Dick Armey, the chairman of FreedomWorks, and Matt Kibbe, president, spoke at a luncheon at the Pacific Club on Thursday March 29, 2006, which was sponsored by FreedomWorks, Small Business Hawaii and the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. They were here to help establish a chapter of FreedomWorks here in Hawaii.

Richard Rowland, president of GRIH, opened the proceedings and introduced Matt Kibbe.

Kibbe briefly covered the history of FreedomWorks, which was founded in 1984 as the Citizens for a Sound Economy and in 2004, took its current name. He said that there were few footholds for serious academics whose main interest was in promoting freedom. The main ideas of academia typically ran counter to freedom.

Kibbe developed a white paper of 40 pages of ideas on promoting freedom that needed to be distilled to bumper sticker style slogans that communicated those ideas and inspired people to action. That was the original purpose of FreedomWorks.

Grassroots organizations are not new and were actually instrumental in the founding of this nation. Samuel Adams was an organizer who recruited people who wanted freedom on a grassroots level. The Boston Tea Party was no spontaneous outburst but was well planned, he said.

Somewhere along the line, those on the left stole these organizational tactics and actually became better organizers. This is what now needs to be reversed and is the purpose for FreedomWorks. The whole point of grassroots organizing is to get people to show up. The members of FreedomWorks are people who “show up.” Matt then introduced Dick Armey.

Armey began his talk with a brief account of his personal history, his study as an economist getting a PhD in economics and teaching the subject for 20 years. He eventually “burned out” on teaching and was looking for something else to do. This is when he decided to run for the House of Representatives. He was eventually chosen as Majority leader in the House.

Having a faith-based commitment to freedom influenced his decisions. This commitment particularly influenced him when decided whether or not he wanted to become Majority leader but was instrumental in the decision.

After Armey left the House he realized he couldn’t remain uninvolved. He wondered how to be more effective outside government than in it and sought an affiliation where this could be achieved. FreedomWorks was there and he thought that it would be a good place to go.

FreedomWorks currently has 800,000 members strong, made up of people who “show up” and are not just “people on a list.” The organization is working to have groups in each state that have affiliations with think-tanks like GRIH that fight for freedom on a state level. The freedom agenda consists of individual freedom, smaller government and lower taxes.

The main thrust of Armey’s discourse though was to encourage people to join the local chapter of FreedomWorks. It is an organization that teaches its members the value of showing up and the means to do so in a meaningful way. This is what FreedomWorks is all about and what it would do for Hawaii.

Freedomworks offers a way for average citizens to reclaim their voice in government. Citizens who are willing to write letters to the editor, call or write elected officials, recruit new FreedomWorks members, help get out the vote with rallies door to door literature drops or phone canvassing before Election Day, are encouraged to join.