Compiled by Patricia Mikkelson, Organizer, Fayetteville Meetup Group
When I get on line, I just can’t stop reading all the wonderful stuff that is there—and I want to share it with those who might not have as much time to browse as I do. I hope you will let me know if this is helpful. I just want to encourage, motivate inspire people with all the great information about the Ron Paul Freedom Movement I also want to share my own contribution as you will see in my article comparing open space technology and the Ron Paul Freedom Movement. Patricia
Vote Now for Ron Paul
It's time to show the world RIGHT NOW that we will support Ron Paul for President whether or not he receives his party's nomination. If our only choices are Clinton vs. Giuliani, then we as Americans must REVOLT at the two party duopoly. We demand a choice better than "the lesser of two evils".
I pledge to vote for Ron Paul even if I have to vote for him as a write-in candidate. I understand that Dr. Paul has no plans of running as a third party candidate if he does not receive the Republican nomination. Yet if our choices are Clinton vs. Giuliani, we have no choice but to vote for the candidate that will support individual liberty. I as an individual choose Ron Paul to represent this country as its next President of the United States. Tell everyone you know! (If you have a petition you want to send out, you can do so on this website)
Sign the Petition Here
A Republican Renaissance…what a concept!
Here is a very inspiring letter from a website new to me, mentioning that this Ron Paul Freedom Movement might be like a "black swan event"., and we may never get another chance like this again in our lifetime. I encourage you to read this letter encouraging us to stretch as much as we possibly can to donate to the cause. I would add (as a person who has very little money) that if you can stretch to use your time and energy to promote Ron Paul and freedom, that is equally important.
http://republicanrenaissance.blogspot.com/2007/10/letter-to-ron-paul-supporters.html
More are joining the bandwagon for bringing the troops home NOW! Interesting…how can we get the Democrats and others against the war to join our Ron Paul Freedom Movement?
Democracy for American sent this out to show how important it is to Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico, to get the troops out of Iraq now. Interesting! How can we use this to our advantage? He says that none of the other candidates are calling for a complete withdrawal—is he talking about all the candidates? Here’s an excerpt from the www.democracyforamerica.com website
“Ending the war means a full and complete withdrawal. That's what America needs... and it's what I'll do.
Before I was Governor of New Mexico, I was a member of Congress, Secretary of Energy, and Ambassador to the United Nations. I've successfully negotiated with the worst "bad guys" from around the world -- including Saddam Hussein. I know the region, and I know real diplomacy isn't possible until we get all of our troops out. As long as our troops are in Iraq, the Iraqis will not make the tough political compromises and the insurgents will continue to use our presence for recruitment. As long as our troops are in Iraq, they will continue to die in someone else's civil war.
I'm talking about Iraq and ending this war everywhere I visit - with DFA support and volunteers behind me, think of how far we can go.”
This is truly a grassroots movement…a freedom movement and….
What Open Space Technology and the Ron Paul Freedom Movement have in common, and how we can use Open Space to be even more effective as a grassroots, self- organizing movement.
The following excerpts from the article, Why is Ron Paul Creating Grassroots Excitement? by Gary Wood clearly outlines how Ron Paul’s influence has mobilized thousands of people to action without any obvious organizational structure.
”There really is no denying it any longer, there is a grassroots fire burning across the country for this former Air Force flight surgeon, baby doctor, Texas Representative by the name of Ron Paul… Asked what Internet guru has helped him use the Internet so effectively he states quite honestly his campaign had no guru…. He did not market and find the Internet crowd, they found him. To his surprise the message was attractive to many surfing the web looking for a politician they could like and message they could really believe in.
…Yet, these Internet junkies that sit around their glowing screens at 4am, with pizza boxes and soda cans strewn about, are not performing to the main stream script. Some started to meet each other in different forums and blogs, and then came Meetup.com and the tides began to rise. Once the group started realizing there were others out there who like Ron Paul and his Constitutional message there began to be gatherings away from the keyboard. The cyber began a steady morph into reality.
Then came the 2nd Quarter financials and the money was flowing in. At the rallies and straw polls the crowds were showing up, enthusiastic and cheering as if they were at a rock concert instead of a political event… . In the crowd are young families with their children, involved in politics and cheering loud, cheering proud. There are young college students studying engineering, medicine and more. There are young republicans and democrats, all races, religions, and sexes. There are radicals, liberty and freedom are important to them but look closely to find standing next to them business people, social leaders, and those prominent enough who surely should not be in with this group of cyber nuts, should they? Looking again across the crowd and we find more than just young, together are the old and the middle-aged as well, don’t they know better? These look like our neighbors, family, and friends, can it be…. You are hearing it more, feeling it more and wondering, is it real? Why? Who is this guy? What is all this excitement about? Is it time to switch off the TV and Google Ron Paul and get excited? … Just beware, critical thinking and searching could lead you to join this revolution, look at me, I did it and now I'm writing you! “
Here is a description of Open Space by its founder, Harrison Owen. Please notice the similarities in italics.
- "At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different quality of organization in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment a shared experience. It is also fun. In a word, the conditions are set for fundamental organizational change, indeed that change may already have occurred. By the end, groups face an interesting choice. They can do it again, they can do it better, or they can go back to their prior mode of behavior.
Open Space is appropriate in situations where a major issue must be resolved, characterized by high levels of complexity, high levels of diversity (in terms of the people involved), the presence of potential or actual conflict, and with a decision time of yesterday.
