Addressing the Friends of Liberty

This past Tuesday, I was invited to take part in a candidate forum organized by the Faribault Friends of Liberty. Although this group had already endorsed my opponent, I attended. I enjoyed the opportunity to respectfully discuss the challenges facing Rice County alongside my opponent.

This was my closing statement:

"I appreciate any opportunity to address a group and discuss Faribault. This is the place that I love. This place is essential to who I am and how I view the world.

In researching the Friends of Liberty and understanding who had visited in the past and what ideas they might represent, I had some concerns.

I know many of the people who attend these meetings to be good people. I was concerned about some of the people invited to these meetings. In the last year, the Friends of Liberty have hosted the likes of Bradlee Dean and Ron Branstner.

...

Ron Branstner visited last year and discussed an anti-globalist agenda. Ron Branstner was part of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps vigilante group that guarded the southern border and associates with a group with connections to white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations. I don’t know what was discussed [with] the Rice County Friends of Liberty, but that is a deeply concerning ideology.

And I would caution Friends of Liberty, listening to Ron Branstner and listening to Bradlee Dean, who was the founder of an anti-gay hate group called You Can Run but You Can’t Hide. He was denounced by the Minnesota Catholic Conference and blames homosexuals for the Holocaust and is in favor of criminalizing sodomy in the state of Minnesota.

...

I know you to be good people. I hope you are cautious about who you make company with.”

White supremacy is evil. Homophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia are evil. Hateful ideologies make Faribault less safe.

Bigotry cannot be allowed to take root. We must protect our neighbors and loved ones from falling victim to the spread of these ideologies.

We must speak out. Never let hate get comfortable.

Hate does not belong in Faribault.