Hunger Strike Against
the UnAmerican Spoils System
There comes a time in everyone’s life that an important decision must be made. Most of us have likely made many such decisions already and have lived to tell about them. This letter is about a decision that only others might live to tell about. For, I have decided to place my life on the line in protest, rather than to play along with the established system and succumb to its corruption. I have decided to go on a hunger strike. Will you help to make this protest a success?
When we pay taxes, the government takes from us whether we agree or not. Because we are well able to manage without what it takes, we usually consent and fight against unsound government policies with what remains while living our life in comfort among our family, friends, and colleagues. My situation is different. Firstly, I have no family, my colleagues are scattered around the globe, and my friends, despite their already provided generous help, are not in a position to see me through my current situation. Secondly, the government is not taking from me, but I have the freedom to stop the government from taking just a little more from you. Thirdly, I have been driven out of the labor market by age prejudice and a credentials industry that grew up around my profession while I was working overseas. My choice is clear: succumb to the system and live out of the corrupt divisive government trough of “tax and redistribute”, or make good on my own impossible situation in the form of online protest and rise above it.
My fellow Americans, understand, if you are able, that the general welfare of a nation cannot be promoted by using force to take from one to give to another. Rather, giving to others must be voluntary, or it should not happen at all. Each of us must carry his own weight, if we are to remain strong as a nation. And, when we cannot, we should be helped through charitable giving and not through the abuse of force by those in whom we have entrusted our national, state, local, and individual security. It is the American government’s role, neither to award special favors to incompetent firms or industries and thus destroy competition, nor to create an entire class of dependent adults who would otherwise be fully competent to fend for themselves. As conceived by our founding fathers, government exists to protect our person and property, not to create the conditions for class warfare between a small group of people who assign themselves special privileges and a much larger group who demand their unlawful share through endless entitlements. I refuse to become just another downtrodden, hapless cog in the wheel of a broken system.
What made us a great nation is our understanding that each of us pursues his own happiness, alone or in the company of others, but with no harm to anyone unless it is against those who would use force against us! The purpose of my protest is to call attention to a plight already faced by many and to help others realize that the current system is not a solution. Further, could I raise enough money through true charity — charity given from the heart and not at the point of a gun — to clear the few debts that I leave outstanding and pay the cost of my burial, then I could, at least, die in peace knowing that I have been laid to rest next to my parents in the burial plot that was set aside for me while I was still very young. Who knows? I might even be able to raise enough money to make the further investment necessary to start my own business that our current financial system has prevented me from making. Well, America, my fate, as well as your own, is in your hands. I can remind you of your once profound greatness, I can even continue to stand with you to restore and preserve it! What I will not do is succumb to what we have become without a fight.
You can discover more at nudge.online/Protest, and I will post a new video each day until I am overcome by hunger or otherwise prevented, so that you can know with good confidence that this is not a hoax. Should you wish to help a fellow American through a true, and thus uncompelled, act of compassion, please contribute to the following account, www.paypal.com, or at least, spread this letter far and wide.
Prosperity,
Liberty,
and the Courage to Act,
Roddy A. Stegemann, A.B., M.A., M.A.
Paul Revere Apartments
First Hill, Seattle, Washington
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Roddy A. Stegemann
Sunday, Sep. 4, 2016
This video is an introduction to my appeal for true charity. I hope that it will encourage you to read my letter and browse the few pages contained within this site. For, these explain both the nature of my protest and my request for charity. Please be patient while the video loads.
America has lost its way, and I have done everything within my power to get the message out and salvage my own future contribution to the badly needed changes that our once great nation requires, if we are to regain our status as a free and sovereign people.
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Roddy A. Stegemann
1949-Present
Hunger striking is an age-old form of protest often practiced by prisoners who believe that they have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Although I have not been imprisoned I object to our government and those who support the UnAmerican spoils system that it has created. I will not allow you to turn me into a petty thief by accepting "charity" that others may or may not wish to give.
True charity is voluntary; it comes from the heart. I want to live, but I will not do so on your phony terms.
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Roddy A. Stegemann
1949-Present
The first two-weeks are the "free-ride" of hunger-striking so to speak. During this period the body feeds off its stored energy and barely touches the muscle and other body tissues. It is like an economy living off its savings with no new investment. With no stored energy left, I now begin feeding off myself.
Amazingly, with each incremental loss of flesh, my spirit grows ever stronger. Push me into the mire of involuntary charity and extinguish my existence, or help me rise above my temporary misfortune, and I will rise again, a stronger voice than every before.
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Roddy A. Stegemann
1949-Present
At the age of 54 I learned how to springboard dive.
At the age of 63 I learned how to platform dive.
I am now able to do pull-ups in pike position
You see, America, I have been planning on the long run, but you have cut me short.
You believe that all Americans should be the same, and you would have me retire as a petty thief before my time.
It is not going to happen. We are not all made the same! We do not all follow the same path in life.