Given by His Excellency, President Kevin Baugh
26 May 2018 XLI
My Fellow Molossians, Family and Friends.
Two score and one year ago my friend James and I brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in my living room and dedicated to the ideal that with a little imagination, creativity and effort, anything can be accomplished. Molossia is the child of that ideal, born from a dream and made a reality right here on this spot on earth. after an initial nomadic twenty-one years, twenty years ago this month Molossia gained a permanent home here, carved out of the raw desert. In the subsequent two decades my
fellow Molossians and I have built our nation up to the great land that it is today. We have accomplished much with this nation, and we continue to accomplish great things every day.
As always at this time, I like to mention a few of Molossia's events and accomplishments that have occurred in the past year.
Molossia continuously opens its doors to the world and the world has beat a path to those doors. Last year we welcomed over 150 visitors to Molossia from all over the world. This year we have already welcomed 85 tourists in just over a month, well on our way toward beating the island country of Nauru in our one-sided competition to have more visitors than that nation.
Among our visitors over the last year were a media team from the NBC Today show, which featured Molossia last fall, as well as a Youtuber, podcaster and Galilieo television crew from Germany. We are all over the media, which we heartily approve as it spreads the word and educates the world about our mighty nation.
Besides the media we have no problem promoting ourselves a bit and this last year was no different. We spread public awareness of our nation over the past year by participating in a variety of local public events including the Nevada Day Parade, Dayton Valley Days, and Dayton's Hometown Christmas.
Molossia over the last year hosted two State Visits, first from the Kingdom of Ourania last summer and then from Republic of Saugeais this spring, just over a month ago. Perhaps the highlight of diplomacy, though, was our attendance at MicroCon in Atlanta, during July 2017. The opportunity to meet with leaders and representatives of micronations from around the world was simply amazing and inspirational.
Molossia is always committed to sustaining the environment and this spring we joined most of the nations of the world in embracing the Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement commits us to lowering our carbon emissions, which are already fairly low due our small size and lack of industrialization. Nevertheless there is always room for improvement and we are poised soon to launch our solar power project which will power the buildings in Red Square, with long term plans to expand the project to provide solar power to all of Molossia.
I rearranged Molossia's holiday calendar late last year, removing some rarely celebrated holidays and adding a few new ones. Among these was the first celebration of Mardi Gras and our new Spring Jamboree, both great successes. And of course in autumn 2017 we held the Misfit Regatta, our biennial dry-land boat race.
Our tiny nation grew a little more this year. In January we welcomed our newest citizen Penny Morrow, bringing our population to 34 and counting!
We made a few changes to our nation over the past year, in part to accommodate the increasing number of visitors we receive. We relocated the famous Pineapple Fountain from Norton Park to Red Square, planted a few trees, widened a few paths and rerouted the Molossia railroad. In addition, and of great note, the long-awaited Molossia Constabulary and Jail were finally constructed this spring, giving an office to our stalwart Chief Constable, providing venue for punishing offenders of our laws and
increasing our nation's overall security.
And speaking of construction, last summer we inaugurated Molossia's Friendship Gateway, dedicated to friendship, amity and openness between all people. Here in Molossia we believe not in walls but in open doors, understanding and inclusion, and our Gateway - funded by the friends and allies of Molossia - is a symbol of that outlook.
And regarding outlook, we continue to grow and build our nation, with a positive view of the future. We have done great things with Molossia over the last 41 years and we will continue to do so. The imagination and creativity that spawned our nation runs in our blood, urging us to take Molossia to new heights and ever greater accomplishments. As I often say, the future belongs to Molossia. I am very, very proud of what we have accomplished together as a nation and just as proud to lead this nation into that future.