By: John Cassidy
A gas station; a freshly mowed baseball diamond; the old post office; a dollar store; a regional airport. This stretch of highway running through Pellston, Michigan, believe it or not, is on the verge of becoming a major hub for a private national emergency response center. While the national security debate often focuses on the New York’s and DC’s of our nation, the post 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina world has led to unbelievable changes, in unimaginable places, even in my hometown of Pellston (pop. 500).
Yes, I am biased in writing this piece. There is probably little reason for CNN or the NY Times to cover Pellston’s courting of Sovereign Deed. But, let me explain why this matters (and why you should continue reading).
First, the emergence of private “emergency response” companies, such as Sovereign Deed, raises important questions about the role of private companies in the larger arena of national preparedness and response (not to mention serious ethical questions about the ability to pay in order to survive). Second, and the focus of this piece, is how these companies create a much needed commitment from communities without specific national security threats, while providing widespread benefit to the region.
Plan. Provide. Protect. The Sovereign Deed Promise
Sovereign Deed is a company seeking to fill a void. This void is one created by the government’s inability to be prepared to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. This is a company banking, quite literally, on the fear of previous government failures. Its primary focus is to sell individual, customized disaster response plans, much like what you would purchase for your house or automobile to mitigate unforeseen circumstances to residents of the largest 20 urban centers across the United States. According to its homepage, the company:
Provides custom planning and response services for both man-made and natural catastrophes. Sovereign Deed empowers its members to succeed when the normal infrastructure breaks down and when local emergency response services are overwhelmed. Some describe our services as “private civil defense.”
Our services are driven by thought leaders in emergency response, forged by practical lessons learned from first hand experience, and delivered by duty-bound specialists committed to helping our members stay safe before, during and after a catastrophe.
read more at www.sovrn.com
Yes, We Need a Reminder…and Jobs
It is nearly impossible for those who live in cities to understand the mindset of those who live in a community without a looming threat of a terrorist attack (or even a major natural disaster here in northern Michigan). I’ve lived in both; I am currently a resident of Boston and DC, but was born and raised in Pellston. Pellston, a town preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary this summer, is a town about as far removed from national security as one can manage. However, the big question this week is “have you heard anything about Sovereign Deed’s decision?”
Sovereign Deed, if it decides to select Pellston as its national response center, is a much needed example that small towns are both beneficiaries and essential pieces of a larger puzzle for national preparedness. Sovereign Deed would use the local airport (where I’m actually sitting and using the only free wireless in town) to develop the national response center, which would include, according to Sovereign Deed’s Brig. Gen. Richard Mills,
“We plan to have a warehousing facility at the national center where we would aggregate a product — an assembly of materials that would go to our members during disasters.
“Over the next three to five years, we will also have a ‘crisis action center’ — a facility somewhat like a command center in which we can ensure our communications are squared away with all centers.
“We will also have an aircraft hangar because we intend to have our own fleet of aircraft that may include helicopters to move our product as we need to.”
The company would also provide widespread benefit to the region. Sovereign Deed would initially create 40 jobs each paying an average of $22 an hour. This number would increase to 332 over five years (671 full-time jobs including indirect jobs) with a total payroll of $30 million annually.
Pellston and Sovereign Deed are but just one small town and one small company in a much larger movement to become a nation that is fully prepared for the next terrorist attack or natural disaster. But what Sovereign Deed has already accomplished in Pellston, and what is needed in small towns across the nation, is a consciousness about preparedness. The proposal has created an understanding of the benefits of such commitments, and serves as a reminder that preparedness is a responsibility to be embraced by all.
Tags: 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, National Preparedness, Pellston, Sovereign Deed
Related Posts:
Comments 13
John
Email me please so we can exchange some notes about Sovereign Deed.
blessings
Posted 08 Aug 2025 at 9:36 am ¶keith
I see the principals of Sovereign Deed have profited quite handsomely from the Iraq War and the war on terror.
Posted 24 Oct 2025 at 6:59 am ¶“our minds are like parachutes and they only work when they are open.” SIMPLY PUT! If sovereign deed is able to convince people that they need to spend 50k one time and then 15k every year after for “just in case” insurance. Well I’m disappointed that I didn’t think of it first to be honest. 99.9% of the residence of Pellston can not afford this service…..TRUE! However if you don’t like it get a job, better your life, become a capitalist, think, plan, act. If you choose not to do those thing that make you financially wealthy then don’t critise others who can or a company that caters to those who choose to. Lastly, allow me to put into terms that others might understand… think back to a time in your northern michigan community when a neighbor or a friend or even a friend of a neighbor, heck even a person whom you did not know, endured a personal catastrophe like a house fire, death in the family or even the loss of employment. Do you have one in mind? Go a head I’ll wait……? Ok! Horrible isn’t it what some people have to endure. Thankfully, the fireman were there to help you put out the fire. for free! thankfully the ladies auxiliary was there to bring you and your family food and clothing. Thankfully the bank came through with a donation to help with the rent costs while the insurance company helped put your life back together. Remember looking back on that localized catastrophe you where proud that our community came together to help a neighbor or a friend or even a friend of a neighbor. Comparatively sovereign deed is providing the same service to people whom have “not” support system like our local community to help watch their back in a time of personal struggle. Our community members who opposed soverign deed should be ashamed of themselves for trying to stand in the way of a company who strives to provide a service that we inherently give to our neighbors. Let me reiterate 50k one time fee and 15k every year there after. I wish i would of thought it first. In all that I have researched and seen with my two eyes, this is a win-win situation for Sovereign Deed, Pellston, Emmet County, Michigan and the Nation. Remember “our minds are like parachutes, they only work when they are open.”
