By Catherine Austin Fitts

A New Media ally recently paid members of the Solari team a kind compliment, characterizing the team as people who “walk their talk.” In the wider Solari network, the person who exemplifies that principle more than almost anyone we know is Solari subscriber and Solari Hero of the Year, Susan Luschas.

Susan’s name is undoubtedly familiar to anyone who has been following Solari’s steady promotion of cash as a singularly effective form of pushback against the control grid. As the ringleader for what she has modestly nicknamed “Team Cash” in her adopted state of South Dakota, Susan’s practical, roll-up-her-sleeves efforts on behalf of cash—including helping get legislation passed that requires South Dakota’s schools to accept cash at school events—have not only borne fruit at the local and state levels but have served as a profound source of inspiration for cash warriors everywhere.

An MIT-educated PhD electrical engineer who once loved nothing better than to immerse herself in work at her lab, Susan might at first glance seem like an unlikely recruit to the cash cause. However, Susan credits her professional and scientific background with building and reinforcing what she considers her greatest strength: the ability to apply critical thinking and systematically “figure things out.”

Over 15 years ago, Susan began by “figuring out” the limitations of allopathic medicine. When her oldest daughter (and later, the entire family) developed serious health problems, Susan’s resolute commitment to identifying and resolving the root causes of their illness gradually steered the family back to robust health. On the educational front, Susan “figured out” that public school would only ever be part of her children’s educational equation, which also includes rigorous homeschooling and family dinner-table discussions designed to foster critical thinking skills in the next generation.

Susan’s willingness to swim against the tide and “figure things out” came into major play once again when the events of 2020 rolled around. At the time, Susan, her husband Manuel (also an MIT-educated engineer), and their two daughters were ensconced in Silicon Valley; as she now freely admits, “We saw the digital control grid coming because we built it.” Susan’s instant reaction—not just to masking, lockdowns, and testing but also to the unconvincing official narrative and related fearmongering—was, therefore, an emphatic “NO.” Unwilling to accept such restrictions, Susan conducted a nationwide search for a school district where the girls could attend school unmasked and in person, and came up with a single option: Brandon, South Dakota. Mother and daughters immediately hopped on a plane, rented an unkempt and unfurnished townhouse, and, with Manuel later joining them, launched their new from-Prius-to-farm-truck life in the American heartland.

Susan deeply understands the power of “coming clean” and intuits what can happen when each of us takes responsibility and shifts our money, time, and attention toward high-integrity, decentralized solutions. Her pragmatic and reality-focused bent also makes her an ideal ambassador for cash, and her unabashed goal is “to get everyone paying with cash all the time.” When Solari began committing in a major way to the cause of financial transaction freedom, and, in particular, doubled down on working with legislators and other state leaders, Susan inspired me to make the “asks” simple and understandable by going “all in for cash.”

The legislative victory in South Dakota was significant, but as Susan commented in one of Solari’s legislative briefings:

“For me, cash legislation is an excuse to bring awareness to cash…. I thought it was a real win last session when one of our representatives said, ‘It seems like all we do is talk about cash.’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I want the legislature talking about is cash.’”

When it comes to promoting cash at the grassroots level, Susan observes that cash has a “low barrier to entry”: “If everyone just paid for gas and groceries with cash, we would win.” Her creative strategies to spread the cash message in her community include:

• Handing out dollar bills and cash stickers instead of candy on Halloween (making her house one of the neighborhood’s most popular destinations)
• Giving cash for Christmas and putting cash and cash messages inside Easter eggs
• Repeatedly getting the word “cash” into local news headlines—even when an article represents an opposing viewpoint, Susan deems this a win because it keeps conversations about cash alive
• Going on a “speaking tour” for cash (in 2026, she plans to bring home the reality of the digital control grid by beginning her talks with a screening of the 15-minute “horror movie” UTOPIA)

Forthcoming with her time and input, and without even a hint of hubris, Susan is someone who saw a need and humbly decided to rise to the occasion. The word “failure” is not in her vocabulary. We, on the other hand, have no trouble finding vocabulary words to describe Susan—and “brilliant,” “tenacious,” “optimistic,” “generous,” and “action-oriented” are but a few.

In my view, the word that best describes Susan is integrity. As soon as 5% to 10% of people in the Western world adopt Susan’s level of personal responsibility to stop the digital control grid and make sure our children have what they need to be healthy and free, human liberty will triumph.

As we enter 2026, we hope you are as inspired by Susan’s leadership as we are at Solari—it’s the power of one—and that is the power that makes the difference.