Open Space runs on two fundamentals: passion and responsibility. Passion engages the people in the room. Responsibility ensures things get done. A focusing theme or question provides the framework for the event. The art of the question lies in saying just enough to evoke attention, while leaving sufficient open space for the imagination to run wild." -- HarrisonOwen
Don’t you think that this describes the Ron Paul Freedom Movement? Compare the two descriptions—do they not share so much in common? Fun, passion, diversity, complexity, conflict, and decision time of yesterday!Of course the Ron Paul Freedom Movement is not contained within walls—but the principles of Open Space still apply.
I have been passionate about Open Space since I attended two meetings run on Open Space principles eight years ago at a permaculture conference and Intentional Communities conference. Recently I attended an Open Space training class facilitated by Lisa Heft, in San Francisco. It was so inspiring! I want to help Ron Paul Freedom Movement activists to learn about this effective way of running meetings and an organization. I believe we are creating a unique organization. But I have not yet heard one person refer to this comparison. It is as if the Open Space folks and the Freedom Movement folks are in two different worlds! Yet we so much want the same thing.
Harrison Owen, founder of the Open Space movement, says that he did not create anything—he just discovered from experience ways that worked and didn’t work when people got together to get things done. We are witnessing this happening in this Ron Paul Freedom Movement, and it is exciting! The internet and meetup groups are really helping it to happen. But also, people are just fed up with control! They want freedom to do their own thing as they collaborate with others. They are also full of passion and enthusiasm—they can’t help themselves. They see the challenges we face, and they know we must do something constructive or suffer greatly.
Open Space folks, please be attentive to this Ron Paul Freedom Movement. Google him. Look at the www.ronpaulintro.com website which has all kinds of great videos and links. Check out my blog. Notice your beloved Open Space principles are being used even without people knowing about the concept.
Ron Paul Freedom Movement activists—check out Open Space Technology www.openspaceworld.org They have a lot to teach us. They can help us to make that quantum leap we need in order to both elect Ron Paul and help him to re-organize our government so it is based on freedom once again. It can be even better than our founding fathers envisioned, for we have learned so much in the past two centuries and more.
Could it be possible that by having Open Space conferences where all kinds of people can come together to ask the question, “How can we most effectively support Ron Paul for President and the Ron Paul Freedom Movement?” we can cooperate even more amazingly and effectively? I envision that those of us who have ideas and are having a hard time getting supporters for them, will find fellow team mates and resources as we get a bit more structured in our self-organizing efforts. Open Space people—if you get excited about Ron Paul, join our freedom movement and help facilitate us. I think you will find that we are more than open to new ideas.
The fantastic thing about using Open Space is that we aren’t trying to control anyone—we are just making it easier for people to connect and follow their passion and in the process, achieve our common goal of electing Ron Paul for president and continuing our Freedom Movement no matter what!
I really hope that you will research a bit more about what Open Space Technology is—I think you will discover, as I did, that it is a worldwide movement that promotes freedom. I hope that Open Space Technology folks will discover Ron Paul, and see that what he is promoting is an Open Space World! Together, I really believe that we can achieve the common goal that we all have: liberty and justice for all!
A Ron Paul Presidency Can Tear the U.S. Apart Published on 10/06/07 at 22:30:57 MST 
by Gary Wood
©October 7, 2007
http://hearmythunder.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=197
I like the way that Mr. Wood speaks about the long-term effects of Ron Paul and the Freedom movement. These are things to be thinking about so that we can non-violently bring about a revolution. I enjoy how he helps us imagine what it would be like if Ron Paul won, utilizing a kind of law of attraction to help us draw to us what we yearn for—to have a president who leads a freedom movement. Here’s part of the article:
“Ron Paul advocates a significant reduction in the size of the Federal Government, restoring the duties to those enumerated under the U.S. Constitution. He promotes fiscal responsibility and is a strong proponent for State and individual responsibility rather than a national level. His platform also calls for a non-interventionist foreign policy replacing the current Bush Doctrine of preemptive interventionism. With the people being more disenfranchised with their national leaders every day his common sense, straight forward message of restoring the Constitution and restoring true liberty and freedom are driving the campaign to new heights. There is no arguing it is the most staunch, brutally honest stand for the people in decades, especially surprising coming from a major party candidate.” Read the whole article
'Come The Revolution . . .' by Charles A. Burris*
I want to say now that I am totally for a non-violent revolution…indeed, I believe we have no choice but to proceed non-violently in our actions, because the government has so much more fire power than we do. Even if I was not a supporter of strategic non-violence, I would say the same thing—just being practical. I want to write more on this at another time, but for now you want to learn about the effectiveness of non-violent resistance, I encourage you to visit http://www.aeinstein.org/ for a wealth of information.
This article 'Come The Revolution . . .' by Charles A. Burris*describes why Ron Paul is helping to promote the freedom movement through education and awareness, and a history of the CIA as well! Very well written and informative, written by a member of the Tulsa Meetup group. Here is an excerpt.
"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."
~ John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 1818
“I can well remember reading those powerful words as a young Libertarian undergraduate student in 1972, wondering if I would ever see our Revolution come in my lifetime.
Adams' perceptive quote is found in Bernard Bailyn's brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, which I eagerly imbibed for my American Political Thought class.
Yet was the American Revolution to remain merely an intellectual exercise one only experienced in history books?
Were not the societal conditions of today ripe for another Revolution? “Read more…
Comment about Ron Paul by Cindy Sheehan, well-known anti-war activist
In an interview with Alex Jones
Asked why the candidacy of Ron Paul has become so popular, Sheehan commented "People are hungry for change, people are hungry for people to tell the truth, no matter what, people are hungry for those who act out of their integrity."
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/120707distinctchance.htm
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