<div dir="ltr">Mike, thank you for writing. As your Regional Representative I am absolutely committed to transparency and will keep my campaign promise to fight for it. I urge my fellow Regional Representatives to be in touch with grass roots Party members. I am, and do not find that they support opacity. <div><br></div><div>cc: LNC Business List<br><div><br></div><div>-- <br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666"><b>In Liberty,</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666"><b>Caryn Ann Harlos</b></font></div><div><font size="1">Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee </font><span style="font-size:x-small">(Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - <a>Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Communications Director, <a href="http://www.lpcolorado.org/" target="_blank">Libertarian Party of Colorado</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Colorado State Coordinator, <a href="http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/" target="_blank">Libertarian Party Radical Caucus</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span></span><div><br></div><div><br><br>On Sunday, August 14, 2016, Starchild <<a href="mailto:sfdreamer@earthlink.net" target="_blank">sfdreamer@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">Hi Mike,<div><br></div><div><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Thank you for your passionate support for Libertarian Party leadership transparency! You make excellent points, and I sure wish we did have a committee filled by representatives for whom all this was a no-brainer. The fact that we as a party are still prone to elevating people based on their having some degree of fame, establishment credentials or deep pockets rather than on their commitment to and ability to communicate libertarian ideas and positions, <b><i>is</i></b> a weakness, although our opponents in the already-fatally-compromised cartel parties may not necessarily recognize it as such. If the LP survives over time as a sustainably libertarian organization, it will be because of the efforts of committed young activists like yourself. Thanks again for keeping it real!</div><div><br></div><div>Love & Liberty,</div><div> ((( starchild )))</div><div>At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee</div><div> (415) 625-FREE</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Aug 13, 2016, at 3:56 PM, Mike Shipley wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(0,0,0)">I am a Life Member of the LP and an extremely active participant, working many hours every single day for the cause of liberty in our lifetimes and I saw the recent dialogue among the sitting LNC regarding the transparency of party activities.<div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5">I hate to point out the obvious, but it will never be a secret that the LP supports its candidates in competitive races, nor that the opposition is doing the same. The names of the candidates are not only being publicized widely by their campaigns, for obvious reasons, but their existence is already transparent through the electoral process since public statements of organization and campaign financing are filed in their jurisdictions, nearly all of whom use digital technology to make them available online.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5">How is it possible that a party which claims to stand for good government would seek to be less transparent than the corrupt bureaucracy it seeks to dismantle?</span></div><div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5">In related news of the obvious, if the opposition is looking for a weakness of ours to exploit, they need look no further than the public archives of CSPAN, where there is a transparent record of a man who had not even read our platform being nominated for the second highest office in the land. There is no need to outmaneuver us by spying on a subcommittee when the entire world already knows an old party member can gain access to our ticket by paying $25 and citing their establishment connections as a qualifier.</span></div><div><br></div><div>By thinking its subcommittees are so skilled at intrigue that opacity can shield them from a corrupt political establishment that has built an empire it maintains by coopting peoples' movements, opponents of transparency show themselves to be so incredibly naive as not to be trusted one bit further with strategic decisions. And they also show themselves unworthy to lead a free people.</div><div><br></div><div>I urge the LNC to preserve the existing transparency and expand it, confident in the understanding that secrecy can never deliver on its promised benefits. It cannot prevent competitive races from being competitive, the only thing prevents is members of this party from learning what is being done in our name. </div><div><br></div><div>Libertarian leadership must exemplify the principles we intend to bring to government or we cannot hope to implement them in office. <span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:1.5">Thank you for your time and service.</span></div><div><div><div><div><div><br></div><div><div>--</div><div>Mike Shipley</div><div>Phoenix, AZ</div><div><br></div><div>"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div>
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