Mr Bearded Truth – 30 – Activism in Action with Elizabeth Coquillard and Will Henry

DISCLOSURE

FULL TRANSCRIPT TEXT

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hello and welcome to mr america the bearded truth covering political and social issues one liberty at a time with
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entertaining insights of current events and important discussions on topics that affect us all shining the torch of liberty and
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brightening the future by bringing libertarianism into our everyday life and now your host the friendly
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neighborhood libertarian jason lyon mr murica
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oh there we go oh welcome in everybody so glad to see you it’s friday
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which means of course you’re getting another dose of mr murica the bearded truth thank you guys so much for being here i’m seeing so many more people able
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to hop on and being excited about catching us out live on the new 2pm uh
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on friday schedule so i’m excited you guys are here joining in for today i’ve got a hell of a show for you guys i’ve
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got i’ve got a duo an unstoppable duo a duo that has changed their community and
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is changing the way that we look at politics around the country um of course speaking of none other than uh
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elizabeth coquillard not what spike and matt call her not not dropping names but uh
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uh and also of course the one and only will henry um so they’re gonna be talking today about how to take your
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keyboard actions and bring them to the real world to make some serious change so i’m so incredibly excited for today’s
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conversation but before we get there let me say a couple thank yous thank you of course to each and every one of you
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guys who are watching this live whether you guys are watching this on youtube on facebook twitter twitch float
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course you can catch this show live every friday at 2 p.m and we’ll throw in a couple extra episodes here and there
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ready for you guys on that one but i don’t have it uh i got called mr stretcher arms for that one uh next
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week’s episode i promise you uh thank you for matt and spike for giving me a platform to come out here to talk about issues and to talk about libertarianism
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and bringing that into your life uh thank you to uh brian lam brian scott lambrick almost missed the middle name
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there it’s very important brian scott lambert and jenny for the intro music or the introduction and thank you of course
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to nate luke for the hold music bringing us in here but of course
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it and i think we’ve gone through them all i think i’ve gotten the thank yous out
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thank you guys again for being here um but of course thank you
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to liz and will for hopping in here today how’s it going guys good how are you
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good i’m i’m sorry that the intro takes so long you know how libertarians are we we can’t keep it short and see short and
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sweet we got to support the sponsors oh yeah so
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speaking of support so today we’re talking a little bit about activision or activism
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um activism is so incredibly important for because that’s how we’ve changed culture that’s how we’ve changed
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legislation that’s how we’ve challenged legislation and challenged the culture uh i know you guys are personally
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involved in something going on right now um but before we dive into the intricacies of sticking your neck
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out in in a very calculated manner um i want to know from you guys um will we
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had you on just recently liz this is your your first time coming on the mr bearded true show welcome of course for
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that uh but i want to know where did you guys act where did you guys come from being
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informed to becoming an activist and and if you guys could talk about it um your mindset and everything through that
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uh whale i wasn’t really um politically active until 2020 but um
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i do believe that i um got a lot of my volunteer work uh from
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my parents and uh what they did in the community my my mom ran girl scouts and
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uh showed us the importance of helping people into always thinking of other people um and how you know the things
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you do affect other people around you and you know my dad was just always there for you know neighbors and
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families and friends and the ways that he could do things he was a doer you know he would just show up and mow a yard or or uh you know uh deliver
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groceries in the snow on a four four-wheeler that kind of thing you know so i really was more geared towards
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volunteerism um and growing up in the church uh but in 2020 the pandemic hit and my
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job was taken away from me i wasn’t able to make any money i was i was trying to figure out how to
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feed my kids i had a daughter who couldn’t get the medical services she needed for her um
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hearing loss uh it was just it impacted our lives in so many ways and uh so that’s kind of
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where i was like okay i need to do something you know that something needs to be done and uh so i got involved in um donald
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rainwater’s campaign in 2020 and will henry’s campaign in 2020 um and just
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really was part of the grassroots movement delivering signs showing up to events hosting events and that’s where i
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got plugged into the libertarian party of indiana and was well untold into the district 2 rep position
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um of northern indiana so now i represent a few different counties cascasco
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marshall county elkhart county i did have
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la porte county up until the redistricting recently and also st joseph county just uh is newly
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affiliating they’re working on it they have a temporary chair that is really excited to get things going in that
