New Hampshire’s Kilton Public Library has been in the tech headlines in the last week after the Department of Homeland Security contacted them and “asked” them to shut down their TOR node. The library was the first to ever operate a TOR node, which stands for The Onion Router – an anonymizing system for internet traffic. Just one month after beginning their TOR operation, the DHS came calling and the library shut down the node until the board of trustees could meet and make a final decision.
Tonight, they decided to turn it back on! It’s a major victory for free speech and anonymity online and it’s also thanks to the dozens of people including Free State Project participants who came out to support TOR at tonight’s meeting.
UPDATE: The decision is being watched by other libraries around the country who will now be empowered to start their own TOR nodes, much to the chagrin of DHS and the federal government gang. According to Free Keene commenter Lee Sussman, Allison Macrina, the director of the Library Freedom Project mentioned tonight that there had already been several libraries that had stepped up and volunteered to join, and that all the recent press surrounding the situation at Kilton had prompted at least a dozen more to contact her!
Thanks, Kilton Library, for standing up for freedom of information!
Derrick’s courage has set the example for countless people and has inspired multiple people to move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. Any FSP event we attend, it’s almost a guarantee Derrick and/or I will be approached and thanked for making the movie. Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without the editing talents of Beau Davis, who has gone on to launch his own media management and production house, Vibrant.Works.
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.
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