Tax Day Tea Party - in San Francisco!

Good news: there will now be a Tax Day Tea Party in San Francisco on April 15 - and as this is more convenient for our Bay Area based members, we will plan to focus our participation at that event. (There are a few people who will still go to Sacramento, and we will coordinate posters, messages etc. between both groups.)

Here are the preliminary details for the San Francisco event, as provided by the organizer:

Meet at Civic Center Park in SF and march around Pelosi's office, City Hall and possibly S. Ct and then back to park; 11 am until 1 pm.

I will update this post with more details as they become available. The organizer mentioned that about 20 groups of people have already said they'd participate, even though the event hasn't received a lot of publicity yet, so hopefully there will be a good presence.

To help us figure out how many posters/placards to prepare, please let us know by April 3 whether you can make it, which location (SF or SAC), and if you need transportation or can provide it (esp. for the SAC contingent.) Our e-mail is goldengatobjectivists at gmail.com. 

Feel free to forward this info to anyone you know who might participate, Objectivist or not: the more the better!

Northern California Tea Party - April 15th

As you may be aware, there is a movement afoot to organize 'Tea Parties' - in honor of the Boston Tea Party - to protest the socialist, big-government, collectivist/altruist agenda being put forth in Washington.

The next tea party close to us is planned for April 15th in Sacramento, from 12 noon - 3 pm. We are planning to participate with a GGO presence, and would like for more people to join the cause.

Here is a link to the organizing group with more details: http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/california

You'll need to get on Facebook to be able to communicate with them directly - the site above provides a link to the Facebook page.

Several of us have discussed how we can best participate. We would like to:

• Show up with a meaningful group - at least a dozen or so people, between GGO and the local campus groups
• Provide a clear message - with posters highlighting the ethical question, and drawing attention to Ayn Rand and ARI: consistent content, and lay-out (we could have a get-together to jointly make the posters prior to the event)
• Get some media attention to the Objectivist, principled opposition as an alternative to the ad-hoc, economics-only perspective of most conservatives

If you are interested in participating, please e-mail us at goldengateobjectivists at gmail.com. Please provide your name, phone number, e-mail, whether you will be going to Sacramento and/or whether you can help with posters a week or so prior, whether you are driving and have space to take others (from where?) or whether you are looking for a ride (from where?) We will put together a list, and keep everybody who signs up posted via e-mail, in addition to posting on this blog.

We can do our final coordination - including sharing posters and meet-up info - on our regular meeting on April 11th - so plan to join us for that.

GGO - becoming active again

Those of you who have been involved with GGO in the past know that the group has been dormant for the past 18 months or so. The key organizers were all busy with their 'other lives' - completing business projects and moves, starting new careers, and founding new families.

With some of these items under control, and with the urgency and motivation of taking action against the horrible decisions coming out of Washington these days, we are now resurrecting the group. We are:

• Transferring the online presence to Blogger (this site) to make posting easier and more timely
• Starting a regular, bi-monthly (maybe monthly at some point) standing meetings, to make it easier for people to plan to participate
• Moving the e-mail to gmail - to bring all of our online presence under one roof (web site, online discussion group, and e-mail contact)
• Looking for input, thoughts and volunteers to take on organizing roles to make the group be more real.

We would like to see you at one of the next meetings - the first one will be on April 11th at 10 am, at Doyle Street Cafe in Emeryville (www.doylestreetcafe.com, they have a back room we can use). We plan to hold regular bi-monthly meetings at the same location & time, every 2nd Saturday of even months. We will plan other, ad-hoc meetings as well - see other post on the Sacramento Tea Party as an example. If enough people are interested, we can also plan another series of bi-monthly meetings for early Sunday dinners at some convenient location for odd-numbered months. (Suggestions for locations are welcome - should be easy to reach via car, central Bay Area location, and ideally easy by public transport, too, with a private room if we have enough people.)

If you want to be notified of activities, please ensure we have your e-mail address - e-mail us at goldengateobjectivists at gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you soon - and to working together to get an Objectivist voice heard in the Bay Area and Northern California.