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county so i started there and got you know politically active and
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also found that to be a platform for activism and i’ve you know a lot of
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people think that you know political parties are only to for running candidates um that is
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just not the case and especially in the libertarian party we’re doers you know and i do believe that our party has two
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heads the activist head and the you know the political head and neither one
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really would exist without the other um but uh you know we may not as
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libertarians be that successful yet um in political realm but through activism
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i mean it’s our bread and butter most most libertarians are involved in non-profits
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other organizations they’re already doing the things um so basically
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um i hit the ground running from there and uh i think the biggest event or biggest thing i’ve done so far was just
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in a small town of bourbon indiana and protecting suzanne affilabi’s rights to her property and uh we actually won that
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battle recently so um her house is almost to completion and she’ll be moving in really soon and it’s really
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exciting um that was such an incredible campaign and and i want to reflect on something that
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you had said because i think that it’s worth repeating so you said you came from a family that was very
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community oriented helping one another and being a part of that um i think that that’s something that
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draws out like the the drive for us to care for our communities and then
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later on it was the discomfort it was the the the inability to be able to to take care
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of yourself that really catapulted you into making a difference and making a change and and it breaks my heart to
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hear these stories but it also it’s so incredible because that
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discomfort as bad as it is drove you to do big and beautiful things
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and that campaign that you you pushed i i apologize i forgot her
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name but i i want could you give us a recap on
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first of all what happened to her and then also how the state decided to respond in that circumstance which drove
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you guys to be able to help her in her time of discomfort and catapult her to a better life as well
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sure well suzanne afflecki um grew was born and raised in her family home in
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bourbon indiana and she had experienced a house fire
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earlier last year and instead of finding the community support
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in that time of need you know the community’s you know stepping up and saying what can we do for you how can we
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help you she found herself um in a battle with the
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city zoning board because somebody had complained of the uh the four seasons
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trailer that her insurance had given her to be placed on her property until her house was built um this is during the
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pandemic everything was backed up they couldn’t get the property damage assessed the
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house torn down everything installed the insurance company wasn’t paying out it was pretty much stagnant and she didn’t
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know what to do she didn’t have help from the community she didn’t have help from insurance so she turned to the news
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and one news station came out and did a story on on her situation and and what’s going
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on with the zoning board interviewed the zoning board um members who said that they would not grant a variance for her
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to stay on her property already and then after that interview they realized they couldn’t just do that that they had to
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hold a zoning board meeting well i had come across the
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the news article on facebook because one of my morning rituals is kind of troll my local news i like to you know
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make liberty minded comments in the section give a libertarian take on things but i also like to see who else
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is making libertarian takes on things or who else is angry and and to
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use that i always uh if they’re in my community if they’re commenting on my the local news so i
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friend request them or i send them an invite to the libertarian party of elkhart county’s page you know i just
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want to give more content to these people show them that they’re not alone
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but when i read that article i was like man somebody’s got to help this woman and whenever you ask that question like
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who’s going to help it usually is you you you are going to
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help you should help if you have that feeling in you then you should do something about it and i didn’t know
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what i could do but i wanted to do something so i reached out to her personally and got
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the story and i was like listen i’ve got a group of people who have committed to volunteering in the community uh we call
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ourselves the cool kids county coalition it’s just a group of libertarians who
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who sat at the kids table at their first annual uh state convention and kind of
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just felt like kind of new and kind of like you know just not plugged in yet so we kind of like
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became that table and uh and just kind of joined forces since we were all up north in indiana we’re like
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hey you know there’s not many of us in our county affiliates so let’s band together so there’s more of us to do the
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things show up to each other’s events do the volunteers together volunteering together and so um
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i contacted the county um that she lived in which was marshall county and i was like hey guys we gotta do something and
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luckily luckily they all stepped up and were totally willing so we ended up hosting a rally
