Who we are

We are a proud group of informally affiliated individuals who supported President Obama during his candidacy in large part because of his call for hope and a new kind of politics.

See discussions in the "Good effort but" and "Much impressed by the revisions" threads below.

Vision Statement

Our vision is one of a United States that is both free and secure. We see a United States in which the ordinary citizen is afraid neither of the government, despite its ability to monitor internal affairs responsibly, nor of his or her neighbors—an America in which every citizen understands that in all just wars, people are required to sacrifice some things, but they are never required to sacrifice their natural rights, protected—not given—by the Constitution of the United States of America. Our view is of a United States in which citizen and government vigilance does not involve destroying basic Constitutional protections.

Mission Statement

Our ultimate mission is to restore the fundamental Constitutional basis to United States national security laws, so that the inherent liberties of citizens are protected from government intrusion—for example, unregulated surveillance, improper invasion of personal privacy, and unacceptable limits to freedom of expression—as intended by the Bill of Rights.

Questions: is it too specific to focus only on national security issues? is there a way to ground our mission emotionally as well as legally?

Mark's Answer 2/28- I think we should focus on national security issues. We might clarify by adding specifics like "domestic surveillance, privacy, freedom of expression ... " But if we disconnect from national security we get into nirvana, like world peace or the literally hundreds of laws that the founders might find Constitutionally absurd, but which do not impact core 1st/4th Amendment rights. Also, we don't want to get in to the thicket of the Constitutionality of this-or-that wartime power of the president.

Further, once the Mission statement settles down, we need to develop an "issue tree" of which sub-issues like privacy or stopping profiling go with which vision/mission element, so that we can then develop Goals/Objectives and then lastly Tasks/Actions/Milestones.

A word about mission statements, vision statements, and so forth

All organizations have a fundamental set of principles under which they operate. A mission statement is essential. The others may include a vision statement, a stated goal or set of goals, a slate of concrete objectives, an ethics statement, operating policies, and so on. I often see these mislabeled or even misused within smaller organizations that have not been able to hire a communications expert to help them sort through these types of things. So, here are some simple definitions to help us get started:

A vision statement is the state of the world when the mission has been accomplished. A vision statement, above all, must inspire. The conclusion of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech ("... when all God's children, black boys and white boys, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we're free at last.") is a vision statement. A vision statement answers the metaphorical question "what would the world be like when your organization is no longer needed."

A mission statement is what the organization seeks to achieve. It is not focused on activity, which is the means to an end. Rather, it is focused on the ultimate tangible purpose of the organization (For Example, everyone knows this famous mission statement, "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before").

A slate of objectives/goals is a checklist of specific actions and milestones required en route to accomplishment of the mission. (For example, if our mission is to restore Constitutional principles to American law, one objective would certainly be to revamp the Patriot Act to adhere to the Fourth Amendment.)

We want our mission and vision statements to have longevity. This will provide strength and direction to the organization when facing difficult and long-term challenges. Organizations often refer back to their mission again and again during the decision-making process of the first few years, using it as a guiding principle. So, this is something we want to get right, and it is usually one of the hardest things for an organization to develop and agree upon.

Vision/Mission Guides