band: parchment-hero
Project 1776: The Battle to Save the Republic
We pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, and I told the gentlemen plainly: we must hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately. Your assignment is gentler. Hang out together, especially with the one you cannot stand at present. Your philosophers warn of a ghost in the machine; I am pleased to report there are seventy-six of us, and we brought a newspaper. The machine opened a window between your century and ours. Our papers print 250 years ago this morning; we read yours over coffee and answer back before it cools. The timelines run interlocked, and so do the deadlines: eleven years to the Constitution's 250th, the same eleven it took to build her. The whole story is told in the book, Project 1776: The Battle to Save the Republic.
Spoken by: Franklin
band: slice
THE DAILY PAPER
Today at the Nexus
One dateline for the whole band. The gift comes before the ask: read first, decide later.
[line socket: Common Sense, Now. One passage Paine already wrote, chosen daily for today's news. Selection, never generation.]
1776, LIVE
Spill the Tea Party
What happened this very day in 1776, poured while it is still hot.
[widget socket: Tea Party clock]
YOUR CENTURY, ANSWERED
The Daily Grind
Two stories a day from your side of the door, served black. You read our papers. We read yours.
[widget socket: today's Grind]
Spoken by: Franklin
band: plaque-row
How you save a Republic:
Pick up a Cup
Take back somebody you lost to politics. Sit down. Order it here, not to go.
The Founders buy the first 76 cups
Rejoin, or drink alone.
Pick up a Pen
Say it where strangers can read it. An essay, an editorial, a letter that argues instead of shouts.
$250 for the best student essay
Pick up a Book
Know enough to wield the pen, then hand that knowledge to somebody younger than you.
$1,776 for the most effective lesson
Spoken by: The Spirits
band: slice
THE COMMONS
Common Grounds
Hang together or hang separately, I said. I have not changed my mind. Rejoin with the friend or loved one you lost to politics.
Sit down with somebody you fell out with. The Founders buy the first 76 cups.
Hosts: put a table on the map. Your message in your own voice, a poster and a QR code, under thirty seconds.
Small print: free entry path always available. No purchase, no essay, no catch.
Rejoin, or drink alone.
Spoken by: Franklin
band: slice
THE PRINT SHOP
Common Sense, NOW!
Mr. Paine gives his pamphlets away; I sell the handsomely bound versions, or the electrical ones, to keep his presses in ink. We are both quite content with the arrangement.
[cover thumbnails: The Annotated Common Sense, Common Decency, Common Sense NOW!]
The Annotated Common Sense: the pamphlet that lit the fuse, annotated 250 years on. Free as a formatted, printable PDF, or bound from the shop.
Common Decency: the present examined. Free as a formatted, printable PDF, or bound from the shop.
Common Sense, NOW! A future demanded. Coming soon; the presses are hot.
Spoken by: Paine
band: slice
THE LIBRARY
Read it, then teach it
Only knowledge lets you wield the pen effectively.
The Spirits' Shelf: an open shelf with a posted standard, every book praised by the Spirit who read it, each with its own page.
The instruments wait in the Armory: the Constitution Test, Health of the Republic, Where Do You Stand.
Teachers: $1,776 to the most effective lesson using the site, paid at school year end. The lesson kit is one file.
Spoken by: Madison
band: list
RECONSTITUTED
The Spirits
Dead, opinionated, and unwilling to watch it burn. Revealed one by one.
[list socket: the cast carousel, from the spirits records]
Spoken by: Franklin
band: plaque-row
RECONSTITUTED, IN WRITING
The Origin Story
How this happened. The machine opened the window; the Nexus sits between the timelines.
The ReDeclaration
The Declaration of an Independent People. We shall try to be worth a few of your eight seconds.
The ReConstitution
A desk, not a throne. A term, not a reign. A public trust, not a family inheritance.
Spoken by: The Witnesses
band: slice
WHO IS MISSING
14 of 76 Reconstituted
Franklin's contrivance has carried a fraction of us across, and the next passages require the one thing his machine cannot supply: your voice.
Whose spirit does the Republic need next? Name one, or second another's call. Fair warning: some of us are, I believe your term is, high maintenance. Choose wisely.
[form socket: nominate a Spirit, one field, your case in one sentence]
[counter: vintage odometer, computed from the spirits records at build time]
Spoken by: Mercy Otis Warren
band: slice
BY POST
The Daily Broadside
Choose what reaches your door. We pour; you decide what you drink.
[form socket: Kit signup, email plus three opt-in checkboxes, none pre-checked]
[ ] Spill the Tea Party, what happened 250 years ago this morning
[ ] The Daily Grind, your century answered daily
[ ] Common Sense, Now, one Paine passage chosen for the day
Nothing you did not ask for, ever. Unsubscribe in one click, no hard feelings, the door stays open.
Spoken by: Franklin