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and um and it was great we had some success we had a state rep show up and support we
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had great speakers we had live music we provided a sloppy joke dinner for uh for
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donations to go to suzanne because again their house had burned down they weren’t getting any money she was working from
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home and less because of you know restrictions and working at home and um
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so they were kind of strapped so we wanted to kind of give them some support and to rally the community around them
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and um we accomplished two things that day one uh suzanne had called up her
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insurance rep and she’s like i don’t care who you need to talk to but we’re holding a rally we’re holding a protest
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we’re going to fill the boardroom and we’re going to name names and uh the day of the rally she showed up just a brand
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new woman she was like when i had previously previously talked to her she was basically broken and scared
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and and worried about what was going to happen to her her husband and her grandson who were living in this trailer
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and had nowhere else to go um and so uh yeah we held that right we held the
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rally and she showed up just totally like win beneath her wings she’s like i
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i got a call from my insurance company they’re depositing a check in my bank account tonight uh and they’ve dropped
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off the uh equipment to bulldoze that the remains of the house to start uh
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rebuilding that day that’s amazing oh that was yeah that happened and we got
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community to support her uh people were you know people showed up to the rally
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they showed up to her doorstep with you know gifts and asking them what can we do to help and so you know she wasn’t
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alone anymore and she felt like she could do it and so uh we did have
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the zoning board meeting um we did fill it with libertarians and other liberty-minded people who stood in in
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spoken suzanne’s uh defense and uh for the most part
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the meeting they made it feel like they were supportive they asked the questions we had the answers and then they closed
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the public forum and then went after her they went after her hard
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and so we had did a campaign through the liberty channels uh to raise money and
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for a lawyer and you know also support and a lot of people sent emails and
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letters to the city board and so they threw this stack i mean it was probably this thick onto the table
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just these are all threats we were threatened we’re afraid for our lives and you brought this upon this town you did this
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and again they did what they said they were going to do they denied the variance and
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um and so the next step was to take it in front of a county judge
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and so we um we asked uh to we asked we crowd funded three thousand dollars for
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her lawyer through uh uh you know cajun and bootleg and um
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eskimo libertarian and uh then dadman picked it up for five dollar uh the
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liberty games five dollar charity club and raised pretty much the bulk of it in just a
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couple hours so we were able to hire a lawyer and um then it was just the waiting game and we waited for a few
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months till she could be seen from the judge but we were okay with the waiting game because that just meant she could stay on her property yeah um
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so yeah so we’re like we accomplished it anyway we could push this out and you could stay till your house was built
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so it was that was you know what we were trying to aim for but then she got from the judge in february
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and uh and then and he asked you know why can’t she stay in this trailer they’re like
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well carbon monoxide well isn’t that suzanne’s problem is what the judge said to them not the counties or not the
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cities and they were like well what about her pipes freezing he’s like wouldn’t that be suzanne’s problem not
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the cities and so he ended up um overturning their um verdict or their
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vote and also her lawyer gave a strong argument for a
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biased board and as well as a illegal board because
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they did not have quorum to do that vote um they were a few members shy
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wow to an executive meeting to make that decision yeah and it goes against indiana state law and a number of other
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you know code protects those type of things from the local level up and you have to have these type of things happen
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in a certain way in these public meetings so not only did suzanne win her uh case
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but they the judge is calling the board back in to speak for themselves and what they’ve
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done with this woman so uh her battle is won but she is continuing the battle for you know so
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this doesn’t happen to anybody else so this couldn’t be a better outcome that’s incredible so you hit on
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roughly around 17 000 different amazing activist tips within that so you you
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talked about outreach of looking out on within your community where you don’t already have friends and you see people
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that may be aligned with with your values and you say hey we’re right there together let’s let’s
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figure out how we can work together to make a difference you talked about coalition building of working with other entities that have um you know you
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talked about cajun libertarian eskimo libertarian bootleg libertarian why do they all have libertarian in the
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name who knows but um but you worked with those organizations and of course dadman over there at
