After I got off-the-air from my live Saturday radio program (on which we discussed the initial Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots), I headed back down to the college. At the time, there was a helicopter broadcasting a message to disperse or be arrested. I arrived at the gateway to Keene State College – Winchester St. to witness a huge throng of police marching down the street. I quickly pulled out my camera and began to record:
After walking around the nearest building on campus, in full view of the line of police, activists walked onto campus and right back over to Winchester St. We continued walking west on Winchester and no cops said anything to us there. However, we again went on campus and came back out on Madison St., on the west end of the college. Here there were several police standing around the intersection and one of them told me we couldn’t pass, despite college students walking down Winchester St. immediately behind them. (more…)
Jared Goodell is a Keene native and local independent journalist. Yesterday he was the host for EIGHT hours during Pumpkin Fest 2014 on Cheshire TV, the local public access channel. Jared also put thousands of dollars of his own money into producing the all-day event coverage. For this amazing effort to cover the yearly festival (it would not have been covered on CTV without him), he is rewarded with an evening visit by Pumpkin Fest organizer Ruth Sterling who behaves in a ridiculous manner:
Sterling attempts to grab his microphone multiple times, as well as block the camera’s view of Jared, accuses him of frightening the guests of the festival and demands he stop talking about the riots happening just a few blocks away in the college neighborhood.
Since Jared is a newsman at heart, he feels obligated to report on what is happening in-town, and tangentially related to Pumpkin Fest. He defends his right to be the media and she responds by telling him she’ll “pull the plug” (which she has no control over) and that he should behave because she gave him the physical location for the CTV remote studio. As though she somehow was doing him a favor – he’s the one who spent over $5,000 of his own money to make the coverage of her event happen!
At one point in the beginning of the video, Sterling accuses Jared of being a “Free Stater”, this is the new pejorative to describe anyone who stands up for their rights. It’s not Jared’s first time causing controversy for reporting the news. Earlier this year he stirred it up for reporting from the scene of this Summer’s suicide and on the resignation of a despised school principal. Jared is not afraid to break the official city narrative of Keene being a perfect, blemish-free New England town, and is willing to take the heat. Keep up the good work, Jared – we’re all Free Staters now!
In this installment of AKPF #1, originally aired September 29, we are granted an anthology of president Obama’s clearest moments, including an after action report of a recently contested parking ticket in the DPRK district court system. Enjoy AKPF #1 episode, Beclear.
The important thing to takeaway from this, is that Dick at no point cites the varied, supposedly offensive activism done in Keene over the years. All of his objections to the FSP are purely political. This goes to the point that I’ve been making to the critics within the libertarian community for years:
Any activism that jeopardizes the status quo will result in hatred of those activists, by those who support the status quo. (Usually the government agents, their family, friends, and sycophants.)
For many years, libertarian critics in and outside of New Hampshire have wrung their hands about “Keene activism”, claiming we’re ruining the movement, poisoning the well, and other blame-placing. We’ve been told we’re doing it wrong and that we should do more political action, because that’s somehow not going to be as upsetting to people. (Of course, this ignores that many in Keene have done and continue to do political action.)
The reality is that political action takes longer to foment change and it’s not as visible or newsworthy as say, civil disobedience. However, this hate letter and the constant attacks on political activist and FSPer Aaron Day are just two more recent examples that those on the political scene will also find themselves under fire from the haters. In fact, as Free State Project participants win more seats and begin repealing bad laws, you can expect the attacks to increase in frequency and vitriol. Already the Aaron Day opponents have spent untold thousands on their full-color hitpiece mailers.
The people in power know that the Free State Project is a threat (peaceful) to their control over others, and they hate us for it. While much of Keene activism is a threat to the ideas that back the status quo, the political activism by FSP participants is an actual threat to the structure of power. It’s therefore arguable that eventually the political activists will bear the majority of the brunt of the haters’ anger.
Despite keyboard libertarian warriors’ beliefs, there is no way to foment change to a more free society without creating enemies. Most people outside NH in the larger libertarian movement don’t understand this, because the libertarian movement has virtually never been a threat to the status quo anywhere outside of New Hampshire, with the exception of Ron Paul. If you care about liberty, move to New Hampshire if you want to win. But prepare yourself for the anger and derision that will come with the success.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Gandhi
In a desperate attempt to try to seem less-threatening, the city of Keene parking enforcement has re-branded as “Parking Services”! As though anyone will be fooled into thinking they provide any service of value whatsoever.
Fact is, the only “services” they provide are enriching the city’s coffers. They certainly aren’t serving peaceful motorists unless you consider the threats they “serve”, to be of value. Who are they “serving” when they steal the car of a poor single mother who has fallen behind in paying parking tickets? They’re only serving themselves – the money they collect goes to pay their paychecks and funds their continued threats against you:
After walking around the nearest building on campus, in full view of the line of police, activists walked onto campus and right back over to Winchester St. We continued walking west on Winchester and no cops said anything to us there. However, we again went on campus and came back out on Madison St., on the west end of the college. Here there were several police standing around the intersection and one of them told me we couldn’t pass, despite college students walking down Winchester St. immediately behind them. (more…)
