XLVII Con. Pat.

Inaugural Address

July 1, 2002

Om Amriteshvaryai Namah.  Om Namah Shivaya.  Holy Mother, Divine Masters, members of the 47th Congressus Patriaë, all those who have served in the 46th Congress, fellow Patriens: for the forty-seventh time in this micronation’s history, we have assembled here to witness this traditional and peaceful transfer of power.  The oath of office that has been repeated today is the same oath of office that was taken in 1818.  With this morning’s ceremonies and with a simple oath, Patria affirms its traditions and makes new beginnings.

Today is not only the first inauguration day of the 21st century, but the first inaugural since September 11th.  The day the world changed.  A day that will live in infamy.  A day like December 7, 1941, June 6, 1944 or November 22, 1963 that needs no further explanation of its significance in history.  On that traumatic day, the al-Qaeda did more than destroy some very expensive real estate and kill a few thousand innocent people.  They did more than express their anger over U.S. support of Israel.  They attacked the very freedom and democracy that America was founded on in 1776 and that Patria has valued since 1818.  Patria will not commit its army, navy and air force to the war in Afghanistan.  Nonetheless Patria stands steadfastly at America’s side with moral and spiritual support in order to defeat the scourge of terrorism and bring Osama bin Laden and his evil henchmen to justice.

Long before September 11, law and order had been a hot-button issue in Patria.  Four years ago on this day the 46th Congress inaugural address lamented the proliferation of street crime, drugs, prostitution, graffiti and homelessness both in Castoropolis and throughout the Inner Realm. Of course, the general urban decay of Patria’s major cities cannot be blamed on one Mr. Bin Laden.  While the quality of life here in the capital has improved somewhat since 1998, due in only a small part to the National Union’s tough crackdown, there is still a long way to go. There are still desolate, burnt-out pockets of filth, poverty and despair only a few subway stops from the Capitol despite the promises to take back the streets that the N.U. has been making since 1998.  There are still neighborhoods in Castoropolis that could easily be mistaken for the worst U.S. inner city, despite billions of rupees in infrastructure improvement grants.  There are still homeless drug addicts and de-institutionalized psychiatric patients roaming the streets despite thousands of available beds in hospitals and homeless shelters.  There are still hundreds of filthy graffiti-riddled subway cars and unsafe rusted-out buses despite Castoropolis Transit’s enormous congressional subsidies.  There are still many garbage-strewn streets and countless numbers of walls and mailboxes defaced with cryptic spray-painted tags that have not been cleaned up by workfare recipients assigned to pick up litter and scrub graffiti.  There is still street crime even if the muggers and purse-snatchers are not wearing do-rags and baggy jeans thanks to the N.U.’s dress code edicts.

Keeping Patria’s youth on the straight path, on the spiritual path, and away from promiscuity, drugs and crime, remains one of the major tasks of this government as it was four years ago.  Boot camps, dress codes, curfews and so-called strict discipline have been scoffed at by law-abiding young people and young punks alike.  Do you really feel safer because no one under 18 is allowed on the streets of Castoropolis after sunset without a parent or legal guardian?  The dusk to dawn youth curfew has failed.  Police in the Federal District are even unwilling to enforce it.  Getting busted for staying out past the curfew has served only to teach youth in the Federal District that the law truly is an ass.  The N.U.’s policy of “zero tolerance maximum penalties” has served only to create a cadre of disaffected, alienated young people doing hard time behind bars. There are too many Patriens who have been convicted of petty non-violent offenses not even worthy of probation or a suspended sentence who are forced to share cells in federal penitentiaries with murderers, rapists and other hardened criminals. Despite what you may have heard from the N.U. during the election campaign, today’s jaywalker or litterbug is not tomorrow’s terrorist or serial rapist.  If there are terrorists in Patria’s midst, such as those who perpetrated the evil of September 11, they will not be deterred by a dusk-to-dawn curfew or by throwing a few luckless jaywalkers into the slammer for 30 days.

In the 46th Congress, the National Union government of the Federal District of Castoropolis imposed dress codes, prohibiting mostly young black males from wearing cornrows, do-rags, backwards baseball caps, sneakers with untied laces, baggy jeans, and other fashions popularized by the rap and hip-hop music industry.  Ostensibly the purpose of these dress codes was to prevent crime by outlawing “gangsta” attire.  But does anyone feel safer on the streets of our capital because black kids and wannabe-black “whiggers” must wear their baseball caps facing forward?  Can women feel safe at night knowing that a potential rapist will not wear his hair in cornrows?  None of the suicidal al-Qaeda thugs who attacked America on September 11 were wearing oversize crucifixes, FUBU hooded sweatshirts, do-rags, and baggy jeans.  Dress codes have not succeeded in lowering the crime rate and have served only as a case of gratuitous, blatant racial profiling.  Nonetheless, the dress codes should remain on the books in the Federal District to send a message to youth: rap music is not welcome in Patria and the culture of crime, drugs, and violence against women that goes hand in hand with it will not be tolerated.

