Last night, Karen & I went to see the film Hero.

I found the film to be disturbing.

There are seven kingdoms of China.  One of them, the Kingdom of Qin, is ruled by a ruthless king who dreams of conquering the other six kingdoms, supposedly to bring peace to China.  The movie portrays four assassins who, with extraordinary effort, get close to the king in order to assassina him...  But two of the assassins choose not to go through with the assassination, because they want the peace that ruler brings.  The great dream of a peaceful unified China.

[sarcasm here] And let's just forget about Tiananmen Square...  And let's just forget about the possibility that those seven warring kingdoms could actually learn to live together in peace.

I am frustrated.  As a little boy, I hoped to make some great contribution to our society.  I read stories of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and later, Linus Pauling... Could I with my mind figure out something that would greatly benefit our world?

Now, as a man, I see the great scientific wonders all about.  And although much remains to be discovered, we do have a host of scientific wonders, so much to enjoy and behold.  And yet our world has huge problems.  Those problems are political.  For example, we are dropping bombs in Iraq.  "We", the Americans.  And I am being coerced to pay my part for those exploding bombs.

This film, Hero, glorifies the tyrant who conquers all the lands and brings peace by putting all of us under one yoke.  By this logic, we should pray that he conquer the world, and bring his peace to all humans.

Is this the best we can imagine?  Is our ideal world one where a single government has conquered all the others?  That doesn't sound too good to me.

How about the other direction -- what if we have borders and we celebrate and respect them?  Why can't our world be a patchwork quilt of little lands, each with its own rules and customs.  Wouldn't that be better?  Wouldn't that be more interesting?

If We the People of the USA decided to revise our Constitution and exist as a voluntary confederation of free and independent states,

• Could those 50 [or 51, with DC] states learn to live in peace?
• Could those states work out how to deal with water issues and air issues that cross borders?
• Could those states figure out that free trade is the best way to be?

And I dream beyond that of one state, perhaps my beloved California, reforming its government to be a voluntary confederation of free and independent counties.

And I dream of a county that similarly reforms its government to be a voluntary confederation of free and independent properties.

And I dream of standing on some such little scrap of land and breathing free, without fearing that some person in a uniform will come visit me with a piece of paper in their hand saying "You owe us money for these 'services' which we decided you need."

Now that would be a free country.  That is a dream worth dreaming.

I dream of a hero who will lead us to that peaceful decentralized world.

love, Charles

P.S. After having written this, I see the date -- September 11, 2004.  Three years have passed since that terrible event.  I saw in the paper a picture of two teenage Iraqi boys who had just lost their mother and two sisters in an American bombardment.  I pray that we stop this war and bring our troops home.