We’re committed to doing the hard work. Are you?
Dear Friends,
I know People for Liberty has not publicly stated our organization’s mission, vision, and values to date so it may be hard to discern who we are, where we’re from, and our goals.
That has been deliberate; it’s because we’ve been focused on growing organically and working to truly listen to all of you – our stakeholders – before we commit to those critical components of our strategic plan. We didn’t want to be heavy-handed and make assumptions about what YOU want and need because we know that doesn’t work – as evidenced by our government and by the challenges we see in various power struggles across all of the political parties today. I’ll reiterate what we have on our website:
We believe in #PeopleB4Politics and through education, advocacy, and opportunities for action, we are working to create and sustain a community dedicated to that end – the end of politics as we know it today.
And guess what? From where we sit, it looks like politics today is incredibly divisive along all of the lines that people hold dear and true to their personal identity and sense of self: their cultural heritage, race, gender, sexual preferences, age, religion (or lack thereof) and many, many other components we consider (sometimes even subconsciously) as we seek to find friends, family, a community, and a home in the liberty movement.
Politics today has been intentionally made divisive. A deliberate attempt is being made to divide Americans along lines of cultural heritage, race, gender, sexual preference, age and religion. These efforts at division must not find purchase in the Liberty movement.
We are keeping those factors in mind as we work to strategically grow People for Liberty.
We are all different and People for Liberty wants to celebrate that – especially as we see that, despite those differences, the one thing that can unite us is our longing for liberty, and for freedom from government tyranny and overreach – right?!
And so we are actively working to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization that offers you, me, and all of the people curious about liberty out there a warm, welcoming home where we can feel we belong BECAUSE of our differences, not in spite of them.
Remember: diversity isn’t just a demographic like skin tone or gender – it includes diversity of thought and diversity of (professional/life) background, too.
People for Liberty wants to create a place where people can bring their diverse ideas and voices to the table. We recognize we are a young organization and we’re not there yet.
We need to hear from you so we can learn how to best serve you, the people. That’s what #PeopleB4Politics means to us. We’re not driven by what’s trending or what some policy wonk may tell us. We are here to serve you, rather than lead or “manage” you, and we want to grow and support more leaders looking to do the same – be servant leaders for this movement.
If you feel like your voice isn’t being heard or represented in the liberty movement – especially in this organization – we want to hear from you!
For those of you that don’t know, we’re also 100% volunteer led. That means I am not drawing a paycheck nor is our new Executive Director, Dan Fishman. Our rockstar team including our incredible Community Engagement Coordinator Andrea Lee, and others are also currently all unpaid. Now, I believe that all people should be appropriately compensated for their time and talents so I’m working (really!) hard behind the scenes to change that and get them paid – I will not be taking a paid role with the 501c4 nonprofit, for those wondering. But please do keep that in mind and hold grace and compassion in your hearts for all our volunteers who are so generously contributing their time, talents, and treasure in addition to working full time jobs and raising families, etc.
We’ll be coming back to you with next steps, likely some surveys for your feedback, and can’t wait to let YOU guide us in the next phase of growth for People for Liberty.
In the meantime, though, please feel free to reach out to our leadership team directly using the emails listed below. And if you’re reading this:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all YOU may do to help the liberty movement. We seek nothing less than a world set free in our lifetime and that will never happen if we all continue to operate in silos. Consider joining us so we can make a difference together.
With Gratitude,
Lauren M. Postler
Founder, People for Liberty
Lauren@people4liberty.org