Burning Down the Statehouse

Originally aired on The Final Straw Radio.

See also- Sean’s open letter to the Judge.

On March 13, my attorney Richard Kerger appeared in federal court for arguments before U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson. The hearing related to an injunction request my attorney filed in part to stop state terrorists from blocking my protected communication– specifically, prison fascists’ blocking my video visits to stop me from posting video online.
State terrorists have lied to justify the repression. They claim that I “threatened” to “burn down” the Ohio Statehouse, which is something I’ve never done. What I really did, I promised to legalize burning down the Statehouse if and when elected Ohio Governor.

Threatening to burn down the Statehouse and promising to legalize its burning are two very different things, just like it’s two very different things if you threaten to fly a plane into someone else’s building or if you plan to demolish your own.
Still, I was informed that Judge Pearson took issue with my position and that she was not happy to hear that I wouldn’t apologize for my statements. [After Sean wrote this, the Judge filed her decision which effectively nullifies Sean’s freedom of speech]. All due deference to Judge Pearson, I would suggest she disagrees with my position, and if she lives in Ohio, she should probably not vote for me. Instead, she should vote for one of two deluded hierarchs who really ought to apologize for all of their campaign promises.

They promise to continue a six thousand-year failure, despite all available data that screams that hierarchy doesn’t work.
At any rate, I’m hopeful that Judge Pearson won’t use her personal disagreement with my thoughtful and irrefutably-reasonable position as an excuse to give prison fascists the free license to continue terrorizing me and silencing me. I hope she can empathize with my plight and recognize my right to advocate positions that she herself may find disagreeable.
The reason I haven’t apologized for my position on the Ohio Statehouse is, I’m not sorry. I have no problem apologizing when I’m sorry, when I’m regretful, when an error in my judgment is brought to my attention. In those instances, I’m quick to apologize.

For the record, I make lots of mistakes. More than anyone else I know. But I only make the same mistake once and I take great pride in my mistakes, as they are learning experiences. Mistakes are all the things we do until we get something right. My huge number of mistakes testifies to my stubbornness to get things right.

But I’m incapable of apologizing just to tell others what they want to hear, to manipulate others to get my way. I’m not that kind of scoundrel. I’m an entirely different kind of scoundrel. So, until someone presents to me some kind of reasonable argument for the Ohio Statehouse’s utility and its legality, I’m still of the mind that we’re better off without it, and I’m incapable of pretending otherwise– even if it means a federal judge will give prison fascists permission to start torturing me again.

If they’re going to terrorize me and silence me until I’m sorry, they’re gonna need some chips and beer– because we’re going to be here a while. But having said that, I don’t want to be intransigent. So, I’m willing to meet the so-called State of Ohio half way.

I’ll apologize for my position that we’re better off burning down the Statehouse if the State of Ohio apologizes for violating the Treaty of Greeneville– for illegally colonizing and occupying “unceded Indian Territory,” and for illegally erecting the Ohio Statehouse in the middle of it.

And I’ll apologize for my Ohio Statehouse position if the State of Ohio apologizes for distributing smallpox-infected blankets to tribal children, deliberately exterminating hundreds of thousands in the first recorded instance of biological warfare, an event that Hitler praised in his book, Mein Kampf. So if the State of Ohio apologizes for building the Statehouse on the corpses of innocent thousands, I’ll apologizing for advocating its destruction.

Also, I’ll apologize for my Statehouse position if the State of Ohio apologizes for framing and imprisoning skilled workers, deliberately using them for slave labor to build the Statehouse on the cheap, cutting corners on worker safety and letting dozens of framed citizens fall to their deaths. So, if the State apologizes for sacrificing human lives in erecting their idol, I’ll apologize for saying it should be destroyed.

And finally, I’ll apologize for my Statehouse position if the State of Ohio peacefully dissolves itself and thereby proves I can exercise my right to “abolish the government,” a right that’s recognized by Article I, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution, and that we can abolish the government, without torching the Statehouse.

So there you have it. I’m not unreasonable. I have no problem apologizing. In fact, I sincerely hope the State of Ohio creates the conditions to make my honest apology possible. That could be incredibly cathartic.

But knowing these state sociopaths intimately, I would recommend that Judge Pearson shouldn’t hold her breath.

This is anarchist prisoner Sean Swain from the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville. If you’re listening, you ARE the resistance…