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Pro-Freedom Group Holds Covert
St. Patrick’s Day Party in Augusta
Pledges Support to Free Maine PAC to Help With
Their Citizen’s Initiative to Reign in Governor’s
Emergency Powers in Maine
Beacon for Sovereignty held a St. Patrick’s Day party with potluck supper on March 17. Above: Beacon member, Jennifer Crowley was the jubilant hostess and greeter at the private, invitation-only event. Inset photos (from top): Sam Hill, Beacon member; Karley Estses, Beacon President; Harrison Kemp, Free Maine PAC. photos/David Deschesne
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, March 24, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine - Around 40 members and supporters of the pro-freedom group, Beacon For Sovereignty met at an undisclosed “speakeasy” in Maine’s capitol city for a March 17 celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
Unlike the alcoholic speakeasies of the 1930’s prohibition era, this modern day version allowed people to engage in the act of exercising their constitutionally enumerated right to peaceably assemble during the governor’s arbitrary and unlawful criminalization of that right during the media-contrived COVID-19 scamdemic.
At the event, the group announced their support to Free Maine PAC in their quest to put a Citizen’s Initiative on the 2022 ballot in Maine which would restrict future governors’ ability to arbitrarily extend a “state of emergency” without a two thirds vote of the legislature and citizen input.
Beacon plans to help Free Maine PAC by getting petitioners together, helping with organizing and getting the necessary signatures to get the Citizens Initiative on the ballot.
Harrison Kemp is heading up the Free Maine PAC Citizen's Initiative effort which is in the signature collecting phase of the project. He says the goal is to reduce the governor's authority during a state of emergency by forcing the legislature to vote by two thirds to approve an extension of what emergency powers need to remain for longer than thirty days.
“The idea is to limit the governor's authority during a state of emergency. Right now, whoever is governor right is able to do a really wide array of things that affect people in a negative way and there is no recourse for the legislature or the people who are affected,” Kemp told the Fort Fairfield Journal. “So the idea is to bring that power back to the people and make the legislature approve the extension of the use of those powers past thirty days. So if there is a real emergency and the governor really does need to respond they have the ability to do so but the people are represented before that happens.”
Kemp says the idea to start the process for a Citizen's Initiative began around six months ago, in the midst of the media-contrived COVID-19 scare. “I was sitting there watching how everything was going, all the businesses that were being affected, business owners that were being put out. I have siblings in High School. I was watching them and their friends get extremely depressed because their entire social life was gone. I'm looking at all these negative side effects of the lockdowns that don't necessarily have to do with the health of people, but affect their lives in very negative ways. This isn't right that just one person has this much power. I looked around to see if any other groups had done anything similar, if they had started trying to reduce the governor's authority and there wasn't anything going on. So I started researching what the current powers were, what we could do to limit those so that way they gave a better basis for freedom for people to be represented and that's what we did. We just put it together did a lot or research on what the current laws are and what they should be.”
Jared Gilbert, who is working with Kemp in the Free Maine PAC, decided to get involved because the lockdown put him out of work and affected him in a very negative way. “This particular lockdown put me out of work for a substantial amount of time, cost me a lot of money,” Gilbert told the Fort Fairfield Journal. “This hits close to home for me personally as I'm sure it does a lot of other Mainers where it's affected our checkbooks, it's affected our livelihood and we need to have a say, we need to be able to have a voice.”
Kemp says he and his volunteers are currently collecting signatures. “We've been collecting signatures since January 25 of this year and we have until January 25 of next year to collect them. We need 63,067 signatures to get it on the ballot in 2022. You can go to the website and take our quick little survey, sign up and say hey I want to sign. We'll send someone over to you and make it as easy as possible.”
