Introducing [Undetermined] States of America

To Be Determined By and For the People

The [U]SA Flag. The pigeon is holding three paint brushes with the colors red, white, and blue and blank canvas. The phrase it carries is Latin for “to Be Determined By the People and For the People”.

Today, on MLK Day 2025, I am launching a new project called [Undetermined] States of America.

It’s called [Undetermined] because we as a nation are anything but united. Our disconnection stems, I believe, from a shared loss of faith in our political system. We are running Windows 1776 for our government. And it is corrupted like an old computer is corrupt. It can no longer serve the purposes for which it was built and designed for. But when you have an outdated version of something, you also need a canvas to envision what the future vision of that thing might look like. And that vision can only come from the people themselves. But currently, there is no movement nor canvas to create this vision. This is the problem that [Undetermined] States of America, or [U]SA, seeks to solve.

What does being an American mean?

The United States is one of the few countries founded on an ideal rather than an ethnicity. And that ideal has been lost. I am going to be bold and suggest what I think is a core feature about being American: we are meant to be pioneers and visionaries of democracy and freedom. Yes, the constitution was a highly original document that had a really good run for a system of government. But the constitution was also meant to be an instantiation of the Declaration of Independence. And in the Declaration of Independence, it clearly states that we have a right to alter or abolish the government when it no longer serves our ends for our safety and happiness. The full quote below:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

It is time to take these words to heart. We are going through a restless, transitional stage of our development at a nation. Through this restlessness, we have forgotten what our purpose is. That purpose is now staring right at us. And what we have in front of us is without a doubt the most difficult task we’ve faced in our history: to come together as a nation, meet each other as citizens and neighbors, and lay the foundation for a new system of government; one based on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and equipped to handles the challenges for 2025 and beyond.

How [U]SA is going to work

Here is a tentative vision of the the strategy for [Undetermined] States of America:

1. Digital Conversations: Initially launch as a blog and podcast and begin to have conversations around the ideas laid out in this article as well as talking to individuals who have innovative visions for the alternative ways of running our country.

2. Creative Platform: Eventually develop a digital platform where these ideas can live and be rendered by artists and creatives who feel inspired by them. Individuals and/or organizations (such as communities, civic or religious groups, nonprofits, etc.) can then mix and match these ideas to assemble a cohesive vision of what they’d like the future of our country to look like.

3. National Conversations: Have a national, in-person conversation that goes state by state, coast by coast, rural and urban, to talk to Americans about these ideas and also hear from them directly on what they think it means to be an American. The added benefit of these town halls is that it will be a source of community and in-person connection for Americans as Americans. It is rare people actually rub elbows or let alone talk to each other across the political aisle. This will not only help weave a future vision and get us back in touch with our identity, but it will also help revitalize our communities and help with the loneliness problem.

4. Catalyzing Change: The hope is that some of these ideas and conversations eventually become widespread and help catalyze a movement that leads to a 2nd Constitutional Convention, or a People’s Convention, that leads to re-writing the Constitution for 2025 and beyond.

Vision by and for the people

Our country feels stagnant because we lack vision. And we lack vision because we’ve forgotten what we are all about: to be pioneers and visionaries of freedom and democracy. We feel in our hearts that the current system of government is not up to snuff. This is something that vast swaths of the population agree with, no matter what side of the political spectrum they are on. In order to move our country forward with vision, we need to do what the Found Fathers did: to synthesize the best thinking of the day on what system of government and what policies are most conducive to our flourishing as citizens. And we need not just founding fathers, but also founding mothers, people of color, rural, urban, middle-class, poor, plumbers, doctors, teachers, cashiers, i.e. the people of the United States of America. [Undetermined] States of America is a platform and movement to collectively create that vision and then to make it real. We had the American Revolution but now it is time for the first American Evolution. Together, we can envision the country we all know in our hearts is possible. Together, we can create a country that is truly United, because it has been determined by and for the people.