Friends,
It has been two weeks since I started this thread. Where has it led?
I have heard from a lot of people, both on this forum, via email, by phone, and in person. Overall, the responses have been predictable. Some of them have been heartwarming, and others have been demoralizing. I'm happy to say that the positive responses have outnumbered the negative.
As far as getting the issues I raised seriously addressed, well, what you see on this thread is what you get, as far as I can tell.
According to this thread, the Organizers list is no more. I am on the Doers' list, and I can tell you that there has not been one word of discussion of Board elections, Board meeting minutes, publicizing the actions of in-state members, the Underground/NHFree, hiring a PR firm, etc. As per this thread, I'm happy to hear that a PR firm will soon be retained by the FSP, and I sincerely hope it bears some fruit in increased recruitment numbers. I'm also happy to hear that at least a few Boardmembers were supportive of at least partial elective representation in the past. It's good to know that all media references to the FSP are included somewhere on the website, if not particularly prominently.
I had hoped to stop the rift between the "party" FSP'ers and the Undergrounders from widening into an unleapable chasm. But that doesn't look like it's going to happen. For my part, I have no intention of cutting ties with Kat, Russell and the other Monadnock Porcupines, any more than I would from the Seacoast Porcupines or my neighbors in the Merrimack River Valley. I guess if other FSP Participants choose to do so, that's out of my hands.
At this point, my feelings are in line with Amanda's: discussions on this forum are unproductive, and I intend to minimize my time here. (Note how much more self-control I have now, though: I'm not going to delete my account in a rage, then sheepishly reinstate it after I've calmed down.
) I'm in New Hampshire now, and am no longer dependent on this forum to provide my primary means of contact and interaction with my fellow FSP'ers. I see them every day, face to face, and have been working hard with some of them for greater liberty in New Hampshire (you can read about my adventures on my blog:
http://fridaysblog.blogspot.com/As for the assorted cries that I shouldn't just "whine" and "gripe", I should do something, well, what can I say? Reference my first-ever post on an FSP list:
March 27, 2002 - #2423 on the freestateproject Yahoo list
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freestateproject/ ), and my earliest remaining (due to archiving) post on this forum:
http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?topic=1471.15 I proactively took over leadership of the Northern California Local Group, and was approved after the fact. I was appointed Events Coordinator
after contacting all 50 state Libertarian Parties about opportunities for FSP vendor tables and speakers. It's no secret I've worked on lots of other projects. I've been a proactive go-getter for the FSP for 3 1/2 years now.
To all those whom I have angered, insulted and/or offended on this forum over the years by expressing a dissenting opinion, all due apologies. I like to think that the action-oriented, friendly, appreciative, helpful, welcoming or just plain funny posts have greatly outnumbered the offensive ones. I sometimes enjoy participating on the Underground forum, so if you enjoy sparring/kvetching/joking with me, look for me there:
http://www.nhfree.com/To those of you who are doing anything at all to encourage liberty-loving activists to move to New Hampshire and/or to increase liberty within the state, I salute you! Please keep it up. The FSP sure needs your help.
Here's to Liberty in Our Lifetimes, to whatever degree it may be achieved!
