Joining USI

If you are an organization or individual activist working to enlarge the United States geographically, from the inside or outside, you should join United States International.

There is no financial commitment whatsoever, and you retain full freedom of action. USI, like the United States, is a federal union of autonomous units, each of which retains full freedom of action. You "owe" nothing to other members of USI, not even abstention from criticism — just the simple respect that civilized people give each other even when they disagree.

All we ask is that you state somewhere prominently on any website you publish that you are a member of USI, and show a clickable, hypertext link to USI's home page on that site. If you publish hardcopy materials, we ask that you mention your membership in USI there as well (e.g., "Member, United States International, www.oocities.org/us_int"). We also ask you to designate a liaison to USI and other USI members, and to respond promptly to official notices (as, for instance, solicitations for votes on admitting new members).

For that minimal commitment, you will be listed as a Member of USI on its "Members" page, with a link from our site to yours. The other members of USI also have links to USI on their websites, so a newcomer to the idea of political union of Canada and the United States or someone researching statehood for Puerto Rico who first finds www.unitednorthamerica.org or the Expansionist Party of the United States, may click on the USI link at that website and thereby discover the existence of your website, which s/he might otherwise never find. S/he will as well see that ideas like yours are not "nutso", "wacko" or bizarre but part of a growing community of interest that sees a larger and more inclusive United States as the solution we have all been looking for, to problems of peace, and social and economic justice all around the world.

If you'd like to participate in internal discussions among USI principals, we can add you to a small email circle that alerts participants to articles of interest that appear on the Web, suggests individuals in media and politics we might profitably write to, and offers a place to ask help on problems we encounter along the way. We might have precisely the information you need to help you decide on a particular course of action, find a congenial ISP, discuss webhosting options and domain-name possibilities, and get positive reinforcement when nothing seems to be going right.

USI is a source of information from people who have probably encountered some of the same issues you have, and a "support group" for people who get very little positive feedback from the people around them. We may not become the focus of your universe, but we're nice to be able to fall back on.

So, if you'd like to make your group or yourself part of USI, and you have a website, you may qualify for membership in USI.

All new members must be voted on by present members, and there is only so much variation in views that we find permissible among our number. That is, we believe that tolerance for a wide range of political opinion is one of the hallmarks of the United States that have made it so creative and thus the world's premier civilization, and we fiercely defend freedom of speech. But we don't want USI to be associated in people's minds with retrograde political views.

USI is thus most unlikely to welcome organizations that see U.S. enlargement in terms of "white man's burden", or that promote a tribal view of the world from the standpoint of race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other matter that USI's current members regard as irrelevant to the individual worth of human beings or to the value to our shared society of accession of their region to the Union.

USI is INclusive, not EXclusive. We see the United States as a "this AND that, Them AND Us" kind of place, not a "this OR that, Them AGAINST Us" kind of place. If inclusive is how you think of the U.S., and the way you want an enlarged United States to be, you're our kind of people. "E Pluribus Unum" (From Many, One). So join us, for in unity is strength.

Qualifications:

Membership in USI is open to organizations and individual activists anywhere on Earth working for geographic enlargement, thru statehood, of the United States, who have a website devoted at least in part to that purpose.

Obligations of Membership:

Each USI member must

1. state its/his/her agreement with the purpose of enlarging the United States geographically by means of the grant of statehood;
2. identify itself prominently on its website as a Member of United States International and provide a prominent, clickable link to USI's main webpage (presently at www.oocities.org/us_int);
3. designate the email address of a person who will serve as liaison to USI and its other members;
4. when contacted on official matters by USI (as, for instance, to vote on admission of a new member; such official contacts are an infrequent occurrence), respond promptly (within perhaps three days but in no event longer than two weeks), no matter how busy.

That's all that is required.

Any member's liaison may, but need not, participate in an email circle to discuss matters of interest to members in general or to those concerned with one geographic area in particular. Moreover, if a member organization wishes to have more than one of its members participate in our "inner circle[s]", that is perfectly acceptable. Should the number of participants in a given email circle grow too large for private correspondence, USI will establish a members newsletter for email delivery to all interested persons.

USI's present email "inner circles" concern (1) Canadian issues, (2) Puerto Rico and West Indies issues, and (3) British and Commonwealth issues. There is an overlap among these groups, and the number of participants is small. Should the geographic or subject-matter areas of concern to our members widen, email inner circles for those areas will also be created, participation in which is entirely voluntary.

In emailed correspondence, members alert each other to news items of interest and statements by opinion leaders that may give us openings for publicity and persuasion. We also confer on long-term strategy, short-term tactics, and practical matters like difficulties with ISP's; the cost of domain names and webhosting; email addresses for publications, individual editors, and politicians we need to reach; and argumentation we might generate for our various sites (e.g., a Canadian-based organization may ask what would be the most persuasive arguments for American visitors to their website).

We are always willing to help with problems and to offer encouragement when we sometimes get emotionally "down" and wonder if all our trouble is WORTH the trouble.

Any USI member should feel comfortable in contacting the liaison for any other USI member on any issue whatsoever, and as a courtesy we will give that correspondence expedited attention.

We're all working for the same goals. We should help each other.

To join USI, complete the appropriate application, as below, and email it to the appropriate coordinator below, or to the webmaster.

Applications:

Organizations applying for full membership
Organizations applying for observer status (nonvoting)
Individuals applying for full membership
Individuals applying for observer status (nonvoting)

Direct questons and completed applications from North America, including Central America, the West Indies, and Guyana to:

Mr. Charles J. Kropke (OneArkon@aol.com)
North American Coordinator
United States International
2303 SE 14th Street
Pompano Beach, FL 33062-7217 United States

Or to USI's Webmaster at XPUS@aol.com.

Direct phone calls to:

Charles J. Kropke
CEO
The Arkon Group
Telephone: 954-943-5672

Return applications for Britain, Europe, and the Commonwealth to:

Jeremy Pender
c/o Maria Garza Schumacher
9 Church Close
Market Weighton, York
England YO43 3BD
Tel.: +44 (0) 14 3087 9791 or +44 (0) 79 3267 9052
Email: jeremy.pender@btinternet.com

In the alternative, you can direct questions to Charles or Jeremy but completed applications to USI's Webmaster.

For all other areas, direct questions and return applications to our Webmaster:

L. Craig Schoonmaker
Chairman
Expansionist Party of the United States
295 Smith Street
Newark, NJ 07106-2517
Telephone:  (973) 416-6151
Email: XPUS@aol.com.