Freedom's Ground--it has been awhile...

[Mckarnin]

But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual. --Thomas Jefferson

Nice quote.

 

[Mckarnin]

Thank you for signing up for updates...I think we've had almost as many people sign up as we have had posts in this thread (other than mine).

 

[lastnymleft]

The philosophy of liberty demands the freedom of expression when individuals with private agendas against freedom demand that certain words and ideas should not be used because they offend the ignorant, well there is no need to explain further.

I'm sorry, but where have you been, Mr. 34 posts? Have you been sitting out the r3V0Lution thus far? Are you somehow suggesting that I have "private agendas against freedom", that I have been masking in the months that I have been active here? Or are you somehow equating freedom with religiosity? (Note, I didn't say "OF religiosity", I said "WITH religiosity") Because that's what you seem to be saying: "If you are not religious, fuck off" - a moronic attitude, when - as Katherine rightly points out - freedom is a big tent, that includes atheists, and anti-theists, and when r3V0Lutionaries are dispersing as rapidly as they came together. It seems to me that it is YOU that is undermining the cause of freedom, by accelerating that dispersal, contrary to the uniting goal of Katherine's organization.

Or is it just YOU that are ignorant, and just don't know the difference between sectarian, nonsectarian, and secular?



p.s. Thank you for your responses, and willingness to keep the tent big, Katherine.

 

[Mckarnin]

The whole point of freedom is that people get to decide these things for themselves. Freedom's Ground isn't going to try to tell people how to use their freedom. We're going to educate people on the workings of our country and the Constitution. We will work for everyone's personal freedom and let them do what they want with it. Freedom is one of the truest gifts in that by its very nature you are free what ever you want with it.

I <3 Freedom!

I'm sorry, but where have you been, Mr. 34 posts? Have you been sitting out the r3V0Lution thus far? Are you somehow suggesting that I have "private agendas against freedom", that I have been masking in the months that I have been active here? Or are you somehow equating freedom with religiosity? (Note, I didn't say "OF religiosity", I said "WITH religiosity") Because that's what you seem to be saying: "If you are not religious, fuck off" - a moronic attitude, when - as Katherine rightly points out - freedom is a big tent, that includes atheists, and anti-theists, and when r3V0Lutionaries are dispersing as rapidly as they came together. It seems to me that it is YOU that is undermining the cause of freedom, by accelerating that dispersal, contrary to the uniting goal of Katherine's organization.

Or is it just YOU that are ignorant, and just don't know the difference between sectarian, nonsectarian, and secular?



p.s. Thank you for your responses, and willingness to keep the tent big, Katherine.

 

[Mckarnin]

"Sow Freedom One Mind at a Time."

Right now for so many Americans the idea of true freedom is just a tiny sprout or perhaps has not been planted at all. We need to be gentle and carefully prepare the ground thinking always of the harvest we want when sowing this message.

 

[FreeTraveler]

True, and we must also remember that if we cover a sprout too deeply in bullshit, it will never see the sun again. I think separating the freedom message from any reference to religion is the right decision.

"Sow Freedom One Mind at a Time."

Right now for so many Americans the idea of true freedom is just a tiny sprout or perhaps has not been planted at all. We need to be gentle and carefully prepare the ground thinking always of the harvest we want when sowing this message.

 

[Mckarnin]

True, and we must also remember that if we cover a sprout too deeply in bullshit, it will never see the sun again. I think separating the freedom message from any reference to religion is the right decision.

LOL..too much manure would burn a sprout...

 

[robert4rp08]

Shifty, shifty eyes.... haha! Katharine is great and so is Freedom's Ground!

Although, the name should be changed to FREEEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMMMM'S GROUND! (yes, all capitals)

 

[Mckarnin]

Shifty, shifty eyes.... haha! Katharine is great and so is Freedom's Ground!

Although, the name should be changed to FREEEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMMMM'S GROUND! (yes, all capitals)

Perhaps you can enter that in one of our future t-shirt contests that we will hold....

 

[Soccrmastr]

I voted that I dont really like the idea but thats wrong. I love the idea, but I just dont think this will be able to develop very far, especially when the movement dies down more than it even has now.

