Did you miss the February meeting?

🎯Digest version🎯

1. Politics is corrupt. Caucus is all about the back door deal.
   
2. We know the lay of the land, we will use FACL techniques to move forward.
3. Education is our focus. Two new pages to help- COVID-19 Mandates and Exemptions.
4. Join one of our committees here to perpetuate the mission.
5. Monthly meetings Via Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, register here.

Full details

No worries! We are glad you are here to get all the updates. Last night we had a great meeting and covered important steps for moving forward. The death of SB74 was certainly disappointing but it provided us with many important lessons.
This year was the first time a Medical Liberty Bill has made it to committee in Indiana. Unfortunately, we were unable to get it through to the full Senate but we are hopeful we will see continued progress next year. We have learned plenty of lessons thus far and will be better prepared for it!

For me, it was quite eye opening to watch the Legislative Session. I never realized the way that these things happened, and it was obvious that secrecy and “back door deals” reign supreme. I had heard of “caucus” but didn’t know exactly what that meant. The political process is supposed to be one of transparency but I have found it to be anything but. Now I know that caucus isn’t just a meeting and time to chat. The Caucus is where the fate of a bill is decided in PRIVATE. When it comes time for the House and Senate to cast their vote, there is rarely diversity of thought shown in the roll call vote held within public session.  

During session one might be able to observe the difference in Democratic and Republican party lines, but for the most part it seems like our entire Senate and House of Representatives end up voting in unison! Caucus is private and information is not to leave those meetings. All debates, serious discussion, and deals are done within Caucus. How are constituents supposed to know if their elected officials are representing them the way they were promised? We know that we must not allow this to continue. We must break the cycle and be sure that voting is the result of what constituents want, not what happens in Caucus.

This Session has taught us the lay of the land. Even without getting a vote we have been able to see who is dedicated to Medical Liberty and who doesn’t seem to be ready to live up to their commitments. We have been so impressed by the way that WE THE PEOPLE have stepped up into their role in politics. We MUST continue this. It is our responsibility to communicate effectively with our legislators before, during and after Legislative season.  We must also make sure that we hold elected officials accountable for the choices they make in representing us. However, accountability is difficult when decisions are made in secret and everyone votes the same in public.

One way we can learn how to combat this is through using techniques learned through The Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership. It is my personal goal to have 6-10 classes here in Indiana this year. We have already had one in January where around 30 activists were trained. February will offer another and a third this year in March. Hosting a class is easy and I would love to help you host one in your area! I am specifically looking for Western Indiana, Southern Indiana, and South of Indy! I will keep Indiana classes updated on our website so that you can keep an eye on new developments.  I look forward to seeing you at one of the classes!

Moving forward this year our mission must focus on educating the public about Religious Exemptions provided by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Federal Religious Exemptions were used by legislators as an excuse to not push forward SB74. Unfortunately, history has shown that these are not upheld by employers. We shared that information along with EEOC’s refusal to defend the Religious Exemption. We have a Religious Exemption on the site for vaccines and encourage people to use this.  We encourage people to report when employers deny this. We have developed a new page to report these instances. We will be able to use aggregate data from these submissions to fight our case again next year. Please make sure you are sharing with your friends.

We encourage you to network with your coworkers who do not want the vaccine, work together, and agree to stand together when employers threaten termination. We also want to make sure that EVERYONE in this situation contacts ICAN for help. In order to obtain this potential assistance, please email ICAN at freedom@icandecide.org and provide a copy of the written notice from your school or employer stating that the COVID-19 vaccine is required.

To move forward we have developed committees so that everyone who is able to get involved can find their place.  We have a new page for this as well. You will be able to see each of the committees and sign up for one here. The growth of our organization is dependent on these committees. I look forward to meeting with you!
Finally, we will be having monthly meetings on the second Wednesday of each month at 8:30pm EST, you can register here.

This blog was WAY longer than I had anticipated and I commend you if you have made it this far without nodding off to sleep 😉.  I hope you have a wonderful week and once again, thank you for all you do.
 
Ashley