2024 President's Message & 2023 Annual Report

2024 Blessings of Liberty - Presidents Message

Greetings All,

While we can never predict what will happen in the coming year we are certain that the government overreach will continue and we must stand strong against these administrative headwinds that threaten our freedom and our liberty. It is an election year filled with promise of positive change and working together we can have a significant impact this year.

We are all Americans and our legacy of overcoming evil with good is the foundation and our legacy from which we stand.  We stand on the rock solid principles of the Judeo-Christian Ethic.  We stand on the principles of the founding documents and our constitution which is the law of our land. 
Together we stand and testify to these simple truths and testify to the world our commitment to each other and to our neighbors to restore our local communities and secure the blessings of liberty. Our strategy pursuing Truth, Trust and Transparency has reaped great results.

It is important to communicate what we have accomplished in 2023. I submit this report for your perusal so you know what your support and our collective efforts have achieved. We will stand strong on our track record as we stand together in 2024 to achieve even. We are always looking to grow our organization as we make steady progress. We Need You.

Local action will have national impact and we are committed to bottom up change.  Bottom up change is grass roots and community focused. Without the support and commitment from people like you in our local community we cannot achieve these great results.

Thanks for all of your support. Without you we will not make a difference. With you we can make a tremendous difference in our local community.  We stood together in 2023 and made a difference through simple, thoughtful, positive action.

Engagement builds on the promise of Hope. Join us on this adventure as we work to restore that which has been degraded. Join us in our shared desire to thrive again in the future with Faith, Family and Freedom as our guiding principles.

Thank you,

Edward L McKervey - President of Blessings of Liberty

2023 Blessings of Liberty
President's Report Annual Update

Summary of Accomplishments 2023:

1.    Successful design and launch of American Conservatory
2.    Expansion of our media presence in the Porterville Recorder
3.    Launch of our Ministerial Alliance bringing faith leaders together
4.    Leading role in addressing Homelessness through “Be The Change”
5.    Brought a new community Thanksgiving event partnered with V.A.D.S.
6.    Lead the conversation on Parental Rights Proclamation in Porterville
       I.    Signed by two city councilmen
7.    Finished the year with a Parental Rights Proclamation in our County
       I.    All five county supervisors signed and supported this important proclamation for parents and families.
       II.    The proclamation is formally known as “Parental Appreciation Month” dedicating the month of November to Family.

Summary of Actions Carrying Into 2024:

1.    Medical Freedom Proclamation matriculating through Porterville City Council.  This is driving a healthy discussion about learning from our past mistakes and making sure churches and small businesses treated fairly in the future not just big corporations. 
2.    A legal case that Blessings of Liberty has pledged support for, related to medical privacy, was started in 2021 and was recently denied appeal in the California State Supreme Court.  Undaunted- there are ongoing efforts to appeal to the US Supreme Court in 2024.  It is a David and Goliath story and we are committed to providing our resources to fighting the good fight for medical privacy everywhere.
3.    Continue to provide a forum of civic thought to positively improve a better government of We The People.

2024 Goals Taking Shape:

•    Continue to Grow Organization & Outreach through local engagement.
•    Continue to work to educate on local issues to support local action
•    Continue to support local candidates working for positive local change 
•    Continue to ameliorate the homelessness problem caring for people and cleaning up the river bed while protecting the Tule River Parkway.
•    Addressing root causes of homelessness and caring for the people remains one of our highest priorities to help people and to improve safety in our city.
•    Continue to positively influence the downtown areas, public spaces and parks in collaboration with our city officials and local businesses.

In 2023 we set out to expand and build on our 2022 successes. Our positive impact led us to create a sister organization focused on restoring or conserving American Values. American Conservatory 501C3 was created as a result of our 2022 trajectory and necessary expansion in 2023 and beyond.
We recognized many local charitable non-profits were damaged in the pandemic overreach.  The Goals of Restoring American Values are reflected in both Organizations and complement each other with different but similar overarching objectives to restore community spirit and trust that was severely damaged in our local communities.

Our content committee chair became a contributing columnist for the Porterville Recorder in early 2023 adding the Porterville Post publications in the summer of 2023.  Our media presence was well received, and some columns are also on our website.
Our content committee also produced several short video segments called Check Your Premises in Response to the Flood Emergency and the water issues in California.   Content has been developed as an educational resource contributing to our Truth, Trust & Transparency Goals.

We launched a Ministerial Alliance project with an objective to facilitate the alignment of the faith community that was greatly divided by our culture and government overreach policies during the lockdowns. 
The Ministerial Alliance lays a fresh foundation on scripture of things our faith community can align, emphasizing unity around those fundamental truths. The project makes clear that the dogma that usually divides through denominations separates us and would not be the focus of this alliance. Our mission is to create a space connecting spiritual leaders.

In God We Trust is already in Porterville and now we have it in county chambers thanks to Dennis Townsend and his leadership.  E Pluribus Unum was also added to the county chambers which is a very nice addition.  The 2024 Mission will be about Restoring Prayer, Parental Rights, In God We Trust and principles of Medical Freedom & Medical Privacy throughout the county.

Blessings of Liberty provided funding, supplies and resources for “Be the Change” project.
In the lead up to the 2023 Flood Blessings has been involved directly in making a positive impact on the Homeless problem in the Porterville area.  Be the change made real impact and inspired City Council action to provide dumpsters in key areas to mitigate the problems of waste and trash disposal. Blessings and other likeminded community organizations are having a positive impact cleaning up areas of Porterville which are neglected with trash.

