by Tim Danahey, Coffee Party USA Director of Public and Member Relations
The Coffee Party USA has started to sell t-shirts with messages conducive to our principles and objectives. Of course, we do this to help raise money for the Coffee Party USA. No doubt. Let's be straightforward about that. However, the messages we rotate onto the shirts are important and it can be explained a couple ways.
First, I'll relate a personal story. I have a t-shirt and a hoodie with “Bethlehem Steel” and their logo. Bear in mind that Bethlehem Steel went out of business over thirty years ago but it still represents the industrial glory of American manufacturing that once existed and needs to return. Twice I've been in Costco and people have come up to me and hugged me because they know the message I'm conveying. I've been walking on a local street and a couple came up to me, shook my hand, and thanked me for wearing the logo. They get it and appreciate me wearing it. The t-shirt and logo and sparked numerous conversations about jobs, American industrial policy, outsourcing, and corporate greed. The shirt and t-shirt are powerful tools for raising public awareness.
The Coffee Party USA just started offering its first t-shirt (you can order it online via our website and this newsletter). The first t-shirt has a “No TPP” message. It's simple, clean, attractive, and bipartisan. We selected that message because we need to raise public awareness about the TPP because, believe it or not, many people think it's already passed or have absolutely no awareness about the issue. When I wear my Bethlehem Steel t-shirt at Home Depot and people thank me for keep the message alive, it inevitably leads to a conversation about the TPP and their comment, “You gotta be kidding me. It's like NAFTA only bigger.” Sadly, it is and it took a t-shirt to make them aware and urge them to contact their Congressman.
The “No TPP” shirt is available now. I encourage you too order it, wear it, and be prepared for quality teaching conversations. Even though we think it is a big issue, most Americans are totally unaware. They only understand it in the context of jobs, outsourcing, and NAFTA. The Big Media will not tell us what's in the TPP and we are left to advertise by wearing the shirts.
More Coffee Party USA shirts are coming. We hope to add a message every month and each message will – we hope – will be a message you'll be proud to wear. We even made sure the message is on the back of the shirt so people can read it without appearing to stare at you. Preliminarily, next month's t-shirt will have the message:
“PATRIOTISM IS MORE THAN A FLAG
It's Listening
It's Learning
It's Discussing
It's Voting
BE A PATRIOT. GET INVOLVED”
We will, naturally, add a small Coffee Party USA logo. It is non-partisan and we hope it will encourage all people to get involved with our government. We agree with Thomas Paine when he said, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
We also believe James Madison when he said, “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” The t-shirt is a new way to get the message out to more people. Please buy one and wear it proudly.