My name is Anthony Westrup. I am the founder of SupportAmericanMadeGoods.com. I am also a retail executive, and former U.S. Marine. At the end of this letter, I am going to ask you to make a contribution, but I would like you to understand a little more about what led me to build this site, and why your support is important.
I have always believed in the promise of America - that you could come from meager beginnings and be successful if you followed the formula for success of hard work over time, and being ready for opportunity, when opportunity knocks. I believed that we lived in the greatest country in the world, lived with Constitutional freedoms instilled practically at birth. I believed in America, believed our freedoms were worth being defended, and at seventeen, singed my intent to join the U.S. Marines after high school. One month after my eighteenth birthday, I left the small town of Corpus Christi, Texas, took an oath to protect and defend the country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and headed to MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit Depot) in San Diego, where I earned the title United States Marine.
I saw the world, some of it anyway as part of 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines. I missed the first Gulf war, as our unit was sent to the Phiippines to ward off a coup attempt, and was discharged honourably four years later. With G.I. Bill funds in pocket, I put myself through college getting a degree from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. I took a job in retail, and spent the last fifteen years holding various resonsibiliites in retail encompassing buying, planning, and lately internal consulting for global markets.
All this time after the military, I have missed the sense of working for a higher cause. Defending the country seemed a much nobler cause than defending corporate profits. I have missed the sense of true purpose.
That is until now. In the last 20 years, the world has witnessed China become the biggest manufacturing powerhouse the world has ever seen. With it has come the largest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen, and it has been the downfall of American manufacturing. It is not that I hate China. In fact, I admire their cunning and their ability to attract clients from all over the world. What I hate is how they did it. Currency manipulation, human rights violations, corporate espionage, allowing foreign business to enter their markets - see how they operate, then steal their secrets a kick them out of the country under the guise of being a threat to the peace. It's dirty, underhanded, and we just look the other way, because there is a profit to be had, damn the consequences. When money flows into a country with cheap labor, as it did in the '80s in China, the middle class rises, it gets more expensive to produce those goods, and the money then moves to other countries that have the cheap labor. That is how it is supposed to work. China has used every trick in the book to keep money flowing into the country - activities that are illegal like undervaluing their own currency to keep money flowing into the country. It is the downside of dealing with a communist country - they can manipulate the system, treat their people like shit - like dictating they can only have one chlid, can't practice religion, displace large segments of the population if the land is needed, spam the whole f'ing world, support the counterfeit goods community - you name it. The rest of the modernized world plays by a set of rules that China just does not respect.
I would care about all of that a lot less, if they were just less successful. It has cost America jobs, and has decimated the manufacturing industry, and filled our homes with cheap disposable crap. They play dirty, and America gets hurt.
Well, I believe it is time to restore the promise of America. To educate people on the impact their purchases are having on the U.S. economy. To provide options on where to buy, when you want to buy American. And lasty, to ask for your individual contribution, or company purchase of banner($1.00 per pixel) on our million dollar banner page for the purpose of launching a company dedicated to selling products made in the U.S.A.
We are crowd funding - raising money from small contibutions from a broad base without signing away ownership to big money invstors who may be in it only to make a buck, and miss the spirit what we are trying to achieve which is to build a better America. What's in it for you? I can't guarantee success, but without risk, there can be no reward. Here is how it works, you donate money - money you won't miss, your name gets published on the Patriots page (if you choose that option), you get lifetime discounts and we put every effort into building a successful company and ultimately giving back dvidends on every contribution made. It's a lofty aspiration to be sure, but if I win and am successful, I want to take you with me.
I hope you will join me in supporting the cause and I know you will get satisfaction by investing in your country, no matter how small the contribution.
A famous anthropologist once wrote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Please join me. You can make a difference.
Semper fi.
Anthony Westrup