 

[mdh]

I'll be frank.

I like Mckarnin. I like the idea. I like the organization.

That said, I'm not entirely sure what the organization's goal is that isn't already being done by other organizations with basically the same goal that are already established and active.

LVMI, for one example, has a very similar mission and has been active, established, and has a reputation for excellence.

So please explain to me, what is new here? What is this organization going to accomplish that any number of existing, established organizations aren't already accomplishing/working to accomplish?

I don't mean this as criticism of the idea or the organization, I'm genuinely asking that question.

 

[Mckarnin]

I voted that I dont really like the idea but thats wrong. I love the idea, but I just dont think this will be able to develop very far, especially when the movement dies down more than it even has now.

Fair enough...our hope is to start getting people from outside this movement involved and interested. Then, ideally the new blood will energize those already in the freedom movement. We are hoping that the personal growth, education and social aspects will bring a lot of joy to all those who participate and lead to brisk growth...we'll see.

 

[Mckarnin]

The short answer...it's too brainy and bogged down in heavy economics language for a national organization that is approachable for all Americans. I think I can come up with something more eloquent tomorrow but there's something for now. Thanks.

I'll be frank.

I like Mckarnin. I like the idea. I like the organization.

That said, I'm not entirely sure what the organization's goal is that isn't already being done by other organizations with basically the same goal that are already established and active.

LVMI, for one example, has a very similar mission and has been active, established, and has a reputation for excellence.

So please explain to me, what is new here? What is this organization going to accomplish that any number of existing, established organizations aren't already accomplishing/working to accomplish?

I don't mean this as criticism of the idea or the organization, I'm genuinely asking that question.

 

[lastnymleft]

I know it's probably not in Freedom's Ground's mission, but I'd like to see a training institute for representatives. Imagine if there was a university-grade course where you could study to become like Dr Paul? Have all sorts of subjects to fill out a full freedom-based curriculum, and at the end, the person graduates and is effectively "Freedom endorsed". Any representative that has graduated from this Freedom Academy, we would know is serious, and has been properly schooled in how to think about obscure subjects, and the grassroots r3V0Lutionaries can then get behind them with money bombs, etc. Like, it's obviously not intuitive that you shouldn't vote for Rosa Parkes to get a medal, so the thinking behind that needs to be taught.

Imagine after a few years, we could have hundreds of graduates that have committed to be leaders, and they would all be Ron Paul clones!

 

[Mckarnin]

Freedom's Ground will be educating nationally and our local and college charter groups will be doing continuing education amongst themselves,with recommended reading lists and codes of conduct in place. The local and college groups will also host educational events (materials provided by FG national) in their communities. We have speculated that members of the local Freedom's Ground groups may eventually start running for local office and will likely receive feet on the street support from other members of their group independent of FG. Freedom's Ground won't endorse candidates but we are hoping that a combination of freedom based community networks and education will eventually begin to give rise to well-respected and well-supported candidates.

As to the Freedom Academy...we are not at this point planning on having a comprehensive course that is geared specifically towards political candidates. We have been considering having a whole series of educational events that intensively teach people who have a particular interest in becoming "experts" the underpinnings of free market economy, our tax system, how a return of certain personal freedoms would play out and implementation, about foreign policy and blowback, energy choice, etc... hopefully by recruiting experts and authors in the field and having weekends or week long educational events.

Of course another idea that we are pretty wedded to and have already begun strategy on is that of hosting educational forums every few months (quite similar to the presidential forum hosted by Mtv) that are broadcast on the web (and perhaps one day picked up by tv) and bring several experts in a particular field from their remote location onto our web tv (and eventually into a studio with an audience and onto webtv) and have them give us an intro to the topic from their point of view, field questions submitted from the web audience and the studio audience and wrap up. We will also have chat and a forum set up to complement this that will allow conversation to flourish among viewers. Our hope is to pull the experts themselves or secondary experts into the forums a few times a week to guide and inform the ongoing discussion on the forum.

A HUGE part of our mission is widespread accessibility of information, so the broadcasted forums, ads, print material, local educational events, will all be geared towards a very general audience which has no pre-existing expertise in the areas our experts cover.


