In the third hour of The War Room, Owen Shroyer introduced Abilene Freedom League's Director of Public Relations, Tyler Lineweaver. Shroyer began the interview segment talking about local action and how we have really seen a lot of it lately, namely out of Loudoun County but other groups are taking similar action, like Tyler's group in Abilene Texas, and that our organization is getting results. Owen mentioned how one of the big issues right out of the gates for Abilene Freedom League was the mask mandates on kids at schools. He asked Tyler to talk about that and the victories they have had.
“Absolutely, it was August 30 that we had a school board meeting there in Abilene, Texas and this is right before we had the conception of Abilene Freedom League. We had a bunch of patriots get together there in the City of Abilene. We were concerned because the AISD school board kind of tried to sneak in the mask mandates after they had already been let down.” Owen agreed with Tyler, saying he has heard how many school districts and boards tried to sneak mandates in at the last minute. “Absolutely. The original topic was supposed to be about finances or something like that and it was like three days later cause they only have so much time before they have to alert the community what they're going to talk about. Originally, it was finances or something like that. Something that nobody would have any interest in and then all the sudden they snuck in the topic about implementing mask mandates. Shroyer said “How convenient?”
“It was very convenient for them. The thing was at that point it was really going against current legislation so if a school board was going to mandate masks they would have been breaking the law. They would have been libel to lawsuits and other things like that. So we were looking at our school board spending taxpayer money on legal lawsuits at that point if they had voted it in but we had an amazing turnout from the Abilene Community. I mean, we probably broke a record by the amount of attendance that was there at the school board and overwhelmingly opposing the mask mandates. And thanks to us and our presence we are a firm believer that it was the difference in them not passing those mandates.” Owen said Tyler just brought up something that he has never understood and that is that mask mandates are illegal in this State. It is against the law. He asked “How is it that we still deal with mask mandates? How is it that kids are still dealing with this when it is illegal? How do they get away with that?”
“I really don't know. You had a lot of virtue signaling going on in that meeting. We had three of our current school board members that were there. One openly opposed it and voted for the mask mandate. Two of them went ahead and decided to abstain from the vote. We took notes of that...” Owen mentioned how that was a victory but asked about the process of getting people activated and engaged to stand up against whatever they bring next. He asked what should other people do to have record turnouts at their school boards.
“We really have. What it is all about is we know there are patriots out there that watch shows like infowars. They see the truth for what it really is. They see behind the smokescreen so to speak of the mainstream media and they wonder to themselves, cause I am one of them, what can I do without sacrificing literally everything, to make a difference? In this Constitutional Republic, in order to get involved, Infowars it is a participation sport and it has to be group involved. You can't tackle this by yourself and we learned that if you get your community involved you're no longer the silent majority and you can really make a difference. We've only been an organization for about six months now and we've already got three people that are running for those [school board seats] to fill those positions we don't like. We are already talking to all of our local officials that are around the community and we are endorsing them based on a pledge that we have for them as well, basically saying are you going to uphold the oath that you took when you took office or not. Then we decide as an organization are we going to endorse them or not. Then we get the community involved in that as well.” Owen agreed with what Tyler said but asked again what is the linear process so other people can do the same.
“It is word of mouth, social media, reaching out, and actually getting people together in person. That is what we did. We got like-minded patriots together, we let them know who Abilene Freedom League was, and then we had a plan of action we were going to layout for them. We are open to suggestions as well. We are a member-based and driven organization. That's what we do. We want to be a platform and a vessel for those people to get involved because they feel like they don't have that. In Abilene, we are touted as one of the most conservative places in the United States and still, they didn't feel like they had that. That's a shame and they needed that. We are one of the only independent organizations of our kind in an area that is like that and it has made a huge difference for them. We find people that are like-minded and find things like this school board meeting where we can make a difference. We show up there in force and we have a game plan to strategically make our voices heard.” Shroyer talked about how the media does their best to cover up or downplay stuff like this and asked how it is for the Abilene Freedom League. Tyler said “We've had a really good relationship with them. When we first started off we even had some people drive by from the local news stations and tell us that they wanted to get an interview with us but the hierarchy of their organization told them they didn't want them to do that. The thing is to be repetitive. