First, a thanks to whoever (Josh Erickson, I think) wrote the apology to me over at the SFK blog. I had been accused previously on their blog of contacting their webhosting company, which I didn’t do. The subsequent thread about the apology on the SFK!!! facebook group revealed a severe misunderstanding of what Free Keene is. Here’s a post from SFK!!! member Ed Lake:
An apology to Ian was needed and a great thing that it happened, But the story stays the same, just need to change the name “Ian” and replace it with a Free Keene member and blogger, requested the page be removed. At the end of the day the over all story doesn’t change, just the name of the guilty party, but Free Keene as a whole was behind it. We need to take note from this, once you are part of a group and do something for/with the group, it affects the entire group, good or bad, You are no longer an individual when you speak for a group. We succeed together and we fail together.
“Free Keene” has never been behind anything. Only individuals do things, and in this case, the company was contacted by Jay Freeville. He did this not as part of a group, or at anyone’s behest. Personally, I wouldn’t have bothered to do something like that, and the other dozen+ bloggers here all likely have their own opinions about it.
In the same way, just because SFK members Dan and Kay Georgina demolished countless chalk smiley faces over the weekend in Central Square, doesn’t mean that “STOP FREE KEENE!!!” was doing it. There may be people in SFK who don’t agree with what Dan and Kay did. Not everyone in the SFK group is responsible for what the others do or say. They can, as FK’s bloggers can, speak out and air their concerns or disagreement, but they can’t stop Dan and Kay from continuing the smiley genocide.
Ed Lake is wrong – people in groups should be seen as individuals, unless they are claiming to speak with 100% of the group’s approval. I would never blame SFK’s Josh Erickson for what SFK’s Kim Diemond says or does, and the same courtesy should be given to our bloggers. Also, keep in mind that there are far more activists who are NOT Free Keene bloggers than who are. Some of those activists are angry people. That’s one reason they’ve never been invited to blog at Free Keene. Just because they are part of the same freedom movement doesn’t mean we agree completely or that they are in any way affiliated with Free Keene’s message of Peaceful Evolution. Case in point:
In a different thread, SFKers discuss the supposed return to Keene of Chris Cantwell, a crass, angry, anarchist comedian who lived here in the past. Chris made one of the most infamous videos of parking enforcer interactions, which is frequently cited by those who believe Robin Hooders to be “harassing, intimidating, and threatening” (despite the video being pretty tame, and Chris being relatively nice, compared to how he could have been).  In an example of a common misunderstanding about the liberty movement, here, SFK!!! member Jessica Mack says:
Part of me thinks they’re letting him come back around to make themselves look better by comparison.
Jessica, I don’t know how your group is organized, but the liberty movement in NH is decentralized. No one is “letting” Chris Cantwell move back here. No one is in charge of anyone else, including Chris. Chris, because of his violent rhetoric, has been expelled from the Free State Project and banned from the Keene Activist Center. He is one of only a few people in the history of both organizations to actually be banned.
Despite that, he can still move to NH and move to wherever he likes. Personally, Chris is a friend. I’m friends with Chris despite his violent rhetoric. I love him, just as I love the members of STOP FREE KEENE!!!. I hope to be an example of peace to him and encourage him to see that peace is the way.
I hope that helps clarify some common confusion.  Only individuals are responsible for their words and actions – not groups.  Free Keene is a blog with bloggers – they are all different people who may not agree on everything.  Additionally, if someone is not a blogger here, then they should not be considered part of FK.  Of course, people will continue to mess this up, because people like to think of others as groups – it’s lazy thinking.