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liberty memes five dollar charity club if you guys are are on facebook or if you guys are anywhere and you haven’t
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joined the the five dollar charity club five dollars a month to donate to a great cause that’s been
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vetted and checked out where you can be a part of these solutions of of changing somebody’s life from their worst day of
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not knowing their future to now being able to go in front of a judge and the judge says
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this panel is just a bunch of croc first of all they’re biased and let’s let’s just get rid of this and and let you
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work towards being whole again um everything you said there was just as if
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you were like a seasoned professional doing this for 70 years and and as you started off you said you only started in
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2020. i’m yeah i’m flying by the seat of my pants i learned as they go
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i love it you you held all these rallies to raise support raise awareness receive donations you guys gave a little
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received a lot back it’s incredible um but will we haven’t heard from you on your story so yeah you know yeah
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where did you start off in uh how did how did we get to the wonderful activists that you are today
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yeah it uh you know i i too grew up around churches and other volunteer organizations and
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those type of things so i was exposed to that type of stuff early on and i got involved in the military went off
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in the military and did some photo journalism work for the military for almost 10 years and transitioning out of
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that i started to get into the veterans realm and started to do communications for
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veterans issues and then started to administrate and then started to advocate at the state level and
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those coalition building things and you know getting those organizations back together to try to get in line and try
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to work together to try to get a clear message across uh to the legislators and
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other folks uh was so important and um you know you just take those communication skills and you apply them
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to that volunteer sector too and you know working with volunteer organizations like the american legion
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and administrating organizations like that you you really get a a great sense of uh
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that organizational picture at a state level too that i was working out and that’s you know a lot of what we’re
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doing is trying to reach down from the local level all the way up to the state level uh that way we can create a
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network and organize and have people in all of these different areas so we can
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uh rely on them and you know a lot of folks want to help they just don’t know how to help and i think in a lot of ways
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with our experience that we have we can really help people get get a
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message across and get organized and help advocacy and help activism and rallies and these type of things in the
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state and we’ve really just been partnering with a lot of organizations uh as liberty offense uh now as a 501c4
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in the state and working together on these initiatives that are liberty-minded and
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like-minded in in the direction that we’ve been working so and not political issues like they shouldn’t be dividing
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us we should be working on you know issues that you know we the people support and
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cannabis is just a great place to start with it because it’s a humanitarian issue it’s not a political issue it’s
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not confined to one party or you know like here in indiana like the democrats
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would love to just take that issue and run with it that’s their thing not anybody else’s and that’s just not the
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case i know conservative republicans here in indiana who are for cannabis
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legalization and we need to partner you know like we need as we need to be
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nonpartisan in this we need to be the people in this and work together to do it and that’s where we can affect change
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especially in indiana where we have a uh what donald likes to call a super
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monopoly in our state house nothing’s getting done nothing the people want is getting
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done cannabis was passed up again this year and uh 83 percent of is it well it’s
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mid-80s now a percentage that people people want this the people want it
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and you know over three-fourths of the state have legalized it in some manner you know it’s inevitable at this point
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it has to pass it has to come about and um so we just have to work together and
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uh i know that during this pandemic it’s tore down a lot of the organization that was in place before
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the pandemic people kind of were excited and part of nonprofits and other organizations to get their issues pushed
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and then it just kind of crumbled and the communication in the networking kind of just kind of fell apart and so
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basically we just want to help build those organizes organizations back
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up we want to give people the tools that they need um to do the change in their
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community uh on the you know down at the county city local level um and uh just to just
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to provide that um that infrastructure and the you know the tools to do it
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yeah i mean a lot of people they want to help like i said earlier they just don’t know how and providing that uh that way to
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organize with with the american legion in some of these instances or indiana
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normal or both at the time 420 event with indiana normal and of you like we did same
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the american legion and libertarians democrats and republicans we all had them there we have had
