The greatest phenomenon surrounding Ron Paul's candidacy for the GOP presidential ticket is us. It is abundantly clear he has something going for him that money cannot buy. No doubt the greatest benefit Ron Paul will receive during his campaign will be the free assistance supporters like you and me will give him. If the dollar value of this in terms of time and materials people are donating were to be summated he would be well into the tens of millions.
The powerful message of freedom is very unifying and it impels us to action. Because this is all spontaneous and voluntary, high levels of creativity foster great innovation in many areas of expression and outreach. My hope in writing this open letter is to applaud all that is being done and to give suggestions that will increase the quality and effectiveness of our efforts.
When making comments on web-sites, blogs, etc. increasing the signal to noise ratio would do a lot to propel the Ron Paul campaign forward. Staying on-topic and relevant or not posting anything would put an end to the "spammers" dismissal we currently suffer. Haughty and "your stupid if you don't support Ron Paul" tones in comments are at best unhelpful.
Despite the good many of us do, some supporters' behavior is currently the strongest point to discredit Ron Paul. While we need to be prepared to see fake Ron Paul supporters trying to give him a black-eye from the inside by being rude and insolent, we should make sure we keep the high ground always and courteously dismiss the fakes if they rear up.
Very intelligent and thoughtful remarks to people's articles are some of the greatest tools to get people to open their mind and give Ron Paul sincere consideration. I generally enjoy the comments more than the articles. It’s how a person can see the character and spirit of the supporters and know their cause is real.
I remember on YouTube.com the "President of Hip Hop" came out with an initially negative depiction of Ron Paul as a racist. To his credit he said he wasn't concluding his opinion but that he encouraged people to look deeper. There were many who made comments thanking him for helping to expose information about Ron Paul and encouraged him to continue to look for positive aspects of Ron Paul's position on racism. A few weeks later he came back and said he decided Ron Paul is definitely not racist and that he deserves much more consideration. This could have just as easily gone the other way. Over zealous Ron Paul supporters could have hastily disparaged and insulted the "President of Hip Hop" and made an enemy out of him. This didn't happen and now we have a lot more friends.
This much I know, the issue here is Freedom. There is no such thing as a free republic that will last very long unless it is a republic of moral (and respectful) people. Not only do we need to get behind Ron Paul and rally for his support, but we each need to look at our own personal lives and see where we can become better people as individuals. There is nothing Ron Paul or the government can do to make us better people. That is our part of the deal and as we succeed on this front we will propel the cause of Freedom ahead. Neither of us can fight the freedom battle all on our own. We need Ron Paul and Ron Paul needs us.
For many decades the enemy of Freedom has been fomenting all kinds of perversions and divisions into our society to drive us apart and weaken us. We need to acknowledge this and realize much of what divides us stems from this artificial corruption of our culture. The time has come to be people worthy of individual freedom and there is no army or mob that can hold the powers of Heaven at bay from wiping away our dividers and oppressors, just as sunlight wipes away the darkness before it.
While I'm on a roll, I urge everyone making signs to avoid profanity and hateful slogans. I recently watched a video of Ron Paul in the parking lot prior to the June 30th rally and there was a very distasteful sign regarding President Bush. It looked so out of place next to a true statesman and founding father figure as Ron Paul. The message of Freedom and its positivism is what will build momentum. Presenting increased beams of light coming from our eyes is much preferable to the vitriol of hatred and profanity towards others. Freedom with respect needs to be the focus to keep the momentum going.
The new Peace and Freedom movement needs to be very careful to avoid internal corruptors. During the War in Vietnam the peace movement started out as a very honorable effort to put an end to a war no more sensible than the current war in Iraq. However, this movement was corrupted by free sex (make love not war), drugs and dehumanizing music becoming rampant among the groups. This was not a natural progressive development but instead it was deliberately infected with a new sub-culture to further erode the moral fabric of our nation and neuter the movement’s message. Let’s do our best to avoid having our movement derailed this time around.
Our revolution for freedom must have an accompanying revival of respect and dignity for ourselves and others in order to break through the chains that bind us down. We must be perpetually vigilant to safeguard the principles of Freedom. In short, if we love Ron Paul and what he stands for, we help him best by adopting his principles and emulating his example.
Kind regards,
Jason L Wharton