Blessings of Liberty created, developed, and sponsored a Parental Rights project in support of local families. A Community that protects its children has a bright future. We distributed 6,000 inserts in the Porterville Recorder to kick off the campaign.  
Protecting parent’s rights is also protecting children's rights in fundamental support of family. This project is helping us reach our Faith, Family and Freedom goals, uniting parents and supporting family values.   The City of Porterville engaged the Parental Rights proclamation in August 2023, and it was signed by two sitting City Council members. The proclamation spawned several newspaper articles highlighting parental rights. This push to support parents exposed some hostile policies in our city standing against Porterville families and fundamental basic human rights.

We shared the Parental Rights Proclamation with several councils throughout the county and to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.  Much to our delight and answered prayers the Tulare County Supervisors took this up on 11-28-2023 and through unanimous approval, consent and support all 5 of our County Supervisors signed a version of the original proclamation.  

On November 28th we were presented with a signed version of our Parental Rights proclamation which included declaring November as Parental Appreciation Month.  This was signed by all five county supervisors. Here is a picture of the group receiving the official proclamation:

There is also a video of the presentation from that county meeting along with a 5 min speech about Blessings of Liberty and thanking the county Supervisors for their leadership. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xXFzn69ZLI&t=334s

See news articles and videos on this subject for our statements and appreciation for standing up for Parental Rights. We believe all of our cities, counties and beyond should follow suit and stand for the families through this Parental Rights proclamation.

THANKSGIVING A DISTINCTLY AMERICAN HOLIDAY

Original writings by our founders make this plain in the establishment of America.  These important writings were guardrails in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the establishment of the Constitution in 1789.  The establishment of the Constitution was followed by a Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation (Urged By congress) in 1789 to give thanks to Almighty God for the divine providence of winning the Revolutionary war and establishing America. See the actual proclamation for details.

We played several key roles in 2023 at Thanksgiving supporting Valley Adult Day Services (V.A.D.S) and American Conservatory.  Through the collective efforts of our teams and faith partners we were able to feed more than 400 people a warm, and tasty, Thanksgiving meal.  Our partnership with V.A.D.S. helped to restore confidence in their work through outreach helping to restore the Blessings of Liberty that were lost in the lockdowns.

This helped the community rally around this great service organization that provides affordable respite services for seniors and individuals.  This event was brought forward by American Conservatory, whose purpose is to empower and invigorate community programs such as these.  Additionally, the event got a heavy lift from student leaders at Porterville College. The event received support from the Eagle Feather Trading Post, Stoney Creek BBQ, and their parent organization Tule River Economic Develop Corp. Additionally many churches and local businesses supported this community event. 400+ meals were provided for folks at V.A.D.S. and the wider homeless community.  Food was shared with our local foodbanks, shelters, and the city’s navigation center to distribute all meals to supporting displaced persons.  The Recorder wrote a great news article for your perusal here: https://www.recorderonline.com/gallery/vads-provides-community-thanksgiving-meal/article_dd4332e8-895e-11ee-83fb-bf04706d1c69.html

In Mid 2023 we also drafted a Medical Freedom Resolution.  We are working hard in tandem with Parental Rights to move this through our local communities as a primary backstop for all our freedoms pointing directly to the constitution.  Blessings of Liberty recognized early on that abuse of power throughout history used Safety & Health as a means to SIDE STEP, the black letter rule of law. Crisis is not in the constitution.

Medical Freedom debates began in December.  The vote for the Medical Freedom Resolution will take place in early 2024 in Porterville Council Chambers. Great Discussion that was needed for recovery.
The Medical Freedom Resolution original draft was published in the Porterville Recorder. The city is amending some of the wording for the upcoming vote.   Here is a video explaining what it is in principle at our council meeting on January 16th.  Next meeting will be February 6th https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDzPkGPQ9Ic

Fundamental individual rights protected by our constitution are primary to our individual freedom and liberty.  Just as the founders opined, we cannot sidestep or trample black letter law for emergencies.  The Constitution and your individual rights cannot be suspended for health, or safety, or any other crisis.  The law is the law. Executive orders are subject to the constitution as well.

Medical Privacy – Freedom Litigation
We are currently supporting a fundraiser with the American Conservatory for the appeal of important legal cases on medical privacy. This case has the potential not only to help the individual plaintiffs in the case, but all across the nation who were discriminated medically against as a result of the coercive & unlawful medical mandates.  This legal fight has been ongoing since 2021 and has had great successes alongside with it, and now has the opportunity to go nationwide.  More importantly a proper resolve would restore the Separation of Powers that was breached under the overarching, and overbearing, abuse of an unnecessary public emergency declaration— which never declared forthright to suspend any law within it. To learn more about these cases, check out their dedicated campaign page at www.myprivacymatters.net

Closing:
We had a very successful year in 2023.  We are excited to hit the ground running in 2024 making positive local contributions for our community. With your help we can continue to grow in 2024 and have an even greater impact. We have built some great relationships and made positive uplifting change locally as we work together for the good locally where it has the greatest impact.

We are pulling together talent and resources that are making a difference every day. We are blessed and honored to bring you this great report from 2023.

Please send us some feedback so we can continue our outreach.  We are very interested in engaging with high caliber individuals with community passion, as well as content creators and writers- people to support expanding our work efforts, creating and communicating local issues, and providing a forum for public civics. We could use some radio and video talent as the media landscape changes.  With our newspapers discontinuing printing in March 2024 we will have a void to fill and an opportunity to expand our reach and engagement.

If you have any Time or Talent that you think can help please reach out to us. We would be very grateful for the opportunity to grow our local impact with people that care. People are our greatest resource and we invite you to join us in 2024 and beyond.

Happy New Year and Blessings to you and yours in 2024

Sincerely,
Edward L. McKervey
President Blessings of Liberty
www.ourblessingsofliberty.org