Cool, Doug. Do you mind if I join you in speaking? This is in San Francisco... What do you (or others) think of the idea of showing some video clips? How about the "World's Largest Political Quiz" concept I described below?
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hello all!
So far I have you guys set for 12-1. I will keep you updated of any changes
to the event.
CCSF Ocean Campus is at 50 Phelan Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94112
City College of San Francisco has a lot with $3 parking permits. Our room
is MUB 140 on the first floor (its the building right next to the lot &
across the street from the rest of the campus - you can definitely call if
you're having a hard time finding it). Its not far from Bart either if
anyone is taking public transit.
I'm sure the room has some equipment but I did not request use of the
projector for this event. I will have a microphone & amplifier if it is
needed to talk to people.
It is a lecture room & has a max capacity of 100 I'm told, I set 80 as the
event limit with 50% allocated for CCSF students just to be on the safe
side.
This is our first run for a speaker series like this so I'm not sure how
strong attendance will be.
It is up to an hour. You can do it like a group presentation if you'd
prefer, & definitely do not feel like you need to fill the whole hour, I
just set it at hour intervals to be fair to everyone volunteering their
time to speak at the event.
You are welcome to bring campaign materials (literature, stickers type
stuff) in case students are interested. We are not allowed to sell anything
or accept donations during this event, hopefully that's not a problem.
Again, I will keep you updated of any changes to the event, & thank you all
for your willingness to participate.
-Holly
Yes, let's try to share notes and figure out areas of focus ahead of time. Here's a segment I'd like to present about the nature of voting:
"I'd like to ask everyone to think of your favorite color. Okay, if your favorite color is blue, raise your hand. (Note how many hands you see). If your favorite color is red, raise your hand. Okay. I see a lot of you didn't raise your hand for either red or blue. What's the matter, are you apathetic? (Wait for a student to mention having a different favorite color that's not red or blue.) Aha! (Ask that student) 'But red and blue were the two colors we asked you to consider. You saw your peers raising your hands for those colors. So why didn't you just vote for red or blue?' (Wait for reply) So what we're suggesting you do is use that same kind of independent thinking when you participate in politics! You've got most of the media, and the messages you hear on social media and so forth, talking about candidates who are either "blue" (Democrat) or "red" (Republican), and you can expect lots of your peers will listen to them and choose either blue or red. When you vote, are you only going to consider the choices that the media sticks in your face? Are you going to vote based on how you expect your friends or family or other people to vote? You wouldn't even choose your favorite color that way, so why would you make an important decision like choosing who gets to write the laws that way? When people let the media screen their choices for them and only consider the candidates that the media is talking about or says are viable, you don't really have a country run by the people, you have a country run by the media. And you may have noticed that the media pays more attention to candidates who already have power and money, so basically you're reinforcing a system where power stays in the hands of those who already have money and power. If you vote based on how you expect other people will vote, you're basically doing the same thing, because you're going to assume that people will be voting for one of the choices that the media is spending time talking about. So if most of the media is talking like your choices are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and you know you don't like Trump, then you'll start to think the only way to stop him is to vote for Clinton. And the people who don't like Clinton are thinking the same thing, just in reverse, and this is how the establishment gets people to vote for choices they don't really like, who support things you don't really believe in. They can give us two terrible choices, and most people will end up voting for one or the other because that's who's in the news. But when this happens, democracy is broken! Because it's really what I call the 2-party-cartel and their cronies in the media who are making the choices, not the people! If you tell somebody, 'Well, I don't really like Trump or Clinton, I'm going to vote for Gary Johnson, or some other alternative candidate,' people are going to tell you you're wasting your vote, or you're throwing your vote away, because Gary Johnson can't win. But that's just like if when I asked your favorite color and you say purple, somebody goes, "Purple? Why you choose purple? Purple's not a popular choice! It's gonna be either red or blue, that's what most people are talking about!" So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna choose red or blue, even if you don't think those are the best colors, just because those are the colors people are talking about? When you vote in a big election, it's not like you are 1 vote out of 100 and there's a chance that vote could change who gets elected. You'll be one vote out of hundreds of thousands, or millions of voters! Your one vote is NOT going to change who gets elected president, or even who gets elected to Congress. That doesn't mean don't vote, it just means vote honestly! Forget trying to change the results, it's not going to happen! Forget who people are talking about, how you think other people are going to vote. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. Haters gonna hate, right? Just cast an honest vote for the candidate you think is best, for what YOU believe in, like you're voting in an opinion poll for your favorite color, and you'll be doing your part. If your favorite color is purple, or green, or pink, or black, you don't vote for blue just because you think blue will be a popular choice and you like blue better than red! If people consider ALL their possible choices, and vote for the ones they think are best, then the system works. We have democracy. The candidates that people think will do the best job will get elected and make the decisions. But if people think they only have two choices, and they vote for one of those choices even when they don't really like that choice, then the system is broken. You don't have democracy. You have a system run by those who have the power, and is rigged to keep them in power. Any questions?"
If there are no objections, I'll ask Heidi if she can get a projector to show videos (she said she did not request use of a projector, which implies she may be able to do so if we ask her). If she cannot, perhaps we can bring one, athough we had some technical difficulties using the one we had for our April 10 event (Whose equipment was that, Aubrey? Do you know whether they ever figured out the problem?)
What do you think about the idea of administering the Advocates quiz en masse as I proposed? I'm thinking we could perhaps make an extra-large diamond chart, perhaps 10' by 10', with cardboard backing and construction paper front with the chart drawn on it. Either taped to a wall (I have the blue non-stick tape), or if there is no suitable surface at hand, perhaps held up by two volunteers?
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Hi Starchild and Doug. Thanks for doing this. I likeyour analogy with the colors, Starchild, and hopefully it may have some impacton the younger folks but it’s pretty hopeless with most older folks who arehung up on “not wasting” their vote or the spoiler angle. I will bring the usual LP brochures andperhaps a sheet with our recommendations for the June election, as well as apostcard that Kathy Howard (the Prop B expert) is having printed up thisweek. Haven’t decided if it’s a goodidea for us to have some Joel Engardio brochures too, since he clearly is notLibertarian, but since no Libertarians are running in the Board of Supervisorsraces, I can’t see that it would hurt. I’mnot messing with any technical electronic gadgets this time, like the projectorwhich I rented from my work for the transportation panel discussion. I will also bring tape, our banner, and allthe usual accompanying paraphernalia. See you on Saturday. Thanks!Aubrey
Well, the current presidential election is making the case for a strong
third party.
Trump or Hillary?
It's like asking if you want to be hit in the face with a hammer or a
baseball bat.
There's speculation the Libertarian candidate could pick up a lot of
disgruntled votes this presidential election.
Thanks guys!
I really didn't want to spend six hours travelling ( Sac RT, Amtrak, Bart)
for an event like this; but, it is an important type of event!
Do you need me to send some tri-fold brochures and decals?
If it would arrive in time I can always store swag for later.. I have none