Their website is: freemainepac.com
“We have a couple thousand [signatures]. So far, we have petitioners all throughout the State but we're looking for more. If somebody wants to be a petitioner, wants to volunteer, please shoot us an email or on that survey just tell us you want to help volunteer. We need a lot of people out there.” The email address is: info@freemainepac.com
“I've personally traveled from Old Town all the way down to York County,” said Gilbert. “There's people everywhere. Go on to the website, get connected, reach out to us. We're ultimately here for you and to make your freedoms a priority.”
Beacon for Sovereignty was formed almost a year ago, in the midst of the Governors' arbitrary and unlawful emergency powers extensions. Beacon is a coalition of the people in Maine, Maine businesses and organizations united to support the constitutional rights of all Mainers. They built their group rapidly by bringing together several already existing freedom-loving groups. “We have quite a few different groups being represented here, tonight,” said Beacon member, Sam Hill. “Beacon's kind of an amalgamation of several groups that have come together over the course of the last year; Freedom Fighters, Mainers Against Mask Mandates, Swinging Gate, Maine Self-Sufficiency Network, Patriots With Attitude, Maine for Trump, and Free Maine Campaign.”
The Maine Militia is also supporting Beacon in a non-combat role and commends Beacon for their efforts to solve problems lawfully through the legislative process rather than force of arms. “We are basically pacifist. We don't want to use violence unless it's an absolute last necessity and there's no other alternatives. That's our position and we're not going to change from it,” said David Waterhouse, from the Maine Militia. “What [Beacon] is doing to educate people, to get people in office, to do all these things makes our life so much better. We back you 150%.”
Contrary to the left wing media and Hollywood presentation of militias, the Maine Militia is not just focused on firearms and military maneuvers. They promote a more holistic approach to self-sufficiency such as gardening and assisting law enforcement when called upon. “We're totally 150% behind legitimate law enforcement. A lot of our members have training in traffic control because there's no point in having a police officer or fireman at a huge event directing traffic. We've got the people to do it,” said Waterhouse. He also explained how the Maine Militia is trained to assist first responders in search and rescue events where large numbers of trained volunteers may be needed at a moment’s notice.
Beacon For Sovereignty has recently taken on a project to get face mask resolutions adopted at the town level to roll back the governor's arbitrary non-medical exemption mask mandate that has been in place since December, 2020 and adversely affected many people in Maine who cannot wear face masks for physical or psychological reasons - concepts that are lost on Governor Mills and her obscenely risk-averse CDC Director, Dr. Nirav Shah. So far, Beacon volunteers have E-mailed and faxed all of the 470 towns and cities in Maine. “Now we've been calling every single town office to again state what this is and that we need to acknowledge that disabled people exist in Maine and they need to be respected,” said Beacon member Jennifer Crowley. “They're being tossed to the curb and we're the only state in the union out of all the states and all the territories, that is disrespecting those that are unable [to wear a face mask]. That is the primary [resolution] that we've been focusing on right now. We've had some luck. South Paris joined in on our resolution, as well as Canaan, Carol Plantation, and Frankfort.”
“The people who say this isn't an issue, we need to do what the governor says, I have been wording very strong letters to them and calling them out on their BS. You are telling the disabled people that they are not people that pay taxes in this state? You are telling the disabled people that they do not matter? They're getting strongly worded letters,” said Crowley. “We're going to be doing that with the second amendment and for the mandated vaccinations that we do not want. That is what we're working on with these resolutions since we don't have the legislators right now. They're not doing anything for us, so we have to go to the towns, they're the next step to the people. They need to hear us. They need to hear the truth about what's happening to the people in Maine.”
Karley Estes is president of Beacon For Sovereignty and pledges her group's support to any who need it. “If you have a business and you need people to stand with you that's what we are here for,” said Estes. “If anyone is interested in helping with the citizens' initiative petition, speak with Harrison and Jared to talk about getting signed up. Or, in the future if you want to be part of it you can reach out to any of us in Beacon and we'll get you connected.”
You can contact Beacon for Sovereignty online at their website; www.beaconforsovereignty.com or by phone: (207) 558-3512.