Hi Everyone,
Carol and I have returned after five weeks in northern Europe. Nice place, but ridiculously expensive, probably due to the incredible level of government & taxation. An ordinary paperback book in Copenhagen is $19! If you have any doubts about the benefits of freedom, just visit some places like Estonia and the former East Germany. The people there are so happy, they practically bubble.
We should be planning some recruiting activities for the summer. Two ideas have surfaced. First, Emily Sandblade has suggested we go to Hempfest (
http://www.hempfest.org) in Seattle, Aug 21-22. This sounds like an excellent place to meet people hand out literature. Secondly, Paul Tripp (not from our area) suggests we target Rush concerts. I'm not familiar with them, but he makes a good case (see below). They are going to be here in the northwest July 4th weekend, an especially good time to capitalize on patriotic fervor.
What do you think? I'll be here for Hempfest, but will be in New Hampshire in early July. Would you like to join in the effort to staff these events?
Also, we should be planning another meeting to touch base. I would like to have the Seattle one on Sunday, July 25 (Jacqueline, your place again, or maybe the park this time?) and how about one in Eugene on July 10th or 11th?
Dan
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From: Paul Tripp <paultrip@cox.net>
Subject: Rush summer tour
A lot of libertarians know the band Rush for writing songs about Ayn Rand's novels, and their fans have been exposed for decades to songs about freedom, individualism, limited government, and anti-collectivism. Their isn't much of a better place to find potential libertarian recruits than a Rush concert.... and they're touring this summer! Why not capitalize on the occasion and do some advertising and recruiting there? If you're having trouble getting activity in your local group, giving them a fun activity that promotes the FSP, like doing activism at a concert, could be just what you need. Since a lot of FSPers are Rush fans anyway, you shouldn't have much problem finding local members willing to go to a Rush concert for the FSP.
All you'd really have to do is have a few members in FSP shirts with flyers to give to anyone who asks about the FSP. Amanda suggested putting stickers up in noticeable places around the concert hall (the bathrooms being an easy one) and flyering people's cars - stickering seems like a good idea, flyering the cars might get people more annoyed than anything else, though. Discuss it with your local group, and if you decide to have an FSP presence at their shows, figure out what you want to do.
Anyway, here are the dates for the rest of the tour: I'll be at the Kansas City show, someone on the forums said they plan to hit the Las Vegas show, and Amanda Phillips said she'd make the Boston show. There's still plenty of time to get tickets to the northeast US leg of the tour, but many of the northwest and midwest shows are already over.
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July 02 Seattle
July 03 Portland
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