ABOUT: LIFT

Founded: December 16, 2010

About: On December 16, 2010, LIFT began as a simple Facebook page to encourage TIME Magazine to “Make the Military Family TIME’s Next Person of the Year.” Soon after, the “Like” It for TIME website was created as means of introducing the public to the unique experiences of military life. Today, LIFT brings you the largely untold war stories that will generate greater understanding of the profound effects of a decade war on America, and on the families of the 1% of the population serving in our armed forces.

TIME’s selection of the Military Family as 2011 Person of the Year would serve as acknowledgement of the impact of military families and the role they’ve had in ten years of war. It would also encourage more widespread interest in an important war story that has historically been sidelined.

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Since TIME’s first issue in 1927, through all the wars, the military family has never been Person of the Year. After a decade of continuous war in the Middle East, it’s TIME.

Speaking at Camp Pendleton in June 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama said, “I’ve issued a national challenge—a challenge to every sector of American society to mobilize and take action to support and engage our military families.”

Description: One of the easiest ways to respond to this challenge is to
join the Twitter or Facebook LIFT pages in support of making the American military family TIME Magazine’s 2011 Person of the Year.

Mission: Rudy Giuliani was chosen for Person of the Year following the September 11 attacks because he “embodied what was really most important, what we learned about ourselves, which was that we could recover,” a TIME editor explained.

The military family embodies what is most important, what we learned about ourselves, after a decade of war and multiple deployments: undeniable resilience and dogged support through year after year of painful, and sometimes permanent, family separations.

LIFT’s mission is, on the surface, to encourage TIME Magazine to consider the military family as its 2011 Person of the Year.
On a more fundamental level, it is to generate recognition of the military family experience after (and through) ten years of war.

How You Can Help:
Tell your friends and/or family about this site and what it’s trying to do by emailing them links.

Discuss LIFT, its interviews, or the articles you find there in any online forums you frequent when it’s relevant to the discussion.

Send emails to local and national media telling them you think this effort deserves their attention.

WRITE A LETTER TO TIME MAGAZINE nominating the military family as their 2011 Person of the Year.

TIME’s online form can be found here: http://www.time.com/time/letters/email_letter.html

You can also publicly show your support for military families by wearing or drinking out of the LIFT merchandise found here:
http://www.zazzle.com/likeitfortime.

Merchandise proceeds will go toward the cost of a Sept. 11 publicity campaign. Once that’s paid for, 100% of the proceeds will be donated to
Treasure our Troops. Visit them at http://www.treasureourtroops.org/.

Please visit our BE A LIFTER page for more detailed information on getting involved with LIFT projects.