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all of the news all of the press in indianapolis there we had ryan mears the prosecuting attorney there i mean it was
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a huge thing for indiana i mean really it’s like
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if you if you can’t do it for you know for everybody do it for the vets you know
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this is you know a viable option for medication for them you know um that
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doesn’t harm them and so like you know at least do it for the vets and the other things like the the
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medic just medical freedom all together you know we’re trying to work with indiana uh organizations that focus on
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medical freedom and it’s the mandates it’s the vaccines it’s these other things too during the
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shutdowns that we’re unconstitutional and we want to help challenge those especially during while they’re
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happening and to be able to organize against us so we saw the departments of health attack
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uh restaurants and we saw you know a lot of families uh get let’s not get the care that they needed during during that
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time and die you know like it’s it’s just it’s harmed everybody and it doesn’t need to happen
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ever again so to be able to work with as an organization to to do that is very
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important i think yeah no absolutely and and you guys kind of touched on it that you guys are able to grab uncommon
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allies people that you know we disagree on many subjects i mean we can go through
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economics and social issues and it’s like republicans and democrats don’t agree with us that’s fine but they agree with us on this issue and
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so being able to reach out to them and have it through good messaging you know reach out to a republican and say do you
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support veterans yes well veterans mental health will be made immensely better
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veterans physical health will be made immensely better you know yadda yadda 22 veterans per day
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committing suicide don’t you want to see that go to 21 i know we want to see zero but don’t you want to make an impact and
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and see that go to 21 you could be a part of this by joining in on this coalition
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yes and and part of that’s just you know uh creating literature for people to be able to hand out you know that’s
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something we want to do on our website is just provide a resources section where people can go in and you
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know get what they need and take it out there and do it now you know so if you’re focusing on jury nullification
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you know there’s products and and you know palm cards and these type of things that we’ll have available on there that
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are just reusable there you know they have a branded liberty offense but anyone can use these
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for any initiatives that they do and emergency uh mandates and vaccine and medical
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freedom and cannabis and there’s so many different areas that uh you know that a lot of organizations are working
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in that we can partner and help organize and and one thing that you guys have
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kind of touched on a little bit um but i want to i want to make it abundantly clear
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people who want to help and don’t know how to when you find a group that needs help
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you find out what you’re good at and you you pick up that shovel and you start digging like it doesn’t matter if you’re
31:44
a good writer writing up literature give it to somebody who’s a good speaker and have them be like you know here’s how i
31:51
would say this differently you can work through that lens um if you if you’ve got good connections to go onto the
31:56
radio maybe you don’t feel like you’re comfortable with speaking but you can introduce somebody who is good at
32:02
speaking um if you you know if you’ve got if you love talking to people in
32:08
congress and you’ve got a good repertoire there that’s somebody that you say hey look you know libertarian
32:14
group xyz is is trying to push this initiative let me go talk to my congress person let me see if i can make an
32:20
influence um you could ban people together like you were saying and write letters to your congress people
32:26
and have that big stack of things and and maybe they won’t see it as a threatening other a threat on their life
32:32
but they’ll sit down they’ll read these things so there’s so many different aspects so many different ways that you
32:37
can piece in to be a pivotal piece but it’s also about those supporters if you’re trying to dig if you’re trying to
32:43
dig a ditch it’s really it’s a lot of work to do with one shovel it’s a lot less work with 12. so just jump in there
32:49
don’t be afraid get connected with people and make a difference and that’s why i’m so excited about
32:54
spikes you are the power pack like i’m really excited and and that it is
33:00
our intent to work side by side with spike in indiana and uh you know to have
33:05
that umbrella of activists nationwide putting in the work you know targeted direct action especially as a you know
33:13
as a party we’re not very big so it’s really nice to be able to
33:19
have this decentralized network of activists who can help you and and do
33:25
the things so i’m really excited about that and we’re just and the last time i ran into spike we had a good discussion
33:32
he’s like liz you’re you’re doing everything that i’m doing but on the local level you’re doing you know
33:37
exactly what you need to be doing keep it up and i was like awesome you know just having the
33:42
affirmation that you know i’m doing it i’m doing it exactly the way it should be done um but having him in support and
33:49
you know helping me do the things and you know this pack coming about i think it’s going to do big things nationwide
33:55
absolutely absolutely i’m so excited to see that you are the power take off and and truly change i mean he’s already
34:01
flying around the country just to speak on his activism flying around the country sitting in front of county council city councils
34:08
whatever council he can get in front of and he goes look you know i’m here talking to you as as a concerned citizen
34:14
i’m here i you know here’s the concerns here’s the problem that you guys face
34:19
don’t worry if you don’t make the right decision today we will be back and we will we will multiply in that time um
34:27
he is he is doing you know amazing work out there just as you guys are doing there in indiana um this is this is the
34:35
way forward this is how liberty wins and and i want to take pages out i’m waiting for
34:40
you guys to write your autobiography already um or get somebody to write your biography so i can start somebody else
34:46
do it please i’m too yeah but we need those so we can learn from you guys blueprints on what you guys
34:52
have been accomplishing uh thus far yeah and that’s the whole point to the thing is you know my real reason like
