A couple of letters to the editor appeared in local papers in NH recently. One was a love letter by Paul Mirski of Enfield that appeared in the Concord Monitor. Mirski praises Free State Project participants as part of New Hampshire’s tradition.
Here’s a hate letter by Ed Lake of Ashuelot that appeared in the Keene Sentinel. Lake claims to be a lover, but yet admits to hating and focuses his letter on his hatred of Free Keene and the Free State Project, likening us to terrorists. Confusingly, Lake claims:
I love my state and do not wish to see some outside force take it away from me, my family or my neighbors.
When Lake says he loves his state, what does he mean by “state”? Is he talking about the geographic area known as New Hampshire? The mountains, lakes, and trees? The wonderful, friendly people of the Shire? If so, he needn’t fear – no Free State Project participant I know of wants to take his land and friends away. Liberty-minded people tend to be very respectful of property rights and the rights of others.
Perhaps by “state”, he’s talking about the criminal organization of men and women whose very existence and legitimacy is threatened by the FSP. If it is the violent monopoly “state” that he means, then he will continue to be more frustrated over time as more people move here. It is the monopoly, criminal “state” that will be gone someday, left in the dustbin of history, just like chattel slavery.
Regardless of Lake’s actual meaning, these letters again prove the relevance of the Free State Project. FSP participants are having an impact and cannot be ignored. Come join us in the Shire sooner rather than later and help us achieve more liberty in our lifetime!
Here are copies of the letters to the editor for archival purposes:
“Free Staters part of the New Hampshire tradition”
Regarding Matt Murray’s opinion piece titled “Don’t fall into trap set by Free Staters” (Monitor Forum, July 19), as any educated New Hampshire native would know, in their advocacy for limited and non-intrusive government, Free Staters are doing no more than espousing and acting upon the same ideas having to do with freedom and liberty as Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, John Langdon, John Stark and so many other New Hampshire Revolutionary War heroes.
That in this day and age, Murray would find these ideas foreign says all that needs to be said about America’s left and its own plans for New Hampshire’s future.
Free State advocacy on behalf of individual freedom and liberty is benign in comparison to that of the 400 men who, after having been warned by Paul Revere that the British were coming to seize powder and arms stored at Fort William and Mary in New Castle, gathered there on December 14, 1774, to capture the fort, remove its military stores and then hide them throughout the countryside.
A bit over a year later, in January 1776, New Hampshire declared its independence from Great Britain – six months before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence.
New Hampshire has a proud and profound history with regard to advocating and acting on behalf of principles having to do with freedom and liberty. Free Staters have embraced our history. We should be happy that they’re here because they find New Hampshire still worthy of love and effort.
PAUL MIRSKI
Enfield
An open letter to Mr. Swearingen, Free State Project and Free Keene.
Calling Stop Free Keene a hate group is a very misleading statement. The group as a whole does not promote violence; we are very opposed to having our homes and state that we love and support taken away and forcefully changed to suit their needs, by a group of invaders.
Yes, many of us “hate” this invasion by outsiders, but it does not make us a hate group. There may have been individual group members who may have said hateful things or seem to promote using something that may be considered hateful or violent to rid us of Free Keene, but it should not represent us as a whole. In fact many members of the Free State Project use that same explanation about Free Keene. Many have said the Free State Project as a whole does not approve of or support Free Keene’s tactics against us “natives” as the two groups have labeled us, the citizens of the state of New Hampshire and that Free Keene’s hostile invasion of our home should not be lumped in with the Free State Project as a whole.
How in the world can you expect citizens of New Hampshire to willingly accept a group of outsiders moving into our state, not to enjoy and love it for what we have built, but to tell us we are freedom haters, slaves to a state and how we have made a state that is so wrong in your opinions? Your group may have converted a very small few state residents to your takeover, but I’m very safe in saying it’s nowhere near a large enough percentage to matter.
I read about and learned about the Free State Project many years ago, and nothing about it interested me. I came to the conclusion it would fail, and wasn’t worth my time thinking about. This utopia you people describe is an impossible dream that will always fail if we really want to have a peaceful and civilized society. But, after dealing with the hostile, entitled, lazy, tax dodging, and anti-community members of Free Keene directly in my home, then you must add the whole idea of them and the Free State Project talking about succeeding from our great nation, I can no longer ignore Free Keene or the Free State Project. I consider most of you no different than invading terrorists or some type of cult.
I never understood until recently why the Free State Project just didn’t buy an island or thousands of acres of uninhabited land somewhere, where they would not have to take a way of life away from happy citizens, and then attempt to build their utopia. But as I have concluded, they need our infrastructure that was built with the sweat and tax dollars of others. And that is why I truly believe they need to try to take our state away from us. Their utopia would have no roads, bridges, power grid, public water and sewer, schools, parks and all the other things they want to take from us, the natives of this state.
Have I come to hate the ideas of Free Keene and the Free State Project? Yes.
Does that make me a hater? I don’t think so.
In fact, I’m a lover: I love my state and do not wish to see some outside force take it away from me, my family or my neighbors.
Ed Lake
P.O. box 42
Ashuelot