To further send the message to youth that Patria fosters a culture of spiritual growth, the 47th Congress should consider imposing dress codes on the mostly young white females.  Are you not revolted at the sight of teenage girls, pre-teens, and even 9 or 10 year olds wearing cosmetics intended for adult women and flaunting bare midriffs, tube tops, hip-hugging jeans, and other fashions that leave little to the imagination?  No one is advocating that Patrienish women should wear burqas.  But Patria is a sacred space, a field of sadhana – not just in the temples and yoga studios but on the streets, in the schools and in all public places.  Patria is not a place for nubile pre-teen nymphs and middle school Lolitas to borrow their mothers’ make-up and show off their bare thighs, midriffs and cleavage in public.  “Dress with dignity” should be the standard of our youth in this new administration.

The premature sexualizing of young girls is more than just a case of wearing the cosmetics and revealing clothing pushed by the fashion industry.  This new Congress will appropriate funding for research into the causes that are driving down the age of female puberty.  Why it is no longer unusual for girls as young as 7 or 8 to begin developing breasts?  Why are girls in 4th grade getting menstrual cramps rather than chicken pox?  The possible environmental links must be investigated, such as the increased consumption of dairy products, the growth hormones fed to cows and other animals and passed on through non-vegetarian diets, and exposure to pesticides or other chemicals.  Early puberty robs girls of an important part of their youth.  Indeed, for many years the smoking prevalence rate for young girls has been much higher than for boys, no doubt thanks to girls’ fast-track puberty.  In the 47th Congress, our little girls must be allowed to reclaim their childhood.

Nor will this new Congress ignore the problems faced by Patria’s young boys.  There is a gender gap in our schools and, despite what the feminists may say, the girls do not have some catching up to do in order to close the gap with the boys.  Rather, it is the other way around.  In virtually every academic and social field, boys are at a disadvantage, and remain so for the rest of their lives – which, not coincidentally are several years shorter than women’s.  Girls read at a higher level, write at a higher level, obtain higher marks, and are more likely to go on to and succeed in college or university.  Even in math and sciences, boys can no longer claim to get higher marks than girls do.  When it comes to learning disabilities, drug abuse, dropping out of school, youth crime, and social problems, boys outnumber girls by at least ten to one.  As boys grow into men, they all but corner the market on homelessness, crime, substance abuse and poverty.  A visit to any drug treatment facility, homeless shelter, psychiatric hospital, prison, or morgue is sufficient proof that men have failed to thrive in this society.  Our boys need positive male role models in our schools, beyond the traditional male heroes such as baseball, football and hockey stars.  Girls have so many advantages in elementary schools, where they are taught in a female-friendly environment that does not recognize the special needs of their male classmates.  Most boys do not even see a male teacher until high school.  While women are encouraged to pursue non-traditional careers, in other words to work in fields that have been, and in many cases still are, dominated by men, the reverse is not at all true.  It is much more socially acceptable for a woman to become a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, and perhaps someday President of the United States, than for a man to become a nurse, elementary school teacher or day-care worker.  Indeed, any man who expresses a desire to enter such female-dominated professions receives no encouragement to do so from any level of government, is seldom taken seriously by potential employers, and usually finds himself the butt of jokes and ridicule by his peers.  This double standard must change, if boys are going to close the gap with girls in these next four years.

In this new Congress, awareness and accommodation of people with disabilities must go beyond the “holy trinity” of disabilities: mobility impairments, visual impairments and hearing impairments.  Wheelchair ramps, braille library materials, and closed-captioned television programs have become so common in the past three decades that most Patriens no longer give them a second thought.  But there is another type of disability that is as debilitating as being blind, deaf, or confined to a wheelchair but is often ignored, misdiagnosed as a mental illness, or not recognized as a disability because there are no obvious signs of impairment such as a wheelchair or guide dog.  This is the social disability of Asperger’s syndrome, a pervasive developmental disorder that was virtually unknown outside of a few obscure research papers until as recently as 1995.  Just as Patria has been made accessible for people who are blind, deaf or use wheelchairs, in the 47th Congress the special needs of people with Asperger’s will be addressed in schools, workplaces and in public accommodations.  One simple way in which persons with Asperger’s can be brought into the mainstream is to recognize that Asperger’s can affect social skills so much that it may make it impossible to marry, have an intimate relationship, or even go out on a simple first date.  On the sidewalks, on transit vehicles, on park benches and in other public places, couples should refrain from open displays of kissing, cuddling and fondling.  Not only because it is not appropriate in a spiritual environment that aims to support the practice of brahmacharya or celibacy, but also because people with Asperger’s may feel the pain of having to witness such behavior, as their disability often prevents them from having a boyfriend or girlfriend.