34:59
you know me and will coming together was kind of like what’s the word because i can’t even say it but it’s it’s it’s
35:05
like it was kind of like meant to be because like you know he’s doing the thing and he’s got the organizational
35:12
knowledge and like i don’t so like i come into that i’m
35:17
learning from that aspect but um you’ve got a lot of communications experience too that you bring to the table and
35:23
you’ve got a lot of organizational stuff that you bring and i think as a team you know and we’re we’re growing now too and
35:29
other other people to get involved in some of these sections and to focus on some of these uh these paired sections
35:36
that we can help organize with and it’s just the infrastructure and you know we’re missing it on in the libertarian
35:42
party itself we’re getting better at it but it’s that um trans it’s taking that knowledge and being able to pass it on
35:48
and pass it on and pass it on despite leadership changes despite you know parties
35:54
succeeding or failing that that information needs to be available and so that’s pretty much why uh i really am
36:00
all about liberty offenses is to be able to create create that infrastructure uh
36:06
show people how to set things up and to give them that support because really that’s all they need they want to do the
36:12
thing just give them the support and be proactive i mean that’s the whole thing we’re we’re on the offense now we need
36:18
to be able to get out there we need to be active we need to be seen and it’s not only the legislative branch it’s the
36:24
executive branches it’s the judicial branches it’s these other folks that that haven’t been feeling so much
36:30
pressure on some of these issues that really need to feel the pressure because they work for us 27 24 7 they need to be
36:36
responsible 24 7 and the folks aren’t happy we need to be able to express that and we need to be able to assemble and
36:43
organize and give people a route to do that and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do
36:49
that’s yes that’s incredible so um let me know when you guys get the biographies out uh so we can steal your
36:55
blueprints and figure out how we can we can replicate this and of course we will follow liberty offense um i have the
37:01
link in the chat for you guys libertyoffense.org make sure you guys check that out um get
37:07
on board there’s so much good information in there about how you can take the offensive approach to make
37:13
liberty be in the forefront um there um but i wanna i wanna shift gears a little bit so you guys are actively
37:19
participating in a pretty big uh form of activision or activism i
37:26
can’t i don’t know why i keep saying that a pretty big form of activism and
37:32
oftentimes we think of activism as just you know hop happy go lucky’s write a
37:37
couple letters have a couple conversations and rebuilding people’s lives but sometimes that means that we
37:43
have to take a stand in the face of of some serious adversity and risk quite a
37:49
bit um i probably should have asked you guys in the forefront if you guys are cool talking about this but i i think that
37:56
you guys are judged on uh we’ll talk about this a little bit last time
38:01
so you guys are in a big case right now around medical or around cannabis and
38:07
you’re ongoing with the trial coming up you want to you want to fill us in on on
38:13
the stance on on everything so that we can know it’s okay to to stand in the face of diversity
38:19
well yeah and and it’s just a matter of exercising your rights too it’s a you know and demanding the ability to have
38:26
your be judged by your peers too and to hear the evidence and decide that and here in the state of indiana
38:33
we have a constitutional right article 1 section 19 that pretty much
38:39
leaves it up to the jury to decide the law and the facts of any kind of criminal uh hearing
38:45
and um you know i have i currently have uh misdemeanor
38:50
cannabis possession charges right now uh there’s nothing special about my case
38:56
that’s just like everyone else you know a lot of people get stopped for some reason and they end up searching a
39:02
vehicle because uh they say oh we well we we smell cannabis and now you know
39:07
it’s at the discretion of the officers so they get to uh to decide whether you give permission
39:12
or not to search your vehicle so if they they discover something during that stop uh you know that could be uh considered
39:20
or legal or suspected illegal uh they’ll you know put the charges on you for that and um a lot of folks you know suffer
39:28
because of that you know that there haven’t done anything you know they’re not endangering anyone they’re not you
39:33
know you know it’s a victimless crime yeah yeah he was ticketed he was ticketed for the cannabis at the time at
39:40
this you know the scene and then let go he wasn’t a threat to the community they let him go they just
39:46
ticketed him and said it show up three court date and uh he was he was offered multiple pleas he’s turned them down on
39:53
principal um because you know he’s using it medicinally instead of opioids and
39:59
benzos that would have killed him you know from his time in the military so yeah the the government and the state
40:06
they’re okay with me taking opioid pain medications from my chronic pain through the pain management program at the va
40:12
or something like that but for me to be able to treat myself with a non-lethal substance
40:18
that’s absolutely illegal here in the state of indiana still but you know 20 minutes north of where i
40:24
was stopped i wouldn’t have been prosecuted for this because they had locally decriminalized and
40:29
um the counties like this uh and other counties you know they’re they’re
40:34
raising revenue through these processes and i think that a lot of uh folks don’t realize how much money
40:41
they’re they’re making and spending on enforcing this type of stuff and and even having these processes uh happen in
40:48
their in the courtroom um but indiana you know we’re spending 350 million dollars a year fighting cannabis we’re
40:54
making 25 000 arrests a year uh for simple possession throughout the counties and a lot of counties that’s a
41:01
big revenue generator because a lot of folks will take these diversion or plea deals and they’ll just pay a fee and
41:06
they’ll be done and really we need to stop it we need to stop attacking our community for this
41:13
because it isn’t like alcohol it isn’t like these other drugs
41:18
and for it to be treated you know uh so harshly and not being non-lethal
41:24
and really it’s really not severely psychoactive i’ve taken opioids
41:29
i’ve taken benzodiazepines i’ve been drunk and cannabis doesn’t have those effects okay and yet they want to pile
41:36
it in the same pile and make it as evil as can be because it’s a simple treatment
41:43
and they don’t even believe it anymore like they know they know that cannabis isn’t the devil’s lettuce it isn’t you
41:49
know out there killing people it isn’t doing anything but helping people and so
41:54
they’re even you know i think they’re starting to feel it like man i don’t want to enforce you know these laws
42:00
anymore i don’t want to you know find somebody guilty especially you know somebody who’s a leader in their
42:06
community and a great asset to their community um but if we all just took a stand if we all just said no more no
42:13
more plea deals no you know take it try take it to a jury trial take it you
42:18
might you might lose he might lose there’s a big possibility that he’ll lose but if we overwhelm the system if
42:25
we show that we’re not going to do it anymore if people start standing up together to do it then change will happen and it can
42:33
happen judiciously here in indiana because we have our right explicitly stated in our state constitution uh that
42:40
jury nullification can happen you know uh and good jurors nullify bad loss uh
42:46
and pushing that message uh it it will go far i think people are starting to understand it and last week you know i
