Hello World

A friend on another network has been encouraging use of Steem, and seeing other Soc-nets crack down even further on free speech this week tells me that platforms like this will start to rise even further. So here I am with an intro post.

My name is Michael Maresco, and I am a freedom activist. Prior to 2007 I lived in Hawai'i and help my ohana push back against the state in a number of ways, including the initial clearing of this land in order to stop further development destroying a Hawaiian treasure - http://www.kaneiolouma.org/about/

In late 2006 I saw that Ron Paul was going to run for President and got fully on board. Seeing the need to get out of the echo chamber meet-ups and into the streets, I organized a walk around the island of Oahu, to spread the word of Paul's run -

By the fall of 2007 I had joined the growing online communities and had helped with the first money bomb by taking 600 name blocks of friends of Paul on MySpace and contacting them personally, asking them to donate $20 on the 5th of November.

Also at this time I was getting ready for the next stage of my activism; pedaling a bicycle across the country to raise awareness of Paul's run. I pedaled from the Santa Monica Pier to the Jefferson Memorial, tying together a string of activists who connected with each other by helping me, as well as raising awareness. The highlight of that trip was the day RP himself pedeled about 10 miles with me.

I then went to New Hampshire for the Live Free or Die effort, and continued on to SC and then Iowa, etc. Finally culminating in the "Walk for Freedom" across part of the midwest, from Green Bay to the GOP convention and "The Rally for The Republic" in Minnesota. Most of this has been documented in the film "For Liberty" How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1525356/

In the interim years between campaigns I focused on Criminal Justice reform issues, and staged my second bike ride. This time I pedaled from the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz, visiting Sheriffs offices in each county and talking to them / giving them books about the dangers of police militarization and the rising police state.

The second bike ride saw me awarded the Citizen Activist of the Year spot with OathKeepers...

After that I got involved in a couple local races, helping people into offices they still hold today, and finally started gearing up for the 2012 run.

For 2012 I helped start Liberty HQ in NYC which became a major driver on phone banking efforts. I spent most of that campaign helping manage the volunteer efforts from LibertyHQ, but did take trips often to NH to help door knock.

As I look for pics to add to this I realize I'd need to write a book to capture everything I was a part of. My profile pic is from the very first End The Fed event in NYC, etc. etc.

After 2012 I found myself in debt from 6 years of "volunteer" campaigning, and deciding paid political work was not my cup of tea and went back to my old career in Audio Visual. While I still do activism, (anti-BEARCAT petition drive in NH) https://patch.com/new-hampshire/concord-nh/antibearcat-activists-say-they-have-1000-petition-signatures , etc., most of my activism is pro-bono consulting and promotion.

That's me :) Glad to be here and hope to use more...