Like you, I am an evolved human being. It is time for us to take to the stars and become the race of explorers and world tamers we were meant to be. There we can establish a new home, devoid of prejudice and fear, where we can finally attain the powerful unity we have so long been denied. As one race, one species, united and strong, we can recreate ourselves in order to redetermine our future and that of our children. May the gods look with favor on our long delayed push to assure the absolute freedom and unity of all Mankind. Long live Asgardia!

I have been an Asgardian from the beginning. Before the Constitution, before the new calendar, before everything, back when Asgardia was just a dream. I will remain an Asgardian until my dying breath and maybe even beyond that. However, there are problems in the Asgardia now, the biggest being just one thing.

We are new.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Countries didn't become what they are now in a day. They became countries after decades, centuries, millennia, of war and politics. I'm not saying for Asgardia to be a country we need to go to war. We have a country with no land. A state based primarily online. We need a physical place where Asgardians can come together and see that we are real. Online communities will always have a disconnect. Yes, you can make life-long friends online, but you will always wonder if the other person is real, or a mere façade.

We are engaging in politics of "What ifs." "What if the Constitution is too weak?" "What if the Constitution is too strong?" "What if Asgardia is over before it began?" What ifs are the scariest questions of them all, because, what. If.

Another problem is the politics of where we grew up. People want democracy, socialism, capitalism, etc., because that is what they know. I, myself, am not privy to these kinds of debates. I want laws that remind me of America, my home-country, and legislation that subvert what I think are wrong. I want freedom of speech, and I also guns to be either eradicated or heavily controlled. I want cheap, or free health care so I wouldn't have to worry about my health. I want this new nation to all to come together sit in a circle and sing Kumbaya. However, none of that is possible. Our views are too different, too disconnected. Being isolated from each other allows us only to want this country to be for ourselves and only ourselves. To reiterate my previous point, we need to know that other Asgardians are real.

Finally, my biggest fear, about this new country, that may or may not be an isolated thought.  Jonestown. For those of you who don't know what Jonestown is let me give you a quick historical recap.

In 1955, Jim Jones created The People's Temple, a church based on Christianity. Jim Jones recruited people to his temple and formed a tiny village in Northern California that was primarily socialist. All of the church's members became overworked. They worked an everyday job, Jim Jones took their wages, then those people had to travel to recruit more people to their church. In 1973, Jim Jones led an agricultural mission to Guyana. There, 500 flew to establish their new home, The People's Temple Agricultural Project, or as it is known now, Jonestown. There, people seemingly lived happy lives. Everyone was equal; everyone ate well they all worked, they had anything they could want. In 1978 Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to Jonestown with 18 people, after rising concerns about the true nature of Jonestown. Everything seemed right during his visit, but towards the end of his visit several people defected and wished to go back home. So many in fact, that Congressman Ryan had to call in another plane. Jim Jones, feeling threatened called for the murder of Congressman Ryan. He and 3 other people died in the ambush. During the ambush, Jim Jones called his own congregation to their community pavilion and had them all drink Kool-Aid mixed with valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide, and Phenergan. To assure that everyone complied, he had close followers surround the pavilion with guns and ordered to shoot anybody that didn't drink the Kool-Aid. 909 people died in Jonestown, including 304 minors. Only 33 people survived. Survivors tell of members grabbing babies and children, forcing the poison down their throats, and then killing themselves.

My biggest fear is that Asgardia will become another Jonestown. A place where we all feel equal and happy, only for that happiness to be an illusion of control inflicted to us by people in power. I can only pray that Asgardia actually becomes the country we all wish it to be.

Currently I am founder CEO of Nature's Little Recyclers, which is a earthworm farm in the heart of Chicago. We are dealing with industrial composting, and the needed biology/enviromental organisms needed for life, esepciall long term human life.
I am joining this to develop further ideas of long term agriculture, life development and terraforming.

When it comes to the future, one major consideration is family. It brings many questions to mind, which brings many more. I am looking into questions of what is family, what will or does it provide us, and how will we take it to space.

Now let’s consider what is family. Is a family only the heteronormative mom-dad-child dynamic? What about grandparents? What about aunts, uncles, cousins, and others? What about gender roles and the gender identity in and of the members of a family? What about families of people who are not directly related? What about families where the individuals choose to be a family through legal but not blood means? The old adage “blood is thicker than water” doesn’t always apply and is not always the best course. How about clan, tribe, or some other familial/community connection and are these part of family? Are any of these other types of families actual families by Asgardian standards?

Then let us contemplate next what does a family give us? Is it protection? Is it support? Is it identity? Some form of communal organization? Maybe a reason to explain away our eccentricities or the baggage if our pasts? Is it about the economic and financial? The physical? Possibly even a spiritual component? Can we function as a healthy society without families or are they a vital component of the society or societal norms we want to establish? Why do we even have families anymore? What is the relevance of family?

Finally, let’s look at moving into the future with families? How are we planning to define family? Will this be an exclusive determined definition? Will we choose an inclusive model determined only by the individuals involved? What legal rulings will be needed to protect families, if any? What rights will certain family members (care givers or guardians) have over others in the unit (children, disabled, elderly) that is a family? What obligations will come into play in family? My examples being care giver towards children and adults towards elders. Eventually Asguardia will become a full society, not just a society of those electing to join up. There will be elders who can no longer care for themselves and disabled people who want and need but are unable to do so on their own.  What solutions are we going to use for the best life and balance for families and individuals?

I can not say what will be decided or how, when it comes to families. I can only question and speculate. I live in a heteronormative nuclear family but it is because I love my husband and the child he brought to us. Here is to hoping for an open, freeform definition and allowance for “families” regardless of the definitions to be applied in the future!