Lights of Liberty

Supporting grassroots libertarian volunteers has always been a major focus of the Advocates. We've developed tools, techniques, and resources to help libertarians become ever more effective in communicating the ideas of freedom.

Now I'm proud to announce a new Advocates' program designed to recognize and reward outstanding libertarian volunteer work -- and to stimulate much more such valuable work. The program is called "Lights of Liberty."

"Lights of Liberty" will give awards and special gifts to libertarians who achieve *any one* of the following three libertarian outreach activities in 2000:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Have three letters that use the words "libertarian" or "libertarianism" published in magazines or newspapers. Letters to the editor are a GREAT way to greatly increase the public's positive encounters with the words "libertarian" and "libertarianism" and with our ideas. Each such letter published is like a free ad for our ideas in the most popular part of a newspaper. Equivalent ad space would cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Your letter can be on any topic, and published in any non-libertarian newspaper or magazine. You can use these words to describe a program, an organization, a candidate, a position on a political issue, etc. We want the word "libertarian" to become as familiar to Americans as the words "liberal" and "conservative" are. Letters can be a major tool for accomplishing this.
OPERATION POLITICALLY HOMELESS (OPH). Work at three OPH booths during 2000 and you qualify for our "Lights of Liberty" awards. OPH is a fantastic way to discover dozens or even hundreds of libertarian-leaning folks in your community. We hope to encourage many more OPH's -- and thus rapidly increase the size of the libertarian movement.
PUBLIC SPEAKING. Deliver three speeches to non-libertarian groups such as service clubs, high schools, colleges, political rallies, Toastmasters, and so on. Your speech, to qualify, should be on a libertarian-related topic and must use the words "libertarian" or "libertarianism" in a positive way. (You don't even have to write a speech, incidentally. If you prefer, you can use one of our audience-tested speech kits. See our online catalog -- http://www.reliablehost.com/self-gov/tapesets.html -- for more info on these.)

The Awards:

Upon accomplishing any of the three outreach activities above, contact the Advocates. In recognition of your outstanding work for liberty, the Advocates will do the following:

Mail you a handsome "Lights of Liberty" certificate suitable for framing.
Print your name with those of other award winners in our magazine The Libertarian Communicator.
Place your name in a place of honor at our Web page.
Send a press release to local, state, and national libertarian or other freedom-oriented organizations you're affiliated with, notifying them of your accomplishment. Not only is this recognition of your achievement, it will make others aware of the program and encourage more activism.
Give you a coupon worth 20% off your next order -- of any size -- from our catalog of books, tapes, and other libertarian items.
Give you a free year's subscription to The Libertarian Communicator.
Place your name in our "Lights of Liberty Lottery." At the end of the year we'll draw several names and give some great gifts to the winners.

And if you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

The actions "Lights of Liberty" recognizes are not beyond anyone's abilities, but they are important, valuable achievements. The awards are retroactive to January 1, 2000 -- so any work you've done from the first of the year counts.

Libertarians who write letters, do public speaking, spend time with an OPH booth, and do similar activities really are "Lights of Liberty." They are the backbone of our movement, and they deserve our thanks and our recognition. I'm proud the Advocates will be doing it.

Send submissions to lights@self-gov.org and let us know what you have done.

PS: Newsletter editors, officials of libertarian organizations, and other libertarian leaders: you can help us honor your local "lights of liberty" and encourage more local libertarian activity by publicizing this new awards program. Use the information above, or contact us for a more details.