On March 20th, the ten year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Washington State University YAL chapter hosted a showing of the HBO documentary "Wartorn." We handed out flyers to advertise the event during the two days prior to the event and on the event day before the showing began. About 1000 flyers were handed out. We also created a Facebook page for the event. Roughly 20 people attended the event, which was less than we expected.

From this we learned that any event should be planned well in advance in order to have more time to advertise. We cobbled this together at the last minute, which played a significant role in the low attendance.

Below is featured an excerpt from HBO's summary of the documentary. It is a very good combat PTSD documentary. We strongly recommend it, and the audience enjoyed it!

The documentary shares stories through soldiers’ revealing letters and journals; photographs and combat footage; first-person interviews with veterans of WWII (who are speaking about their PTSD for the first time), the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom; and interviews with family members of soldiers with PTSD. Also included are insightful conversations between Gandolfini and top U.S. military personnel (General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, and General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army), enlisted men in Iraq, and medical experts working at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Gen. Chiarelli, who is working to reduce the rising suicide rate in the Army comments, “You’re fighting a culture that doesn’t believe that injuries you can’t see can be as serious as injuries that you can see.”

I created this two-page Microsoft Word document as a tool to help with recruitment at our school and I think it might be helpful to you as well. 

It lists current House members and Senators who oppose indefinite detention, the PATRIOT Act, SOPA, and TARP.  In addition, all of these members of Congress support withdrawing from Afghanistan. While YAL as an organization doesn't endorse candidates for office, and individual YAL members may have mixed views about some people on the list, I think most of us endorse the policies listed underneath each person.

What is unique about this list is that it includes Democrats Ron Wyden and Maria Cantwell and Independent Bernie Sanders (all three of whom voted against TARP under Obama and Bush). Including these liberal Congressional members in the list (despite some of their economic views being contrary to ours) helps nullify the perception of some potential recruits that YAL is a branch of the Republican Party.  I find that it also helps show bipartisan support on these principles which our organization values.

Of course, many more positions can be added that are not listed in this document (such as support for auditing/ending the Federal Reserve) but I found this list to be a good introduction, which allows me to talk about other positions based on an individual's personal stances, for our group's principles.

File Attachments
LibertyPoliticans.doc	1.14 MB

On Wednesday April 10, thanks to the generous support from Leon Drolet, GlockStore.com, and April Innovative Activism funds, the Young Americans for Liberty Chapter at the University of Michigan were able to host renowned gun rights spokesman John Lott. Alongside, John Lott's presentation, there was also a free raffle to anyone who attended the event for a $500 voucher to purchase anything of their choice from GlockStore.com. Glock Store generously provided us with the donation for the event.

In preparation for the event, YAL at the University of Michigan posted and handed out flyers profusely before the event. Our chapter also sent our Vice President Derek Magill on a local radio show, Clarkscast, in order to promote the event. Furthermore, we teamed up with YAL's sister organization, Campaign for Liberty, who agreed to cosponsor the event and promote it to its members across the state of Michigan.

John Lott's presentation was entitled, "More Guns, Less Crime" after his bestselling novel. In the presentation, Dr. Lott discussed the argument that is often made in regards to gun control that it would make our streets safer. He then set out on debunking the argument, showing real world examples from Chicago to the United Kingdom. Over the hour and half long presentation he poured over countless studies and examples that showed giving the average individual easy access to guns would indeed reduce the overall violence and crime rate in a society.The event was a huge success, with a head count at 205 people in attendance!