Posted 24 Oct 2025 at 11:54 am ¶What is the status of this project??
Posted 26 Oct 2025 at 5:28 pm ¶Does anyone know what Sovereign Deed’s
long term plans are, beyond the “private
civil defense”?
Why does everyone think of the short term. After they destroy habitat of many creatures. Dump there oil and fuel waste in beautiful northern Michigan. It will have become Saginaw,Bay City, Detroit. If they need space for storage, the three cities I mention has plenty. Please think of they beauty that is starting to disappear with each so called company that come to help give us jobs. What about companies that have products to help us keep a healthy plant. Remember how long it takes to grow a adult tree, clean pollution out of water, make air safe to breath. Lets bring company there have tech. to help the environment.
Posted 01 Nov 2025 at 2:10 pm ¶Is change really that scary folks? Can it really be that bad? What good is beauty if no one can afford live here and enjoy it. You mention Flint, Saginaw and Bay City and you are right. They are empty now. Companies of all types are leaving this state like rats from a sinking ship and here is a company COMING, not going. Offering jobs of a technical AND menial nature. A chance for anyone who wants one to get a job HERE, stay HERE, and raise their family HERE. Are they going to ruin the environment? I doubt it. This is America, we have an EPA to watchdog them, this isn’t Africa or South America where there are no enforced rules regarding environmental quality. It is easy for the retirees and vacationers and people who don’t live here to be against it, but we, the folks who were born here, stayed here and are starving here need it. The very dollar store the author spoke of had to cut beautiful old trees to build, but better that than to continue driving the 20+ miles one way at $3+ a gallon for the only products we can afford on the grim wages we make working at the big boxes and fast foods in Petoskey and Cheboygan. Our kids graduate and HAVE to leave because they can’t BUY a job here that pays more than $10 an hour! I am sure these new companies (Soveriegn Deed is NOT the only one looking to move here) WILL change the area, but when more people move away each year than come or stay, isn’t change the only way the area will survive?
Posted 07 Nov 2025 at 12:43 pm ¶what a talking head. this company owned by rainwater, moore, are not wanted nor welcomed here! we would rather have PLO humps here! there’s enough BS going on around here w/out these goons coming.
Posted 18 Dec 2025 at 1:23 am ¶We do not see eye to eye, we will not see eye to eye, and if you need to be taught how to survive you should in my opinion be too stupid to live long anyways.
Regardless of the obvious truths here, there are two mindsets here.
One people have been out of work so long that they are willing to take anything for the sake of employment. That should be applauded, but no one wants to work at Burger King all their lifes. I agree.
Two, those who see the big picture and not the instant (promised and not delivered) gratification of promises and nondelivery.
This organization is the proverbial wolf in the Hen house. Stand in the way I will, and PS you are in my way Ego central. And in the way of people like me who can survive without the likes of you and your new love interest SovDeed. This is a deep ethical boo boo no no, and greed has you pacified now until what? No one left to ransack, I mean rescue? What good does it do to profit and own the entire world when you first lost your eternal soul to greed and theivery? Answer that? Dont try for my benifet tho.
Dont think its going to be that easy Bastardizing the state of Michigan whether you have Two Penny Jenny in the pocket or not. Why did the Ex-Speaker of the house quit and become point man for SovDeed? Looks like the tail is wagging the dog and one direction the dog runs he’s white, when he runs back to the owner its black. Whats up with your colors?
Why are things falling into place for SovDeed and anyone else goes thru hades trying to get a venture going in Michigan?
Whats their real interests? Michigans vast supply of fresh water? Just wanna bottle it up and export it? That is for the people who have lived there that is for them to profit off, not some soldier of fortunes. In my not so humble opinion.
Posted 21 Dec 2025 at 11:45 am ¶DJosieWales
This company is a scam. Investigation into the background of its founder Barrett Moorre shows that he falsely represented his military credentials, and that he was jailed for fraud in Australia. They take your 50k and subsequent subscriptions with a promise that they’ll be right there to rescue you during a disaster. Uh-huh. Suppose they don’t show up? Suppose they take in all of your town’s money and infrastructure support, and those jobs never materialize? Suppose after raking in thousands from gullable, paranoid customers, Mr. Moore just walks off with a pocket full of cash and heads to Dubai or Brazil? Don’t be duped. Look at their website. They want tons of money up front, and then after an initial survey of their new client’s homes they offer extra seminars, extra security installments, extra this and extra that. And what exactly is going to hold them to their pledge to help their clients. Get smart folks.
