Dear Friends:

It was a year ago today that I wrote the first article of what would be many about the goings-on in Wuhan China and the novel coronavirus.

When I wrote that article, I thought, hmm, this is definitely something to watch.

My article followed one on the previous day by Cat Ellis, bestselling author of Prepping for a Pandemic. Little did I know when I wrote that article about the quarantine of 20 million people that everything was about to change.

By the beginning of March, nearly the entire world had locked down as the virus spread across the globe.

And now, here we are a year later, in the midst of the second wave of that virus. It's been deeply politicized, used to grab power, and used to divide Americans into mask vs. no-mask tribes.

So much can happen in a year.

Terrible decisions by government officials have devastated the American economy. We're facing a potentially mandatory vaccine push if we don't wish to forever have our physical freedom curtailed. The United States of America of today is a very different country than it was one year ago.

in the spirit of "never letting a good crisis go to waste" policymakers used this virus to not only attempt to create a country of people dependent on the government's goodwill, but also to generate an us-vs.-the-others society.

Free speech has been dismantled as dissenting voices get deplatformed and demonetized. People are losing jobs, friends, and social standing based on their choice of a presidential candidate. Somehow, who a person voted for has become either a status symbol or a scarlet letter.

I've been pretty quiet lately.

I know that a lot of you expected fiery essays decrying the monopoly of Big Tech over information and harshly-worded rants about where we're headed. Believe me, I have written a thousand such essays in my head.

At the risk of losing readers, I'm going to be brutally honest in this letter.

The truth of the matter is, if my business gets shut down, numerous families outside of my own are affected financially. Our writers, our behind-the-scenes staff, and my own family would suddenly be without income upon which we all rely.

As well, if my business gets shut down, I can no longer bring you the information about survival and preparedness that is at the very heart of this website. Thousands of articles that we have published would vanish from the internet.

Wisdom from Selco, Toby, Jose, Joanna, Kara, 1stMarineJarHead, Fabian, Robert, Terry, Linnea, and many more contributors would be gone. The comments that are often every bit as valuable as the content would also disappear.

I have watched more than a dozen websites and YouTube channels lose everything over the past two years due to censorship and deplatforming. People are vanishing off of social media who spent years developing a following. Even a sitting president lost access to his audience and if can happen to the President of the United States, it can happen to anyone.

It's a risk that, at this point, I am not willing to take.

I know that some folks will say that I'm a coward for not speaking out vociferously against this abuse against the American people, against the information blackout. You are entitled to that opinion and I admit that I have wondered the same thing about myself. This was not an easy decision to make.

I have a responsibility to the people I employ and I have a responsibility to our readers, and I take those responsibilities seriously.

The most important way you can support us is to keep reading and keep commenting.

We are working hard to become as independent from Big Tech as possible, but at this point, we're not quite there. I'm absolutely not asking for money as I write this note to you.

Our content on The OP will remain free for anyone to read thanks to our advertisers and purchases of our books and courses.

I just wanted to take a moment to explain my uncharacteristically conservative approach to current events. We've been through a lot together over the past years, you and I, and I felt I owed you an explanation.

We are currently focusing our content on the skills, mindset, and knowledge that you need to survive and thrive in the coming year. We will continue with our analysis of events that could personally affect each of us, but we're staying out of political controversy as much as possible.

Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. I believe this to be one of those times.

Thank you so much for your support over the years. I intend for us to have many years to learn together in the future, as well.

Daisy