On April 19th, 1775, the residents of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts “fired the shot heard around the world” by returning fire on the British troops who arrived to arrest “terrorists” John Hancock and Samuel Adams. On April 19th, 2010, patriots gathered at each of the fifty state capitols in order to “fire an ideological shot across the bow” of the state and federal representatives. After ceremonies that started at exastly the same time across the country, the Articles of Freedom were hand delivered to state representatives by hand, and mailed (certifed return receipt) to each of the state’s federal representatives in Washington D.C.

Barbara Harless, Texas state coordinator for Continental Congress 2009, was the driving force behind the ceremony held on the south steps of the capitol in Austin, Texas. She reports:

A very big expression of gratitude goes out to all those selfless efforts donated by so many of the supporters of liberty in Texas that were able to take time from their regular schedules and join us Monday on the steps of the Texas capitol to participate in our National Dedication Ceremony, and then deliver the Articles of Freedom to 218 Texas officials (state and federal), in the state capitol and in Washington (via return receipt-USPS). All of this could not have been accomplished without the help of all of those of you that participated in one fashion or another.

I want to take this opportunity to again give credit and a much deserved expression of thanks to Bill and Diana Moses of Marble Falls. Diana did an excellent job of producing, sorting, and labeling the envelopes that were delivered to all of our state officials with offices in the state capitol building. Also, Susanna Ortiz and Deanie Coulter did a bang up job issuing the packages with “certificate of service” forms to the many volunteers that stepped forward on Monday to deliver the Articles of Freedom within the capitol building following Monday’s National Dedication Ceremony. Also, Scott Payne of Gospel Way Fellowship Church-Marble Falls, supplied the sound system, song recordings, and led our singing of songs in the Ceremony.

To summarize for those of you that were not able to be in attendance:

2:00 PM, April 19th: Michael Badnarik (president of Continental Congress 2009) opened our Ceremony, introduced Jon Roland and John Bush, Scott Payne, Bill & Diana Moses, and Barbara Harless
Reading of the Dedication to the Founding Fathers, by Michael Badnarik
Patriots Prayer, read by Bill Moses
Singing of the Star Spangled Banner, led by Scott Payne
The Pledge of Allegiance, led by Scott Payne
Reading from the writings of George Washington, by Michael Badnarik
Presentation of the Articles of Freedom, read by Michael Badnarik
Reading of thePreamble of the Articles of Freedom, by Jon Roland
Reading of the Oath of Office and the Record of Violations of Our Constitution, by Michael Badnarik
Presentation of the Articles of Freedom to the 2 officials that were present Monday, by Barbara Harless:
US Senator John Cornyn: Ms. Elizabeth Cox (Central Texas Deputy Regional Director), accepted Senator Cornyn’s copy of the Articles of Freedom at the podium
Texas House Representative Randy Weber (district 29: Brazoria and Matagorda counties) received his copy of the Articles of Freedom at the podium
Recognition of the Texas citizens that served the Articles of Freedom to their officials in their local offices
The People took the Pledge, found in the Articles of Freedom, led by Michael Badnarik
Singing of “America”, led by Scott Payne
Acknowledge attendance of Catherine Bleisch, CC2009 delegate from Missouri
Closing Prayer, led by Bill Moses
2:55 PM (approx) the ceremony concluded and approximately 30 citizens stepped forward with their video cameras and offered to deliver over 200 envelopes that included a copy of the Articles of Freedom downloaded to a CD, as well as a cover letter explaining the contents of the CD. These envelopes were either:
Delivered to a legislator or their staff, and a signed receipt was obtained,
The envelopes were slid under the legislator’s office door since the office was closed with no one to receive the envelope,
Or in the case of the Federal legislators that did not have an office in the Texas state capitol, these envelopes were postmarked April 19th and mailed “return signature receipt” to each respective Washington, DC office.

We had approximately a half dozen video cameras rolling during the one hour Ceremony. You can go to YouTube.com and search for them. I have a link to a Vimeo recording that Jon Roland (Texas delegate to CC2009) produced for us and you can watch the entire 1 hour ceremony here.

Presentation of Articles of Freedom, Austin, Texas, April 19, 2010

I uploaded a 1 minute video of me presenting a copy of the Articles of Freedom to Mr. John Etue in Senator Hutchison’s Austin office on Tuesday before I headed back to Dallas. This is the 1st time I have uploaded a video to YouTube and so it could probably be edited or tagged better but here it is: click here Diana Moses spent a good amount of time yesterday uploading her video of the ceremony on YouTube and those can be found here:
Part 1 (Introduction. Michael Badnarik, President and Delegate)
Part 2 (Bill Moses offers the prayer and Scott Payne sings)
Part 3 (Begins with the Pledge of Allegiance)
Part 4 (Jon Roland reads the Pre-Amble of the Articles)

Diana’s Part 5 may be uploaded by now but I don’t have the link to that available currently.

Being that I am not a cinematographer and I’m inexperienced in uploading to YouTube or Vimeo, I will simply ask that you upload your videos and then send me a link to your online videos and I can gather those links and submit to our IT man that has a CC2009 YouTube account and see if we can somehow get the Texas videos put in one place for easy viewing.

On Monday I failed to recognize and express what I think is the attitude of all Texas freedom loving people, but without Michael Badnarik’s presence this past Monday at our National Dedication Ceremony, we would not have enjoyed the enlightenment and the words to express the urgent need for all people to act on their own behalf in our quest to resuscitate the Constitution and it’s powers over government. Michael is a wonderful speaker with the God given talent to deliver a message in just a few, deliberately chosen and powerful words, which I would have written a novel to express. I am most proud that Texas is home to Michael and he was our Master of Ceremony. To Michael, thank you for all you have done and continue to do for each and every one of us!

It is not the responsibility of the few. It IS the responsibility of us all. Through each individual’s effort to spread the knowledge of the Articles of Freedom we will prevail.

Thank you again to all who attended Monday and please remember to upload your videos and send me a link to them when you have the time.

Also, for those who took some of the CDs home to be mailed to a legislator, please contact me and I will give you the address to mail those USPS return receipts to so that the records of delivery of the Articles of Freedom to every legislator representing the citizens of Texas is complete.

My most sincere gratitude to each of you,
Barbara Harless