42:54
was is standing with marion county prosecutor who’s the county north of
42:59
here you know and at a 420 event at american legion post 34 and we’re talking about uh cannabis and veterans
43:06
being able to use that as a treatment and that was one of the big drivers you know that made his decision that he’s
43:11
not going to prosecute two ounces or less of personal possession because he didn’t have the resources and it just doesn’t make sense to do that and you
43:18
know uh to to use common sense and some of this stuff and go after the people who are really
43:24
causing the problems and who are really breaking the law and uh hurting others yeah
43:30
this is this is incredible so you know you stick your neck out on this situation you guys are now
43:37
you guys have through this time right you just left a pre-trial and you guys had a rally there for this no no rally
43:44
for today okay sorry no really we ended up canceling it um because we’re taking a different
43:50
route so yeah but but the you guys have
43:56
raised the issue for a lot of people to be able to to not only have people that already support you be able to see this
44:01
in your communities but also to be able to to challenge kind of some of those people that may still be in that that
44:07
thought process of it’s the devil’s lettuce if you smoke it you’re going straight to hell there’s the you don’t
44:12
pass go you don’t collect 200 um instead the state collects it um so you guys are you guys are taking a lot
44:19
of steps throughout this process to really fundamentally challenge what is put in
44:24
place and you guys have plenty of states to look at colorado um washington and i
44:29
think we’re up to like 17 states that have passed it recreationally so you guys have plenty of evidence out there
44:35
to go what the hell are you doing indiana like get on board and let’s let’s see this change and there’s a lot
44:41
of evidence when it comes to cannabis and veterans uh which is is funny um
44:47
83 percent of veterans are for legalization 83
44:54
and veterans report a higher usage of cannabis than regular the regular
45:01
population um and i think it’s it’s funny that they know this but it’s just because veterans are honest with their
45:07
doctors at the va they tell them hey i use cannabis uh i i mean at this 420
45:13
event we talked to a gentleman who you know was kicked out of his opioid program with from his va doctor because
45:19
he tested positive for canada’s cannabis and he said good i don’t want them that’s why i’m using cannabis
45:26
and so if if anything let’s do it for the vets you know like they went over they
45:31
they’ve protected our rights they’ve you know served for us like why shouldn’t they be able to use cannabis
45:38
so um hitting you know hitting the messaging on that route in a conservative area
45:43
will go miles farther than keeping it as a democrat issue and you
45:49
know only reaching out to that small population that you know really are just as disenfranchised as libertarians in
45:56
indiana so they have no power either so we need to start working together and messaging
46:02
correctly uh to get things done and that’s non-point that right there what you just talked
46:08
about is uh i get a plug myself so i’m happy about this uh if you guys go back a couple weeks i did sit down with steve
46:14
dosbach when we talked about the brands ransberger pivot and other communication skills that we can use in order to
46:20
communicate the same message to democrats as well as republicans it’s worded a little bit differently but it’s
46:26
going to resonate with them so much that they go i can’t support continuing
46:31
criminalizing marijuana because i support the veteran community so exactly what liz is saying there
46:37
i would encourage you guys all to check that out as you guys are looking to become more effective in your activism as you guys take these steps into it um
46:44
so you guys could be more like liz and will here um because that’s how we’re going to grow our
46:50
numbers that’s how we’re going to change uh the conversation we want to take our knowledge and we
46:55
want to share it we don’t want to hoard that knowledge we want to we don’t want to reinvent the wheel every single time
47:01
uh that we have to you know get things off the ground and move it in a certain direction so we really need to to
47:08
for an organization like ours to really bring things together right now especially with the assembly issues
47:14
we’ve had over the last couple years with the restrictions and mandates and those type of things and um
47:19
it’s just been phenomenal the the the response from everyone when they hear about this type of organization that
47:26
we’re taking the offense we’re going to be proactive and be out there not just be defensive and you know that that’s
47:32
also includes i mean i’ve been involved with exposing fraud waste and abuse i’ve
47:37
learned a lot through that process that i can share with someone who’s going through that same type of thing so we
47:42
want to be able to to not only and we share all of this knowledge that we have with other people to help provide them
47:50
with a with a way forward that they can really you know yeah and if you have the knowledge for that we don’t please share
47:57
it with us i would love it thank you you you spoke on that earlier of like
48:03
sharing your experience and sharing your wisdom with others and you don’t have to be a coalition leader you don’t have to
48:08
be an organization to be able to help out each other only through those things of sharing your knowledge and allowing
48:15
it for everyone to have their comparative advantages shine can we truly make the liberty you know
48:20
take it from a liberty offense and finally winning and then now we could just sit back and just wait for others
48:26
to try to come at it um i i see what you guys are doing i love it so much uh
48:31
we’re coming up about 10 minutes left so i want to give you both like a a quick like three or four minute uh wrap up if
48:36
you guys got anything last you guys would like to cover um well we’ve got a few events coming up uh
48:44
not specifically liberty offense but uh let’s see
48:49
uh may 1st is the national liberty day of service and i highly recommend that
48:54
everybody get out there and do something in their community show up in their community and and build those relationships uh
49:02
uh our district is just we’ve picked a roadside that we’re gonna pick up trash in um so just getting out there and
49:09
being present uh i know on the seventh of this month we’re partnering with uh with uh the lpin in morgan county to
49:16
learn how to canvas door-to-door we’re doing this as a state party to you know give us the tools for it is campaign
49:23
season so we all have to be political whether we want to be or not so that’ll be great you know to get over
49:29
the nerves of talking to random strangers at their doorstep is a big thing just a big hurdle and so
49:34
i think that’ll be really great for indiana also indiana the lpin has an
49:40
amazing program in place at this time called service saturdays last year we called it
49:46
um what was it called super saturdays but we changed it to service saturdays just to be more clear on what they are but
49:52
every month the second saturday of the month in every district there is a volunteer
49:58
event and so you can look for those on the lpin facebook page and website uh
50:04
but uh our our district district 2’s is june 11 and we are going to be donating
50:11
our time to a local um animal rescue in our in our area so um i just i just
50:17
really want everybody to just get out there and do the thing if you’re just one person find something that one person can do
50:24
and do it um just go over to people for liberty uh liberty day national liberty
50:29
day of service they have a site that you can register your event and attract volunteers in
50:36
your area and show people that we’re all out there doing it last year it was a grassroots effort um started by letter