Posted 17 Feb 2025 at 6:33 pm ¶I have a LOT of questions.
(1)Why would an “emergency response” company locate itself in an inaccessible location? Pellston calls itself the ICE BOX of the Nation. Just HOW do they plan on getting out to help anyone during a blizzard? That airport is shut down 50% of the time during the winter, and it is located 10 miles from the nearest highway. Further, it is on a Peninsula, hundreds of miles from main intersections for deploying by land to places where it would need to go. Remember 9/11 when ALL planes were grounded? Also, by highway, they have to cross bridges that may be closed or blocked, why are they trapping themselves ….sounds like THEY may need rescuing….
(2)The name. Name choice tells you a lot about a company.Just how closely are these guys linked to the EXTREMIST Militias that talk about “SOVEREIGN CITIZENS” and property DEEDs? Just WHO are these people, really?
(3)They claim ” early notice of a catastrophe”. HOW !? Do they have SPIES inside OUR government!? Is it not their DUTY as American Citizens to notify EVERYBODY EQUALLY of danger and disaster? It would certainly be expected of anyone else ! Are they TRAITORS !? Where do they get off taking Taxpayer money to give “special priviledges” to a few PAYING customers !?
(4)Why have these so-called “military geniuses” NOT seen that they are locating themselves in a trap, an UNTENEBLE position !? Would you trust your safety to idiots who cannot see that they themselves are trapped ! ?
(5)AMERICANS do not desert fellow Americans because they have news of a disaster and will not share. Paul Revere did not limit his alarm to a “select few”. When the Titanic went down, many GENTLEMEN millionaires drowned in order to save women and children. Just what sort of COWARDS are these, to actually put forward a “Business Plan” that BRAGS of deserting the less fortunate. This “general” must be one of Saddam Hussein’s rejects.
And furthermore, where is OUR tax break? We have to collect our “emergency supplies” on our own, at our own expense, why should WE subsidize rich people’s supplies!? This is Corporate WELFARE. I can easily visualize these “manly men” denigrating inner-city Black women for collecting tax dollars/welfare to survive, just what do they think THEY are doing? What they are doing is less ethical since they are already rich and do NOT need our taxes to live.They are not men, period.
# Jack Lessenbury’s commentary on MPR
Posted 16 May 2025 at 12:07 pm ¶Jack says, “Sovereign Deed’s entire premise is this: In the event of a disaster, some lives are worth more than others, so we are here to save the truly deserving: The rich. This is a company founded on the principle of billionaires first, poor women and children last. It wants people to think that our government is incompetent to save us, and that they need to buy protection. What I worry about is that if we encourage businesses like Sovereign Deed, their advertising slogan will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If well-off people buy their own services, that will give Congress every incentive to reduce disaster funding for the rest of us.”
John Cassidy…. I can’t believe you of all people (you grew up in Pellston, I grew up in Harbor Springs) could support this. As for your comments on the boost for the local economy, you obviously weren’t there when Moore said the Jobs weren’t going to any locals of Pellston, rather veterans from all over the US. Your article is ridiculous, and I am asking you to go through the facts on Barrett Moore and his compony and re-write this article.
Posted 26 Jul 2025 at 11:36 pm ¶I have a LOT of questions.
Posted 21 Oct 2025 at 6:17 pm ¶(1)Why would an “emergency response” company locate itself in an inaccessible location? Pellston calls itself the REFRIGERATOR of the Nation. Just HOW do they plan on getting out to help anyone during a blizzard? That airport is shut down 50% of the time during the winter, and it is located 10 miles from the nearest highway. Further, it is on a Peninsula, hundreds of miles from main intersections for deploying by land to places where it would need to go. Remember 9/11 when ALL planes were grounded? Also, by highway, they have to cross bridges that may be closed or blocked, why are they trapping themselves ….sounds like THEY may need rescuing….
(2)The name. Name choice tells you a lot about a company.Just how closely linked are these guys to the EXTREMIST Militias that talk about “SOVEREIGN CITIZENS” and property DEEDs? Just WHO are these people, really?
(3)They claim ” early notice of a catastrophe”. HOW !? Do they have SPIES inside OUR governmen t!? Is it not their DUTY as American Citizens to notify EVERYBODY EQUALLY of danger and disaster? It would certainly be expected of anyone else ! Are they TRAITORS !? Where the HELL do they get off taking Taxpayer money to give “special priviledges” to a few PAYING customers !? What kind of C— is this !!!
(4)Why have these so-called “military geniuses” NOT seen these problems ?? I do not believe they have ANY intention of delivering in the squeeze.
(5)This guy is “The Music Man” coming into town and telling you WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, before he cleans out your pockets. Why haven’t your “officials” figured it out?
Time for another article here: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-12-13-airports_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28News+-+Nation+-+Top+Stories%29
Apparently the Feds are also on the bandwagon for the Pellston Airport!
Posted 14 Dec 2025 at 2:07 pm ¶Post a Comment