Things like the local group's ongoing education amongst themselves and the intensive educational events will likely be a level up from our national initiatives but we will make sure that no one is being held back by lack of that initial knowledge.


I hope this made sense.

I know it's probably not in Freedom's Ground's mission, but I'd like to see a training institute for representatives. Imagine if there was a university-grade course where you could study to become like Dr Paul? Have all sorts of subjects to fill out a full freedom-based curriculum, and at the end, the person graduates and is effectively "Freedom endorsed". Any representative that has graduated from this Freedom Academy, we would know is serious, and has been properly schooled in how to think about obscure subjects, and the grassroots r3V0Lutionaries can then get behind them with money bombs, etc. Like, it's obviously not intuitive that you shouldn't vote for Rosa Parkes to get a medal, so the thinking behind that needs to be taught.

Imagine after a few years, we could have hundreds of graduates that have committed to be leaders, and they would all be Ron Paul clones!

 

[ItsTime]

First off start by being fiscally responsible and not try to start off to big ie spending $2,000 to $10,000 on a logo.

 

[Mckarnin]

First off start by being fiscally responsible and not try to start off to big ie spending $2,000 to $10,000 on a logo.

A high quality logo, like a high quality website (permanent website work will hopefully be able to start in coming weeks) is a very important part of branding ourselves professionally and attracting a national and mainstream audience. Once logo work is done and done properly it will help increase recognition for and confidence in our organization and will give rise to increased donations, thus paying for itself in short order. Our logo must be a good front line spokesperson for out organization, that really captures our mission (we already have a concept). The logo also has to be all original art so that it is copywritable. As it currently stands, as soon as we reach 50% of the logo total cost, $1000, the artists will be able to begin work on the logo.

The logo is $2,000 (on the low end of the $2-$10k range that seems to be typical for original corporate logo work), the reason we have $4,000 under the logo heading is because there is an organizational illustration that would be very helpful to the visualization of our organization's mission/the website that we would also like to get done (another $2000). If people would like us to drop the organizational illustration we certainly can for the time being and have in fact been considering doing so because fundraising has not been amazingly brisk and we need to pay the lawyers to continue their work.

Before approaching professionals we put out feelers and asked for volunteers and thus far have not had anyone who does professional level work approach us to create the logo. Several volunteer submissions have been made but they have not been up to par. If we want to be a national organization and grow in legitimacy we have to act like one and part of that is presenting ourselves to the world professionally. I am a very thrifty woman and have been using volunteers whenever possible and always seeking the best deals. We are not willing to skimp on quality when it comes to our presentation...although we would be willing to pay less if we find professionals for less.

To give you a better idea, these are the folks who we currently plan to have do our logo work (unless a professional volunteer appears and wants to do the work as a professional--multiple drawings of the concept we have chosen, we choose our favorite, the artist creates a full logo package with different sizes and a basic stationery/brochure set of logos as well--at a significant discount).:


http://www.mottoagency.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there is a good load of brain ooze on what has been going on/being considered so far...that said, we are beginning to investigate different professional design firms to make sure that we can't get something beautiful for substantially less than the $2,000.

Believe me, if it can be done very well for less I will find a way. If raising the $2,000 for a properly done logo is impossible then I will keep donating from my freelance work until we have enough.

P.S. We are also considering running a contest at: www.creativehub.com to get it done fast for less. We'll see.

Feel free to keep asking questions or for clarifications.

 

[Bradley in DC]

I wanted to vote for the first AND last options.

 

[szczebrzeszyn]

Believe me, if it can be done very well for less I will find a way. If raising the $2,000 for a properly done logo is impossible then I will keep donating from my freelance work until we have enough.

If logo is $2,000 at minimum, how much you want to pay for the whole website? $20,000 ? I'm in!

 

[ItsTime]

It is one of the most insane things I have heard in a long time. I could see spending the EXTRA cash on an over priced logo. But the fact is they are having a hard time even raising money for the logo.

If logo is $2,000 at minimum, how much you want to pay for the whole website? $20,000 ? I'm in!