Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
It's such a pleasure to be here.
And I love Esalen.
And I love being a work scholar.
And this song that I've written tonight,
which is called "Here's how I say No"
is a personal dream of mine.

And it all starts with when I started at the Gazebo School in January of 2001.
And my, my first thought was "Well, little children that little, it's not very interesting."
It's *interesting*.
This is ages 1 through 5
and they are learning amazing things.
First words, and one word in particular, a two letter word: No.

And so these little girls, little boys, are setting boundaries: No, No, No, No.
And also we, as the staff at the school, have to set boundaries with them.
And the past geniuses of the Gazebo school have come up with THREE SIMPLE RULES
And that's all we, all the boundaries we put on the children
and these are wonderful rules -- jewels

and they are:

No Weapons
and anything can be a weapon;
you're actually carrying weapons around with you: nails, teeth, and a toy truck, and a stick
No Weapons, which for adults translates roughly to: "No initiation of force"

No Ganging Up:
No Two against One
No Three against One
No Four against One
That's a beautiful rule for the kids to have,
because psychicly, having two or three coming down on you,
even if they're just saying things, that's very very hard

And the third rule is, talk about boundaries:
Stay in the Park
It's very important for the little kids: Don't go past the haybales.
And so that's where they say goodbye to Mom, and all that.
It's a hugely important thing.
Stay in the Park

Um these rules, for me, are another name for liberty.
They describe a way of existing, respecting others.
and I think that's so important.

Now this song is about, a lot about history and politics,
and uh so in in fact it repeals the constitution for, in a per, on a personal basis
of course
so I want to go through some important things of history first just briefly.

[the Master of Ceremonies interrupts]: "Charles"

[Charles]: Yes

[MC]: We've got a lot of people

[Charles]: Yes

[MC]: And I know you've got a long song, and i'd love to hear it all but

[Charles]: Yes, thirteen minutes. I just, I just have a few things to say;
I'll be real quick about it.

13 Colonies. Yes, the song is 13 minutes long. I apologize for that.

13 Colonies rebelled against King George the Third.
On July 2nd, 1776, um, the Colonies declared independence.
July 4th is what we celebrate.
Well that's when they published the Declaration of Independence.
It's actually July 2nd.

So we had the 13 united States.
We had the Articles of Confederation, before the Constitution.
It turns out there were 13 of them...

[MC]: Charles, I'm going to have to set some boundaries, brother.

[Charles]: Give me one minute, one minute.

[my beloved Karen, and others]: Charles, just sing.

[Charles]: One minute. Ok.

1787 -- the Constitution; it has the word "power" in it 43 times.
The only time the word liberty appears was in the Preamble,
which was tacked on at the end;
and the Bill of Rights is amendments.

Benjamin Franklin himself said:
I believe this Constitution will be well-administered for a course of years,
and then it will lead to despotism.

Now whether we're at despotism here today -- tyranny -- we can argue,
but i think it's clear we're trending toward tyranny,
and i have made my choice,
i am not alone

On July 2nd, the 228th anniversary of American Independence,
at noon local time, we will say:
We repeal the Constitution.

And you are warmly invited to join us.

And if enough people say it, then it will happen.

Here's How I Say "NO!"

oh now i am a fool
i'm as stubborn as a mule
but i went to a school
that is very cool

i learned with children
ages one two three four five
and together we learned
to live and thrive

and in this school
we found three jewels,
these jewels are rules!
these rules are jewels!

Three simple rules
for how to live together.
Three simple rules
no matter what the weather.

No Ganging Up.
No Weapons, too.
Stay in the Park.
That's what i do.

And the children of Gazebo say No!
They learn to say it as they grow.
They say it high; they say it low.
They say it fast; they say it slow.

So... How do You say No?
Oh How do You say No?
Well Here is how i say No;
Yes Here's how i say No:

i, a person of the U.S.A., Repeal the Constitution.
i, a person of the U.S.A., Repeal the Constitution.
i Repeal the Constitution.
i Repeal it today.
i Repeal the Constitution.
And i feel A OK.

Why would i want to Repeal it?
Why would i want to Repeal it?
Why would i want to Repeal the Constitution?
Why would i want to Repeal it?
Why would i want to Repeal it?
Why would i want to Repeal it today?

Well... What has the Constitution wrought?
What has the Constitution wrought?

Has it wrought us a global military?
Yes it's wrought us a global military.

Has it wrought us secret agencies who hide from the sun?
Yes it's wrought us secret agencies who hide from the sun.

Has it wrought war, unprovoked war?
Yes it's wrought war, unprovoked war.

Has it wrought a War on Terror?
Yes it's wrought a War on Terror.

What has it wrought?
What has it wrought?
What has it wrought?

Would we be better off without this Constitution?
Would we be better off without this Ring of Power?
Would we be better off without this Constitution?
Would we be better off without this Ring of Power?

Before we had the Constitution,
we had the Articles of Confederation.
We had a loose confederation of states.
Each state retained its freedom,
Each state retained its sovereignty
Each state retained its independence.
And What did this mean?
It meant:  No President!
It meant:  No President!
It meant:  No Judiciary,
It meant: just a Congress, with each state having one vote.
It meant: just a Congress, with each state having one vote.

It meant no group of states could force anything on any one state.
Not even twelve against one.

[and do you know what that says to me?:]

No Ganging Up.
No Weapons, too.
Stay in the Park.
That's what i do.

And the children of Gazebo say No!
They learn to say it as they grow.
They say it high; they say it low.
They say it fast; they say it slow.

[so... what happens if we repeal our Constitution?:
well, there's a lot of things that we do keep:]

We keep all our state governments,
We keep all our local governments.
we keep all our institutions.
we keep all our organizations
we keep all our companies
we keep all our communities
we keep all our friendships.
we keep all our families.

[So, if we keep all of these things, what do we let go of?]

We just let go of that coercive power
that is so far away and so far out of hand.
Like the colonists did so many years ago,
when we bid goodbye to our own King George.

And that is why
when the sun is high,
on the Second of July,
we sing proudly to the Sky: