.  Then, we'd be able to work together, to deal with one another freely.  It helps a lot that there are a few people within the medical establishment, specifically dentistry and optometry, who are willing to deal with me.  For any more serious medical situation, I can only try to stay sovereign, try to stay healthy, and hope for the best.

Silly Yak Condition
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Some time ago, I was listening to a conversation between two women.  One of them has the Coeliac Condition and, as a result, she doesn't eat anything that contains gluten.  By the way, Coeliac isn't a disease.  It's a condition.  Anyway, the woman with the Coeliac Condition recounted an experience that she'd recently had in a restaurant, where she'd been trying to order a meal.  In the restaurant, she'd cautioned the waitress to not put any bread on her plate because she couldn't eat anything that contained wheat.  The waitress, trying to be helpful, offered to bring white bread instead of wheat bread.
I didn't say anything but the two women chuckled at the ignorance of the waitress for not knowing that white bread contains wheat.  The other woman, the one of the two who doesn't have the Coeliac Condition commented, "Well, what do you expect, with what they pay the poor waitresses?"  Now, that statement is almost as silly as the statement that the waitress made.
The ignorance of the waitress isn't a consequence of her pay check.  It's a consequence of her failed education.  Besides that, she's a waitress, for Pete's sake!  She does food for a living!  Even if her schooling was deficient, training on the job ought to have taught her the basics of food.  If she doesn't even know that bread has wheat in it then she's an embarrassment to her trade.  She needs an education.  By the way, so does the woman who thinks that low pay is an excuse for ignorance.
Well hell!  What're we gonna to do?  Here's an idee.  Maybe we orta sit up a manduhtory school thing un' force everbody ta go ta school fer 12 years and git a edycation, whether theys wants it er not.  Yup.  That'd fix tha danged problem, ah dadburn betcha it shure 'nuff would.

A White Man's Notes
Sam Aurelius Milam III
•   I can't help but to wonder about the women who insist on being called moms, instead of being called mothers.  Is there something wrong with them?  Are they ashamed of being mothers?  What's their problem?
•   Traveling minstrels often use period instruments.