50:43
speak and uh it was amazing a lot of us did it so just take it just take a little bit
50:48
of time and highlight it because we need to be seen doing the things um just i mean i know as libertarians we’re all
50:55
volunteering all doing things but we’re not really highlighting it because it it seems like it’s like oh we’re doing the
51:01
things and you know you know look at us doing things but it’s not that it’s showing the community that we can do the
51:06
things that you know we can be a community again because we’ve lost that and we need to bring it back people need
51:12
to be helping people um and relying less on the government and this
51:17
is the way to do it this is the way you so how do i put it i always take everybody’s little hashtags and put it
51:23
together oh do the thing uh this is the way you are the power i love it i live by those three and and
51:31
something you said there i wanna i wanna touch on that real quick you talked about going out there and helping your community people don’t care
51:38
what you know until they know that you care yes so when you’re out there and you care for your community they know that
51:44
you have your their best interests at heart with this it will open up so many more conversations to just coming out
51:49
there with with straight facts and statistics they’re like you don’t care you don’t you know we
51:54
have to show that we care but well i want to give you the floor as well and those of us you know
52:00
everybody has a voice everybody has something to say but putting that into action is the most important thing you can do
52:06
as a volunteer or involved with an organization so really like liz said you’ve got to get out
52:12
there you’ve got to get active you’ve got to make these connections you’ve got to reach out and really put yourself out
52:17
there because you’re not going to expand who you are and what you’re doing unless you get into an uncomfortable area and
52:24
start to expand yourself you know a tree in the in a biodome is going to fall over without some resistance and that’s
52:31
why the wind and these resistance and you pick up these skills and you become a more active organizer you become a
52:37
more active volunteer in in your area because you’ve you’re getting this experience uh
52:43
hands-on and you’ve got to get out there to get the experience and definitely want to encourage people to to just get
52:50
involved and you know be part of what’s happening in your community no matter what it is uh always you know try to get
52:56
involved and be active out there and that’s why you know liberty offense we want to continue working with
53:02
organizations we want to encourage organizations to reach out to us if they have initiative or nonpartisan
53:08
organization you know constitutional if it has to do with fraud waste and abuse exposing corruption it doesn’t matter
53:15
we’re going to try to work with you and whatever initiatives that you got and um you know we’re just going to try to grow
53:20
that and you could keep trying to push that and push the libertarian message and and all of these like-minded liberty
53:27
uh issues that’s it’s incredible what you guys are doing i i
53:32
i i’m so excited to see indiana be like the state right a lot of people talk
53:37
about like we already are we’re the we’re the best affiliate in the nation oh oh for sure but i want i want the
53:43
state itself to be like when people look at texas or you know or
53:48
florida like where everyone’s like damn indiana is stealing my population from south carolina california wherever
53:56
i i’m looking forward to seeing you guys as success on on cannabis as well as everything else that is uh that has to
54:02
do with liberty i know you guys are breaking down those barriers for people and changing lives and you guys are
54:07
giving us such inspiration that even people here in south carolina in the deep deep red state
54:13
that we can we can go out there we can petition we can make changes and i want to say just from brian scott lambrick in
54:20
the comment section saying door-to-door campaigning off of liz’s comment door-to-door campaigning and petitioning
54:25
for ballot access are two of the best ways to engage the community and be involved he loves it um
54:32
so and you’ll grow thick skin very quickly doing those things too yes
54:39
you will run into partisan people that uh you know republican or nothing or democrat or nothing you’ll run into
54:45
people sometimes when it comes to communication skills one of the first things you’ll
54:50
learn is if you leave with hi i’m a libertarian that shuts down the conversation immediately hey do you
54:55
support veterans now you’ve got them in the conversation they’re engaged and they want to support you so there’s so
55:01
many things that you guys can learn about that as you guys are building up those thick skins and uh don’t be afraid
55:06
to get out there um but i i want to say thank you guys so much for for coming on today you guys
55:13
incredibly busy as always but you guys took the time so i i can’t thank you enough for joining me well i just really
55:19
appreciate everything you’re doing jason like your podcast is great and you know you’re getting out there and and showing
55:24
people the way and you know this is outside of my comfort zone like i’m not a fan of the spotlight i’m not a
55:32
fan of podcasts like being on podcast i like being in the comments uh but you know i i’m putting myself out there and
55:39
i i hope other people do too we appreciate it yeah thank you thank you both and uh i’m
55:45
gonna wrap this up real quick and then i will see you guys here in a couple minutes
55:51
what a conversation that was i mean just liz saying she’s only been here for for
55:57
two years and just being a wealth of knowledge will of course being that principled activists using the
56:04
constitution using the infrastructure of everything out there it they are so incredibly different in the way that
56:10
they attacked activism but yet they both are incredibly effective that means that you guys as you guys are looking at your
56:17
yourself don’t worry about that imposter syndrome push that away you guys have a path forward to make a difference you
56:23
guys can make a difference in your communities just listen to to those two and you guys will see a
56:30
much brighter community as a result of just stepping out there picking up the shovel and start digging that ditch will
56:35
be dig dug up in no time join in with your communities find out other liberty organizations find your
56:42
libertarian party find activists in your area find those coalitions that align
56:47
with you on something and say i want to volunteer to help you guys on this issue i don’t want i don’t care about the rest
56:53
of the stuff leave me alone on that stuff i disagree there but on the stuff we agree on i’m willing to to to help
56:59
out there are so many ways that we can be activists that it doesn’t have to be for one group or another group but if
57:06
it’s on the issues if it’s on the policy we can make a difference and so i hope that you guys got that big takeaway from
57:11
today i love you guys all i appreciate you guys all but if you guys want to keep on tuning in for more muddy content of
57:17
course you can tune in this tuesday night you’ll see spike cohen and matt wright cover uh muddy waters of freedom
57:24
where they’re going to traverse the uh current events and wade through the muck
57:30
and trust me if you guys have not been seeing the current events from this week there is plenty of it i’m sure they’re
57:35
going to be talking about the ministry of truth if you guys uh understand that reference um but then wednesday night of
57:41
course spike cohen with my fellow americans and thursday night the writer’s block with matt wright it’s
57:48
gonna be great and then we’ll be back here friday 2 p.m eastern for another
57:53
wonderful episode of mr murica the beard of truth and with that guys i hope you guys have a great weekend and we’ll see
57:59
you guys next week take care be