01 November 2004

Dear reader,

The time has come for me to put away political things and to turn to the important and pressing matter of earning a living to support myself and my family in this world.  I am excited about the prospect of teaching biology and chemistry to high school students, and I am pleased and honored to pledge to do this work to the very best of my ability, with love and imagination.

I put things political away with a sense of failure and confused befuddlement.  And I am relieved to do so, for it is a relief to let this effort go.  And yet I am sad.  For my goal was to help this beautiful world of ours be a happier more peaceful place.  Perhaps I can still keep that goal, and just let go of this effort.

When I was growing up, my heros were Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.  They were *brilliant* and their discoveries illuminated our world.  I liked figuring out problems and puzzles.  And I had an immense confidence in my ability.

Along the way in my scientific career, I came upon "libertarianism"; well, I ran three times for U.S. Congress as a Libertarian Party candidate, and also once for the California State Assembly and once for the California State Senate.  I gave dozens of speeches about liberty to high school students and others, many of these speeches based upon Dr. Seuss books.

Finally I came to the idea of decentralization -- the thought that our states could be united and yet still be independent and free.

This vision of "50 states independent and free" seemed to me to be a way for our country to once again be a beacon of liberty for our world -- a way that our country could show the world how people can live together peacefully, with tolerance and prosperity and a beautiful respect for the environment.

This was the heart of CSMNL.com and the Madeira Society.

I felt that the biggest problems in our country and in our world were not scientific puzzles, but rather were political in nature -- and CSMNL.com and the Madeira Society reflected my attempts to help reform our political system.

I hereby let these efforts go.

However, I do not wish to destroy these old writings -- I wish to keep them, as an archeological site, a record of things that have been, for any who wish to peruse them.  So here they are: the old CSMNL.com and MadeiraSociety.com  Enjoy!

Good night.

with love,
Charles