The Time is Right for Local Intellectual Activism

Golden Gate Objectivists was started in 2006 because we believe the time is right to take Objectivist intellectual activism to local communities. It has been dormant for the past year or so, due to the organizers being busy with their lives – starting families, completing educations, and operating and growing businesses. We are now in the process of restarting the group, and look forward to reconnecting with existing contacts, and building more.

The statement below is taken from the original group site – www.goldengateobjectivists.com - which is no longer in operation, but to which we link here for a history.

We believe that this type of intellectual activism is even more relevant now, as the we face the largest attack by the altruist/collectivists in a long time from the new Obama administration. We hope that with GGO, we can energize each other and facilitate activism, which will help us make an impact and change the direction of our country before the push towards socialism has gone too far to be reversed.

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Over the past two decades, through the efforts of ARI and others, Objectivism has made great strides towards becoming a cultural force. University departments are headed by Objectivists, a growing cadre of young professional intellectuals are entering the market, and the mass media are taking note – inviting ARI speakers to speak on key topics on national TV and publishing OpEd pieces in record numbers.

In parallel, many Objectivists who are not professional intellectuals – doctors, lawyers, business people – have gained a strong education in Objectivist ideas through campus clubs, summer conferences, ARI online lectures and taped lectures sold through the Ayn Rand Bookstore.

Around us, many important issues need to be addressed – from how to combat terrorism to dealing with social security, from improving education to standing up for free speech in the face of Islamo-Fascist intimidation. The Left is dying as a compelling moral force, offering nothing but short–range pragmatism. The Right is picking up strength almost by default – as the only mass movement offering a moral perspective on critical decisions we need to make as individuals and as a country.

We believe that many honest people outside of Objectivism are struggleing to find compelling, non-religious, moral answers to guide their lives. Objectivism is ideally positioned to fill this intellectual vacuum.

In this context, GGO's aim is to bring the Objectivism message to our local communities. We believe we can achieve multiple goals by organizing an outreach–focused community group:

· Engage honest local non-Objectivists in discussions about Objectivist ideas.

· Leverage local knowledge and exposure to have Objectivist intellectuals speak before local groups.

· Gain exposure in local media, including newspapers, TV and online forums, by being local advocates on national topics and becoming involved in local topics with philosophical aspects.

· Re-engage and provide a forum for Objectivists who are passionate about spreading Ayn Rand's ideas but are unable to pursue intellectual activism as a full–time career.

· Serve as a catalyst and forum for local Objectivists to educate themselves in Objectivism and to socialize with like–minded people.

· Broaden the support for ARI – by reactivating 'inactive' Objectivists and by exposing financially qualified, honest non–Objectivists to the right ideas and to ARI speakers.

As this list of goals illustrates, GGO aims to go beyond the 'traditional' community group activities of discussion groups and social events. We believe that a clear, long–range purpose of promoting Objectivism in our local area will help keep participants excited and engaged, whether or not they become friends and want to spend social time together.

We believe we need a core group of 4–10 people in the San Francisco Bay Area willing to co–lead this effort – and that there should to be a dozen or more people willing to contribute their specific skills and interests.

Golden Gate Objectivists - Statement of purpose

Golden  Gate Objectivists (GGO) is an informal association of individuals joining together to promote Objectivist ideas in our local community. Our goals include:

1. Spreading Objectivist ideas locally through outreach activities, for example:

• Promoting the invitation of Objectivist intellectuals to speak at public forums in the local area - from open-minded political organizations to local fund-raising events based on social networking, to other public speaking opportunities
• Piggy-back on other public events to make Objectivist voices heard - e.g., through participation at political events, protest...
• Organizing systematic Letter-to-the-Editor campaigns to get our voices heard in local media - newspapers, radio, online
• Becoming known to local media as 'go-to' people on specific topics of interest to, and in the expertise of, group participants
• Selectively advocate an Objectivist perspective on local community issues through ad-hoc activism

2. Increasing the support by San Francisco Bay Area Objectivists, Ayn Rand fans and sympathizers for the Ayn Rand Institute - through financial and intellectual means

3. Creating a forum for local Objectivists to connect with each other - for discussions of Objectivism, presentations and intellectual learning as well as for mutual support and socializing