<div>Wes. There are fantastic people in</div><div>Florida.</div><div><br></div><div>But this seems to give all the power to a few bullies and no succor to their victims who feel alone. And bullies love that.</div><div><br></div><div>Are they not our brethren?</div><div><br></div><div>ive been gaslighted. And I know more harm comes from the silence of people who know what is happening. We must not treat the bullieD as expendable in order to not give attention to the bullies. We would not want that if it were us.</div><div><br></div><div>-Caryn Ann</div><div><br></div><div>-Caryn Ann </div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 11:56 AM Wes Benedict <<a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">The amount of great things happening with Libertarians is too long to<br>
list here.<br>
<br>
Just this afternoon the Vice Chair from Florida dropped by after having<br>
attended the OAI event yesterday.<br>
<br>
I was also very pleased to see former national chair, and one of our<br>
newest elected Libertarians, Jim T. attend the OAI event and visit the<br>
office.<br>
<br>
One of our newest staff members has been doing a fantastic job--Jess<br>
from Florida.<br>
<br>
I could sit here all day and write about 50 different exciting things<br>
happening in Florida, but obviously I don't want to take the time to do<br>
that right now.<br>
<br>
Spending lots of time focusing on a few bad things just gives oxygen to<br>
the bad elements. It's better not to even mention them.<br>
<br>
I'm also sometimes concerned that attacking some people teetering<br>
between libertarianism and other ideologies, may have the effect of<br>
alienating them and pushing them further away from embracing that which<br>
is good, and rejecting that which is bad.<br>
<br>
I was once a pro-war, pro-surveillance, pro-police state,<br>
anti-immigration, bad guy. Early in my transition to becoming a<br>
libertarian, had I interacted with more mean nitpicking purist<br>
libertarian activists (not all purists are mean nitpickers by the way),<br>
or had I interacted with more mean nitpicking moderate libertarian<br>
activists (not all moderates are mean nitpickers by the way) I might<br>
have backed away from the Libertarian Party and re-embraced the<br>
Republican Party along with all of its bad policies--I'm often a team<br>
player.<br>
<br>
Let's be nice to each other. When one of our activists falls short,<br>
let's not rush to pile on. Let our first instinct be to rally around<br>
them and support them. Let our second instinct be to rally around them<br>
and support them again. Let our third instinct be to rally around them<br>
and support them again. And let our fourth instinct be to ignore them.<br>
<br>
There was once a guy seeking the Libertarian nomination for a high<br>
office in Texas. He would have been incredibly embarrassing and damaging<br>
to our brand if he had gotten a lot of publicity. I never publicized the<br>
person. Almost nobody ever found out about him. I treated his<br>
application for nomination equally to others--it was accepted as was<br>
supposed to be and processed. He didn't show up to the convention. He<br>
didn't get nominated. His name never reached the news or the email<br>
groups. I did not go on a bunch of email groups and start writing about<br>
how this guy was going to embarrass us if others found out about him. I<br>
shall not say his name here either.<br>
<br>
Be advised I'm not always the best example of what I'd like to see more of.<br>
<br>
--<br>
Wes Benedict, Executive Director<br>
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.<br>
<a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=1444+Duke+St.,+Alexandria,+VA+22314&entry=gmail&source=g">1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314</a><br>
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, <a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a><br>
<a href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational<br>
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a href="http://lp.org/membership" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div></div><div dir="ltr">-- <br></div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><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 href="mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org" target="_blank">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">Chair, LP Historical Preservation Committee</span><br></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">A haiku to the Statement of Principles:</span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><i>We defend your rights</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><i>And oppose the use of force</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><i>Taxation is theft</i></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>