How do you get that?
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Lower.
Oh, hey, welcome to Key West.
This is the 30th anniversary of the Concrepublic Foundation when we seceded from the United
States and declared ourselves a separate nation.
All right.
I'm Sir Peter Anderson, Secretary General of the Concrepublic, and I am the Concrepublic's
first Secretary General, and I've been the Secretary General for the last 22 years.
There were no tourists.
When the word went out around the world that the United States government had set up a
border, and they were stopping every car coming out, there was a four and a half hour
traffic jam to get out of the Florida Keys, people canceled their reservations and droves.
It was costing our economy millions of dollars.
It was an economic crisis, and our Mayor, Dennis Wardlow, went up to a plea for an injunction
to get the government enjoying from treating us like a foreign country.
And when the courts refused, he said, I'm going to go home and secede from the United
States.
Secretary Dennis Wardlow redubbed himself Prime Minister, announced Key West's secession
from the Union, re-christening it the Concrepublic.
Cheers went up as the new flag was flown.
One of the most patriotic things I've heard of.
That's why I'm here.
I have traveled 82 miles just to be here for the official secession this state.
It's a milestone in my life.
Our First Minister of Defense went out and hit a real U.S. admiral about the head and
shoulders with steel human bread declaring war.
We've acclaimed ourselves as a free nation, a separate from the United States of America.
If they were going to put a roadblock up and cut us off from the rest of the United States,
we wanted foreign aid.
At that point, he surrendered demanding a billion dollars in foreign aid.
We're still waiting for the foreign aid 30 years later.
We're still waiting for our aid.
We succeeded where others have failed.
I'm the managing partner for the Concrepublic Independent Celebration and a fifth-generation
Key Wester.
The Concrepublic means standing up against a government that has gone totally wild.
There's been that independent spirit here always.
My name is Craig Cates, Mayor of the City of Key West and Prime Minister of the Concrepublic.
Peter Anderson is the Secretary General of the Concrepublic and he handles all the festivals.
He sells the passports all over the world.
And he's really the big promoter of this for the Concrepublic.
And I'm the Prime Minister, but he doesn't really listen to me very much.
It's my festival.
My little party for 20,000 people every year.
Okay.
We joke about succeeding from a union.
Obviously, we're all good Americans.
We never would succeed, but it's a good joke and it has brought a lot of attention to Key West.
Cuban bread is our weapon of choice.
The reason being, wherever there is a problem or an incursion, as long as there's a bakery in that country or in that city, we've got an armory.
However, we accept bread from any nation as foreign aid.
I mean, we'll battle with Peter.
We were here today to obtain a passport to become citizens of the Concrepublic.
Unfortunately, the Parisian ambassador disappeared on us.
We have no idea what happened to him.
He's been arrested.
Thank you, Joyce.
And good, you passed your IQ test.
We view the Concrepublic as a serious...
I'm sorry.
We celebrate every year on the 23rd, all the way through, and the battle is always on the last Friday, just as it happened 30 years ago.
That's the great battle today is the firehoses, weapons, and toilet paper raining down from the skies.
Biodegradable marine quality, marine approved, what we call marine head paper.
And that dissolves instantly three or four seconds after it hits the water.
For 364 days a year, the Coast Guard is our friend and our protector.
But one day out of the year, they belong to us.
Today we stand proudly as the world's first fifth world nation, a sovereign state of mind that seeks only to bring more humor.
Simple human warmth and respect to a world we find in Sourneet of all three.
Long live the Concrepublic!
You're showing your elbows again, love. You're such a hussy.
Thank you, baby.
I like rum.
Remember, if you can't be a good example, serve is a horrible warning.
That's what we do.
