A few weeks ago, I was strolling through the park with a friend. Little did we know, there’s a city ordinance in Manchester, NH that sets a curfew for public parks. We were each issued ridiculous $50 tickets by Officer Healey. Fortunately for us, the young cop does not know how to write tickets properly. I wrapped up this story with a Bambuser broadcast.
I created this video in the hope that viewers learn how they can gain some accountability for police misconduct. Using this incident to communicate the effectiveness of peaceful, principled tactics is fitting, as today is the three year anniversary of the theatrical release of the epic Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree.
In an editorial published in Sunday’s Keene Sentinel, the editors express gratitude towards liberty activists and the others running in the municipal election this year in Keene. With 16 people in the race for the five at-large council seats (including Free Keene bloggers Conan Salada and I) as well as contested ward seats and a three-way race for mayor, it’s definitely a record number of candidates for the near-decade I’ve been here.
Whether the increased candidates result in a greater voter turnout, as the Sentinel speculates, remains to be seen. People in Keene, like pretty much everywhere, are notoriously apathetic and they sit back and allow the politically connected to come out and dominate the elections here.
Of course, who can blame them? Life is distracting. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed. Meanwhile the government gets bigger and bigger, and so do the taxes. It’s totally understandable why young working families are driven out of Keene. Why fight city hall when you can just leave?
For those watching from outside Keene: If you love liberty, how many libertarians are running in your municipal elections? In New Hampshire, libertarians are running all across the state – Keene, Manchester and elsewhere. When you move here as part of the Free State Project, you can help build momentum and success here like no where else.
Robert Taylor, Hitting the Road to NH from San Francisco
Expanding further New Hampshire’s dominance as the liberty media capitol if the world, Robert Taylor, blogger at “A Little Rebellion” is moving to the Shire as part of the Free State Project. His most recent post explains his wise decision to join with thousands of other liberty-loving people here and help us get closer to freedom. He’s getting married today and the newlyweds will be hitting the road for a six-week journey to New Hampshire as of tomorrow. What an exciting change!
In his post, Robert explains why he’s excited to move away from his home, the unfree state of California:
The idea behind the FSP is simple and revolutionary: get as many libertarians and liberty lovers as possible to move to the comparatively liberty-friendly state of New Hampshire to participate in activism, influence the culture, build lives and possibly create a free society in our lifetimes.
Or at the very least, it will be a safe-haven for those seeking liberty and the infinite ways people can peacefully organize and assemble their lives and pursue their own individual goals. Even if the FSP’s ultimate goal is futile, the possibility of thousands of people in the same geographic area using Bitcoin, growing gardens not governments, withdrawing their consent, raising their kids without the horrifying government monopoly on education, and living and breathing liberty is too exciting to pass up.
It is a daunting task, but in my opinion, this “voting with your feet” model is the best chance for liberty to survive, grow and thrive in a country and world mired in state power in all of its various and frightening stripes. Scattered across the country, libertarians are a fringe, lonely force with no influence. But together, we can be a force for peace and human liberty, a quiet example to the rest of the world that there is still a small fire that burns.
Good news! There are new sharing buttons on each post here at Free Keene including an email link, facebook, twitter, google plus, reddit, and even a print button. Please share the posts you enjoy. Go ahead, try one of the buttons below!
Plus, in the never-ending search for an excellent commenting system, Free Keene will now be using Jetpack comments. You can log in with your facebook, twitter, google plus, or wordpress account to post your thoughts on our articles. Thank you to all who have posted more than 55,000 comments here over the years. I hope you like this new system.
On September 22, the Keene Liberty Alliance will host a debate between the three candidates for Mayor of Keene. Both challengers, Rick Blood and Kris Roberts have confirmed their participation in the debate against incumbent Mayor Kendall Lane.
On the day he signed up for the election, Kris Roberts posted on facebook: “I would like to have three debates with everyone who signs up to run for mayor. One run by the Sentinel, one at the college, one live on channel 8 where people can phone their questions in.”
It is not yet known if the Sentinel or college will host a debate. However, the debate hosted by the Keene Liberty Alliance will be broadcast live on Cheshire TV at 2p, and will include questions from the moderator as well as questions from the viewing audience, who will be invited to call or tweet with their questions. Questions can be submitted via Twitter using #KLADebate or via phone during the broadcast.
The United Church of Christ‘s response to the vandal(s) attacking their rainbow benches has been stellar – they’ve created a selfie challenge! You are invited to visit the bench with a loved one (or alone) and take a selfie, then post it to social media with the tag #onthebench
