Last week in Westminster, the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty (M4L) celebrated its first birthday and kicked off back to school, by announcing an expanded leadership team and by distributing assets meant to support parents as they assert their parental rights and defend their children against the damaging indoctrination that has seeped into the fabric of the public education system here locally and nationwide. 

Reflecting back on M4L year one, chapter Chair Kit Hart, recently a recipient of the Joyful Warrior award, got a little sentimental recounting how what started as a feeling of lonely resistance has grown into a movement – going from a meeting of a few like minds at Baugher's family restaurant, to peaceful protesting, fun rallying, policy advocating, gubernatorial candidate hosting, and the sense of fellowship that comes from working together for things you believe in during times of turmoil.  

Then, while standing alongside her existing leadership team, Hart announced appointments to three new posts within her M4L organization: a dedicated Board of Education coordinator, a media manager, and a community outreach specialist. 

Next, select materials produced by Courage is a Habit were distributed, meant to help parents understand and opt their children out of a sinister data collection scheme, where the Federal Government has incentivized States with billions of dollars to survey students about their beliefs on politicized subjects like race and gender – all under the guise of euphemisms like “social emotional learning”.  

That personal political data in the aggregate is then eligible to be shared with the woke curriculum companies, who use the insights to radicalize the content. 

Worse though, is the potential for that same data to be used in the future for political viewpoint discrimination, by politicized employers, government agencies, or higher education institutions – in what would amount to something akin to the Chinese social credit system.  

If that sounds far-fetched in any way, be reminded that in many professions, the application and interview process already includes mechanisms for political screening (tell me about your commitment to diversity), and separately, that many major investment entities are already allocating moneys based on activism profiles instead of profit potentials, in what has become known as ESG investing.

So this sort of mentality is already here.

Hart said that in this moment there is a “culture war”. A war she feels her side and her organization are winning, as shown by the mounting attacks against them.

Later, two members of Carroll’s conservative BMW Board of Education candidate slate, Steve Whisler and Tara Battaglia, signed a Moms for Liberty pledge, committing to “honor the fundamental rights of parents”.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox would soon follow suit, and Hart confirmed more local elected officials will be given the same opportunity.

Moms for Liberty is arguably the leading grassroots political cause organization in the country right now, certainly on the right. And if for the last two years the upstart organization has been in a reactive posture by default, it appears poised to go on the offensive this school year and beyond, here in Carroll County and nationwide.