George W. Bush may claim to be a “compassionate conservative”.  But the Christian right wing does not have a monopoly on conservatism.  Here in Patria, the followers of the path of Sanatan Vedic Dharma are the true compassionate conservatives.  As social conservatives, we seek to uphold premarital chastity by discouraging young girls from wearing sexy clothing and young couples from displaying affection in public.  As economic conservatives, we seek to find common ground with the rugged individualism, free enterprise and laissez-faire capitalism propounded by Ayn Rand and the Rationalist Party.  Our Hindu mandirs, as well as our synagogues, churches and mosques, are providing the faith-based social programs and charitable resources that do not, and should not, belong to government bureaucrats.  In Hinduism, “family values” mean more than outlawing abortion and limiting women’s job options to working at home as full-time housewives and mothers.  Patria’s family values begin with the teachings of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – the whole world is one family.

In the spirit of Vadudhaiva Kutumbakam, Patria welcomes diversity and takes pride in its multi-racial character.  But now, more than ever since September 11, there must be immigration reform.  If there are immigrants from any country who take advantage of Patria as a safe place to raise funds for terrorist organizations or to plan terrorist attacks, they must be rooted out and sent packing.  Illegal immigration must be stopped and legal immigrants must be carefully screened before they arrive in this realm.  We need to ensure that all immigrants will assimilate successfully into Patria’s cultural roots of Sanatan Vedic Dharma, respect the Hindu religion even if they choose not to follow it, learn and use our three official languages, and become productive, law-abiding citizens who will make a positive contribution to society.  Patria rejects the balkanized “mosaic” concept of multiculturalism created in Canada during the Trudeau era.  All cultures, races and ethnic groups are welcome in Patria, of course, but together we are one people, one nation under God, united under the common cultural identity and spiritual values of Sanatan Vedic Dharma.  Discrimination in employment or public accommodation will not be tolerated.  But there must be no special privileges for any minority religions or ethnic groups.  We are one family with equal rights for all and special privileges for none.

Sixteen years ago on this day, the 43rd Congress pledged a new beginning of groundedness, independent living, financial freedom, and job security.  In the 47th Congress, that feeling of solid grounding, rooted in basic first-chakra values of a secure source of income and living in the mainstream world, must be reclaimed and re-established as it was in the late 1980s.  For those who live in the world as householders, and even for those who ultimately become sadhus, monks or renunciates, a solid groundwork in the lower chakras must be established before an advanced spiritual quest can be undertaken and upper-chakra opening can occur.  Long before there was a dharmic revolution, Patria enjoyed a solid base of financial stability and economic security.  That base must be rebuilt, with real, permanent employment possibilities – not temporary stopgaps, not bogus make-work projects, not short-term contract positions, not maternity leave replacements, and not dead-end subsistence-level underemployment.  A person with an advanced degree, such as translation or library science, stuck in a warehouse, hauling boxes on a loading dock, flipping burgers or driving a cab is a waste of valuable human potential and a recipe for frustration.

Whether struggling to gain financial security or exploring new frontiers of spirituality, there is a new source of love, inspiration and blessings in the 47th Congress: the tiny South Indian woman who sits among the congressional delegation from Arboria.  Today Amma’s Patrienish children welcome Mata Amritanandamayi to the 47th Congress, not as a living saint – which, of course, she is – not even as a guru, but as a humble Congresswoman representing the Precinct of Arboria and the House leader of the SRM-Amrita coalition.  With her simple acts of love, Ammachi has transformed the lives of millions around the globe and fused the best talents in various fields for the benefit of humanity. She is the centre of a universe that sustains the lives of millions.  With a faith that is passionate and all consuming and a mission that transcends all barriers of religion, ideology, colour, and creed, she has set for the world a luminous example of how life should be lived and fulfilled. Over the past four years, Ammachi has become a spiritual mother for much of Patria.  In the 47th Congress her loving hugs and healing embrace are as close as the House chamber as we welcome Ammachi into the halls of this Capitol and the very heart of the Patrienish government.  Ammachi has never sought or held public office in her native India.  But out of pure love for this Inner Realm and all that Patria stands for, she has become an honorary citizen of Patria and has adopted Arboria as her home precinct.

Let us enter the new Congress with Amma’s love and with this prayer: LOKAH SAMASTAH SUKHINO BHAVANTU.  May all beings be happy!  God bless you all and God bless Patria!

© 2002, XLVII Con. Pat.  The above text is an official transcription, preserved in the Archives of Patria.

XLVI Con. Pat. Inaugural Address (June 30, 1998)

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