There were a few anarchists in the town where I grew up, and a lot more in the city nearby. But perhaps because these individuals were not as organized as Keeniacs, the activism in which I participated seemed to live or die with my action.
I could get a few of my friends together and shout from a megaphone and sign-wave in Rittenhouse Park. We would go “Robin-Hooding,” where individuals feed parking meters for strangers in an attempt to “cost” the State the “revenue” of the ticket. But even in a city of 1.5 million, there were only a handful of us doing activism on a regular basis. “What’s the deal?” I wondered.
On November 10, I traveled down to Philadelphia to cover the story of the Truth-Freedom-Prosperity “Warming Station” at the city’s Occupy Movement. This is where Occupiers can stop in for a warm cup of tea and enjoy some open-minded discussion with liberty-lovers.
While not terribly liberty-loving (almost everyone I met there was a Constitution-worshiper), the group’s members are far more in-touch with the problems of government intervention than the rest of the Occupy Movement.
The group is leading by example, but not always in the ways I’d like to see. For example, they build a structure and offer the blueprints to others so that anyone can emulate the successful project. On the other hand, they intend to move tomorrow to make way for the construction of a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded skating rink when asked by city police. How nice. (more…)
I went with Ian Freeman to his traffic court ticket on November 1. He was alleged to have not paid a parking meter, resulting in a $10 fine. He was found guilty despite several convincing motions to dismiss based on lack of competency of the witness, lack of clarity, and others. Despite his being found guilty, it was uplifting to know that by NOT taking the plea deal, he kept a parking enforcement officer off the streets and unable to ticket approximately 30 peaceful people whose crimes involve no victim–they would simply be extorted by agents of the State.
Thanks, Ian, for sacrificing your time and energy to fighting the State in their own home-turf, peacefully using words and reason and argumentation. The fact that they cannot negotiate using reason, but instead resort to force, is an indication of their dying system being replaced by Life 2.0 — a freer, more peaceful world.
Everyone who goes to court to defend himself against being charged with a victimless crime is using his mind and body and energy to change the world. Those who fight the state in court take up valuable time and resources for agents of the State–time and resources they’d rather be using to extort people. You can participate in this kind of activism by Pleading Not Guilty to victimless crimes and by handing out FreeKeene’s “Don’t Take the Plea Deal” flyers in your own town.
It was a brisk and sunny October evening in the Shire. I drove down to the Cheshire County Jail where Freedom Activist Michele Seven would be turning herself over to the House of Corrections and serve time rather than pay the State a fine for driving without a State-approved “Registration” for her vehicle.
Having driven all around the continent without registering her cars with any State Agency for years, it was New Hampshire’s finest who finally put a halt to the Freedom Activist’s years-long crime spree of driving her vehicles without carrying Government-required papers.
When I met up with Michele, she looked composed and focussed. She has a sentence of 2.5 days which she will serve in consecutive Friday-Saturday overnight caging until time is served. She faces 8 more tickets of this kind and could face the same time for all of them. That’s every Friday night in jail for half a year—as punishment for not paying fines and registration fees to the Government.
About 8 Freedom Activists came out to send Michele off with hugs and words of appreciation, and the atmosphere was defined by a lightheartedness tempered by occasional reminders of the heavy-handed State.
I, for one, feel uplifted by Michele’s fortitude when facing the State. She lived her life as a free human until the agents of the State intervened, and now she’s choosing the lesser of two evils by aiding in her own caging rather than paying to perpetuate the State’s bad behavior.
Michele’s story is another powerful reminder of the depth of the saying, “Good people disobey bad laws.”