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you keep on making that noise they're not going to have a choice. You are going to make a presence in the community and they're not going to be able to ignore that and that's what happened with us. Really, since then we have had a really good relationship with them. They know we are not some far-right extremist group touting a bunch of conspiracy theories. They know at the end of the day that it is the truth so they are open to hearing what we have to say. We've been in some of the local newspapers already. We've had multiple interviews with some of the local media and they've actually been pretty fair in their assessment. I'm not sure that would be the same in other areas of the United States but we've had a pretty good relationship so far.” Owen brought up that most of the time the people on the school boards don't even have kids and asked Tyler why he thought that is. “Yeah, most of the time there is really not and if you do background research they really don't have any reason besides maybe influence in their community to get on those school boards. A lot of them don't have kids. A lot of them don't have any relationships with the faculty or anything like that. I think that if people knew that they would be a lot more apt to get involved in their local politics and that is really what it is. It's the complacency. Nobody cares about these local politics anymore. At the end of the day, it is way easier than you would think to get involved in your local politics. I mean I drive an 18-wheeler for a living. A couple of our Directors are stay-at-home moms and some of the most effective Directors that we have. So I just want to let people know that these people that are holding these [school board] positions are not as smart as you think...We expose that. Sometimes we have recorded interviews with these people and we show it to our members and it inspires them to run.” Shroyer said that this is the type of thing that is needed. That the right never mobilizes and builds grassroots organizations like the left does. That this is almost born out of necessity but we haven't even been on the playing field with them before as far as organizing and activating. “No, we really haven't and a good example is in Abilene, Texas. We really noticed as we got involved. We have a County Republican Party and a County Democratic Party. Eighty-five percent of Abilenians voted for Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election and that made it one of the most conservative Cities by default. Really that is not the case because our Democratic Party was able to get over a hundred people to go see Beto within a three-day notice and that is the most conservative city in all the United States, supposedly.”
Owen said that groups like the Abilene Freedom League are there as kind of a watchdog to not only take on covid mandates but to also build for the long term to take one whatever comes next. He asked Tyler to take him through that process.
“Absolutely. What we want Abilene Freedom League to be for everybody out there is to kind of take notes from us so to speak. We figured this out pretty quickly. We've only been an organization for six months and the key is guys to just get involved with all your local candidates. We've met with our local County Sheriff. We've met with all of our local representatives. Everybody you can think of. Get a meeting with them and get a feel for them. Hold their feet to the fire. Do your research on them beforehand because if they do something you don't like, ask them about it. Get a pledge like ours that just says are you going to follow the Constitution above all else and are you going to uphold your oath of office because this is something that they should already do and if they're not going to sign a pledge like that, guys you don't need to vote for them. It's all about getting the word to your community.” Shroyer said it is kind of a red flag right?
“It is very much a red flag. We don't endorse them. We tell our members not to vote for them if they even hesitate to sign the pledge...I haven't had to tell anybody this yet because we have had a lot of success with people signing the pledge and we can hold their feet to fire if they do get elected office and go against that we'll be like look, your signature is right here. Yeah, that is exactly what I would tell them if someone even hesitated to turn down that pledge. The oath that you took when you got that political office, that's exactly what this pledge is. So if you're not willing to sign this pledge you're not willing to uphold that oath.” As the interview was winding down, Owen asked Tyler what he thought about the Freedom Convoy and he made a great point about that being good, but the same energy needs to happen at home. “We need to see how our Government is going to react and then we need to see the next step after that. It's really scary how the Canadian Government did that with basically Martial Law against their own citizens and there is no reason we should tolerate that here. I'm really excited to see what is going to happen with that.” They talked about the hypocrisy of those in power shutting down peaceful protests about freedoms at home but holding them in Canada for Ukraine. “The hypocrisy is at just such a heightened level. The people that watch this show already know...What our convoy is doing now. That's the short game. Something that needs to be addressed right now on the federal level. What Abilene Freedom League is doing. That's the long game, to really get the corruption out of your local government because it's there, guys. Whether you believe it or not. It may not be directly connected to the deep state but all of that indoctrination that works down through our universities, those are the people who are seeping down to your local government right now. Believe me, it's happening. So while the Convoy is doing this right now to give you that immediate impact against the deep state and the war that is going on right now, we need to do the same thing at home. That is how you can get involved at your local level. Do what Abilene Freedom League is doing. Check us out at our Facebook at Abilene Freedom League and also our own website at abilenefreedomleague.com” This was a more than fair interview by Owen Shroyer and the Infowars team and a great job by Tyler Lineweaver as his responses showed Abilene Freedom League made a good choice naming him to the Director of Public Relations position. The message he got across is right. If you know something is wrong and want to get involved, do it on the local level. There is no better place to start than an organization like this. To get involved with Abilene Freedom League, Check out our membership page, pay your due and start making a difference.
Written by Chris Turner
Online Content Committee Chair
Source: https://battleplan.news/watch?id=621d7472281687365a3d6dd2
The original interview goes from 105:00 to 123:29