New America is no longer a nation - it's an attitude!

I came up with the idea for New America in the mid-1990s because the United States was sinking pell-mell into fascism. It was a truly American response to an un-American situation. I considered it a unique breakaway sovereign land and pushed for recognition of it as such. By then, the United States was no longer a leader in equality and basic freedom as it was 20 years earlier - a fact that can be backed up with enough news items and statistics to fill a book the size of a dictionary.

I first publicized the idea of New America in The Last Word in 1994, responding to a host of populist grievances. The movement gained momentum because of - of all things - an altercation at a right-wing neighborhood grocery store.

Remember, this was in Highland Heights, KY. Campbell County was among the most authoritarian communities in America, but in this politically polarized area, one could still find pockets of resistance to the right-wing regime that ruled the courthouse. The Constitution of New America was quickly scribbled down, although this document was scrapped just as quickly, as the U.S. Constitution (which the U.S. government ignores) can be adapted to New America without changing a word: New America is actually a continuation of the United States' progressing democratic tradition that was put on pause when the right wing of the Republican Party began rolling back societal advances in the '80s and '90s. So in reality, New America was not actually seceding from the United States - rather, the rest of the country was, because the rest of the U.S. was failing to reject public policies that openly scoffed at the basic liberties and human rights that America is supposed to stand for. This incarnation of New America was established as a circle with a radius of 2 miles centered on Highland Heights.

In 1997, my apartment was destroyed when sewage from new subdivisions for the rich began backing up into older dwellings. I then set up shop in Bellevue and declared my new apartment the New American Embassy. In 1998, New America claimed part of Santa Rosa Sound near Pensacola, FL.

About 11,000 peeps lived within 2 miles of Highland Heights, in an area of about 12.6 square miles. That is not too small to be a country. The smallest sovereign nation in the world has only 840 peeps and is about one-sixth of a square mile, so a country can be almost as small as it pleases.

New America was inactive in 1999, but in 2000, New America roared back with a revised approach and with slightly different geographic boundaries. The justification for seceding from the U.S. was the fact that our city block in Bellevue was deliberately skipped in the census, so it would not count when boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts are redrawn and would also lose perhaps millions of dollars in federal funds. The reason the fascist federal government skipped our block is that it has an exceptionally high ratio of registered Democrats over Republicans. Nothing more, nothing less. In addition, the Silver Grove Bored of Education decided at a secret meeting to do away with most of summer vacation, without soliciting input from the public. This endangered the health standards of the entire area and had to be fought.

I was born in 1973, so as a youth, I was taught that I lived in a place called America, where we had freedom to do what we wanted as long as it didn't harm others. But the government of the U.S. was so out of step with the values that were instilled in me when I was young that I could no longer stand it. Just as states in the U.S. issue photo ID's, I had an official New American ID. I did not view New America as being subject to U.S. laws or taxes: After all, we were left off the census and thus have no representation in congressional gerrymandering, so why should we - or any other place ignored by the census - follow the laws Congress passes?

In the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, however, New American nationhood became abandoned. The time was ripe for me take back America and enjoy the process. But New America lives on as a defiant, patriotic attitude!