Greetings,
The holiday season has always represented a time for family, friends, and recollections of the past year.
And what a year we have had.
2018 has undoubtedly seen unparalleled adversity and struggle in our world at large. Divisions along political, religious, economic, and cultural lines so openly divisive that it has perhaps left many of us unnerved and frightened of the future.
But in that same year, we have seen countless acts of kindness, the sheer strength of human will and goodness, and through the personal labors of our citizens, the most productive and transformative year in our nation’s history until now.
As our nation prepares to celebrate our eighth Christmas and you prepare to spend yours with your loved ones, I hope you might join me in recalling some of our achievements over the past year and look upon the coming year with the optimism I so richly believe is on its way.
When this year began, our nation was politically unstable, diplomatically isolated, and economically nonexistent. Through no fault of our own, the instabilities of the provisional government and the chaos of the Interregnum still followed this nation like a specter.
Yet through hard work, compromise, and perseverance, we have overcome so much of that struggle and approach the coming year with potentials for our nation that could only have been dreamed of until now.
With the adoption of our Constitution, the damages of the Interregnum are finally beginning to wash away, replaced with the stability of legal tradition and a hard-earned enthusiasm for the future.
The admittance of the Confederation into the Grand Republic of Delvera has integrated our people into a wider community and placed us at the forefront of micronational development in one of the strongest micronational nations in the world.
And lastly, the passage of recent legislation, alongside the foundation of the Imperial Bank and other economic ventures has made the North American Confederation on the cutting edge of micronational economics and infrastructure.
As 2018 gives way to the new year, no longer shall we grasp at any measure of success in desperation. Instead, for the first time in recent memory; the future is as bright as day and our aims guided like a ship on a clear night.
The struggles will continue, as the quest for a stronger, more united, nation never truly ends. But I look and I hope you will look as well, on the future with supreme satisfaction that no matter what challenges we may face, we shall overcome.
We must overcome.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you will enter the new year with success on the mind and optimism for our united quest on your heart.
Long Live the North American Confederation.
HIRM William I von Hartmann-Peters
Emperor of the North American Confederation