I'm all for us having the Tax Day event, and plan to help as well -- I agree that protests and other public visibility events are good ways to make the LPSF a less obscure and more relevant in local politics. I don't recall us having specifically discussed the merits of paying for a government permit for an event we were planning before, but perhaps we have. You say you "have no dog in this fight"; does this mean you will abstain on the vote of whether to obtain a permit for our Tax Day protest or not?
"Dog in this fight" not "Dog in this vote." I see a distinction. I am not going to be enraged if LPSF does not have a Tax Day Outreach event as I had described. However, I will express through a vote my own perspective of what is appropriate activity for a political party; and what I feel would help bring to LPSF positive recognition.
Hi Marcy and Starchild! I will vote to pay for the permit fee (we are assuming it will be in the neighborhood of around $200--if it turns out to be much more, then that's a different story) so that we can make an attempt to turn this outreach into an important yearly event for the LPSF. My vote will have nothing to do with philosophy, for obviously there is no just reason for charging a group to hold a peaceful demonstration/rally/outreach on government property. It's just like other "fees" they charge--no rhyme or reason, they just do it to collect revenue.
My thinking is we would like to attract enough outsiders to our event to make it worthwhile. Libertarians alone won't cut it--we'd be lucky to get 10 Libertarians to show up. (Look at the NDAA resolution at City Hall. I sent out tons of emails to everyone I can think of--and only 6 showed up (which included Winston from the Ron Paul folks.)) So far only Sally's Tea Party group looks promising to ally with us for this event, though there was one other positive response from a lady name Carol in San Mateo County. I've also sent emails to Heather, Mimi Steel, Bob Zedak, the GOP, and spoken with Jun Dam about the event. If we do not get the permit, I'd have to let Sally (and any others who are coming) know in advance, and that would do it for that group. It would be a major embarrassment for the LPSF to invite a bunch of groups to our event and then get chased away by the police because we didn't get the permit. We're trying to pull folks
our way so we can make some kind of impact on the dire political environment in this city, not turn folks off. While Libertarians would probably applaud the public spectacle of us getting chased away by the heavy hand of government, we'd probably be the only ones there to see it (all 10 of us), so what good would it do?
Yes, it's an outrage that we have to pay the fee to protest or rally peacefully, but I say it's worth it to try and make a difference in this city. I do not think it's selling out to pay another ridiculous fee for the chance to try and reach more people. Everyone knows we're against such nonsense, and we will continue to oppose all government actions that impose on our lives and livelihoods, just like before. Let's face it: all we have at this point is Pride and the ballot measures that attract any kind of attention to our ideas. Even our NDAA work didn't garner even one positive mention anywhere, even though I'm pretty sure we had a hand in the resolution coming about. We are "interesting but insignificant," as some journalist once put it. It won't kill us or dilute our message to pay this one fee. By the way, I'm not opposed to having a sign at our event declaring our opposition to the injustice of paying such an outrageous fee--not a
bullhorn, but a sign. That will tell others who come to our event (most likely TP'ers) that we are not rogue dissidents but honest peaceful citizens who follow the laws--but oppose stupid ones.
Anyway those are my thoughts--we can discuss this more tomorrow and then vote on it.
I had intended to come to the meeting tomorrow. However my son surprised us and is showing up with his new girlfriend. So now I’m hosting a dinner party a 6PM. I’ll go with whatever you guys decide regarding this tax event.
Hi Mike! We'll miss you but don't worry about it. One way or another, we'll do something for Tax Day--I'm not going to waste a good opportunity for outreach.