12 Days of AF: Northeast Hub

Our America’s Future Northeast Hub is in the hero business, and today I’m proud to tell you that business is booming. 

In 2021, our members demanded that the government be more transparent and challenged the leftist elitist attitudes across our region — and achieved real tangible results. 

John Fennessy is a young father, business owner, and has one of the best senses of humor of anyone I’ve ever met. He has a big Irish beard and a big Irish heart. John is a good friend, and completely committed to liberty. When Rhode Island’s governor doubled down on a new state of emergency just days after being overruled by the constitutional authority of the state legislature — John had had enough. 

On the first day of school, John escorted his children to receive their education without subjecting them to the Governor’s unconstitutional mask mandate. There, he was confronted by the superintendent, a career elitist bureaucrat known for wasteful spending, to keep his kids out of their classroom. John respectfully told him that he was exercising his and his children’s freedoms in the face of a tyrannical dictate from the Governor, and he recorded the back-and-forth. 

The video was viewed thousands of times, when it was published by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, and then something extraordinary happened… only days later the career bureaucrat who wouldn’t let kids go to school stepped down! 

AF-NE bought John a bottle of Proper No Twelve, a great Irish whiskey, and I was proud to crack it open with him to celebrate this startling victory at our yearly signature Polo event. 

In November, we held our first Northeast Hub in-person event outside of our hub homebase of Providence, RI. We took the show on the road to Portland, Maine. Possibly the coolest city in America (really folks, it stole my heart, magical place) working with the Maine Policy Institute. 

Our featured speaker Nick Murray, Policy Analyst, genius, AF member… told the gathered crowd about the work his think tank did to make government more transparent. He inspired citizens to get involved! 

The event was facilitated by Katherine Revello, one of our first hub members, who is an intrepid reporter with the Maine Wire. Katherine has a razor sharp intellect and is never afraid to speak her mind to tell me what she thinks —  as a leader, I love that because we all need lots of feedback to make great decisions. 

She is so good at her job, heroically asking the well-reasoned questions that make for a more transparent government, that the Maine CDC decided to BAN HER from attending their Covid press conference. One more example of elitist bureaucrats trying to shut down the free press calling her an “advocacy journalist,” which I do think sounds like a cool title, banning serious reporters like Katherine is decidedly uncool. Fortunately, this became a major story in Maine and they were forced to reinstate her.

The Goldwater Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the Maine Policy Institute filed a brief all the way to the Supreme Court supporting journalists and used her story as an example!  

I can’t wait to work with our new members in Portland and the whole team there in the coming year.

Grant Van Eck is the second in command of our hub, and also my best friend. Grant IS Bergen County, New Jersey — and was instrumental in the recent battles against the radical ideology pushed by the out-of-touch elitists there. We all saw the headlines. I know in my heart that things would not be so close in NJ without Grant. 

As a town councilman, community organizer, and hero, Grant spearheaded efforts on the ground in his county. AF has supercharged his network making him a key player with the liberty movement in NJ and has helped him to refine his leadership skills through our annual retreat and by co-hosting monthly virtual trivia nights. 

The hearts and minds he changed, and the new generation of leaders he is inspiring, will make it possible for liberty to win in Jersey — because as we all can see, victory is only a step away, and every bit makes a difference. In fact, Grant isn’t the only town councilor AF-NE member in NJ, we are proud to say Justin Musella was elected to serve his first term this year! Our members are making a difference there.

That’s why, I’m excited to announce now that we are going to be expanding our hub activity in person to Jersey City, NJ early in 2022 to generate new members, because young leaders need the work that AF does there now more than ever! 

As the hub director, I could not be more proud of what our people accomplished this year. It’s been magical. Next year is going to be filled with even more growth for our hub, creating even more leaders that will chart a course into a freer future for our region and for our country. These are the young people who are standing up for their communities against the leftists elitists and saying they’ve had enough of government secrecy and control. I love them all, they’re heroes, and have been blessed to have the privilege of standing beside them.