Greetings!
I'm a life-long resident of New Hampshire, married mother of two, in my thirties, a home/land owner, and a farmer. I have heard a lot about the Free Keene Movement and I'm curious. I've obviously heard rumors, I've read about the movement online, I've talked to people on both sides of the coin (those who oppose the movement and those in favor) and I thought maybe it would be most productive to go directly to the source for clarification. You now know about me… Tell me about you. 
Hello. I'm one of the bloggers at FK and also a talk show host for a living. How did you find this forum?
I was talking with a friend and voiced what I was told were "gross misconceptions" about Free Keene, so he directed me to this forum.
Can I help address some of those misconceptions?
It's funny, but I'm undecided (after spending an uncharacteristically lazy day reading forum posts) about whether or not they were misconceptions. In so many ways, I agree wholeheartedly with the Free Keene mission and in some ways, I feel as though it's a bit off track. I think, in its early phases, the Free Keene movement was absurd in a lot of ways. The issues being addressed weren't even blips on the radar in terms of importance (in my opinion). Baring my breasts in public, drinking alcohol in downtown, wearing a hat in a courtroom- those were far from the monsters hiding under my bed keeping me awake at night. But now, I'm seeing a more serious edge to the issues you address. There's a bigger picture and you're starting to bring it into focus. Here's where I stand…
This country is in a heap of shit. We're looking at lots of enormous issues simultaneously and any one or combination of a couple will be enough to set us back two hundred years. War (we're on the brink of WWIII- look up the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for reference), peak oil, collapse of the dollar, a massive government who's just itching to impose martial law, unemployment rates/the economy, etc. Yeah, THOSE are the things that keep me awake at night. You see it coming too and you're starting to scratch the surface, but you're not quite there yet. What I'd love to see more focus on is how we as a community can help each other to prepare for and survive the coming turbulence. Civil disobedience is (again, in my opinion) an annoyance which distracts from the larger issues at hand and actually ties up some brilliant minds with brilliant ideas and lots of energy while they hang out in a cage as "punishment" for doing something just to prove a point. The truth is that this community NEEDS these people to be out and about educating the masses, waking them up, showing them how to prepare for what's coming. How many people do you know who are capable of growing their own food? How many people do you talk to who know how to build anything useful? How many people do you talk to who would survive without electricity or running water or Walmart? How many people do you talk to who even understand that a day is likely to come when they will NEED these basic skills in order to survive? When gas is $8 a gallon and stores aren't able to get deliveries of basic necessities, will all of the people you know and care about be capable of sustaining themselves? When there are bread lines in every major city, can you rest assured that those people will eat? There is nothing we can do to stop the shit from hitting the fan. We're past that. The ridiculous idea of a Bearcat being considered for teeny tiny Keene, New Hampshire is proof of that. We need to move past some of these issues and get ready for the shit/fan collision. Yes, I agree, do what you can where you can to prevent such absurdity. The Bearcat has (or had last I knew) been put on hold and Free Keene owns the lion's share of that victory. "Think globally, act locally." I'm totally with you there. Just don't lose sight of the big picture. Along with all of your other messages, it would behoove you to preach sustainability in the event that activism isn't enough to prevent the disruption of our relatively comfortable lifestyles.
Please don't take this as harsh criticism. It's not meant to insult you or negate your efforts. I applaud you for simply having the balls to stand up for something. That alone is more than many are willing to do these days. Free Keene feels to me like a big ball of confined energy that's swelling and growing and is going to need bigtime focus when it breaks its bonds. You're getting there and this community needs you.
Wow. I couldn't have said it any better myself. I am in WV right now but will be moving to NH as part of the Free State Project within a few months. You hit it right on the head though. Being new to this forum I can already tell some people are uncomfortable with my "rhetoric." But I know we need to mobilize and prepare. Simply living free with a gun to your head isn't going to do it in the long run. Eventually someone is going to pull that trigger. We need to give ourselves some sort of upper-hand in this struggle other than being the peaceful beating post. There are still peaceful solutions to our problems, but we need to act quick, remain vigilant, organize, and mobilize our efforts into something positive in the long run.
We can chain ourselves to trees all we want. When the bulldozer comes to knock them down, we're fools if we think we won't move and the tree won't fall in the end. We can't stop what's coming, but we can do everything in our power to prepare and do our best to stick it out. THAT is where we need to focus and try to stop the bulldozer in between. At this juncture, I'll be glad just to leave my kids a habitable planet. Leaving them with anything more than that will be a bonus.
Thanks for the thoughts NHfarmgirl. I understand that the early issues did not resonate with you, but there are thousands of people who are harmed by the enforcement of "crimes" with no victim. For me, ending the war on peaceful people is a very important goal.
That said, certainly the BEARCAT is an issue that resonates with a larger swath of the population. Sadly, the BEARCAT has not been stopped, but we have the chance to stop it. Please, if you have not yet, call each city councilor and tell them how you feel about it. Their phone numbers are all listed here on this flier:
http://thanksbutnotanks.fr33agents.com/thanks-but-no-thanks-flyer/
Many liberty activists are fully on board with lots of your concerns. In fact, this weekend, Joel Salatin, the author of "You can farm" will be speaking at the 2012 Liberty Forum in Nashua. Details here: http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum
Maybe I'll see you there!
[quote author=NHfarmgirl link=topic=6121.msg58080#msg58080 date=1329950941]
This country is in a heap of shit. We're looking at lots of enormous issues simultaneously and any one or combination of a couple will be enough to set us back two hundred years. War (we're on the brink of WWIII- look up the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for reference), peak oil, collapse of the dollar, a massive government who's just itching to impose martial law, unemployment rates/the economy, etc. Yeah, THOSE are the things that keep me awake at night. You see it coming too and you're starting to scratch the surface, but you're not quite there yet. What I'd love to see more focus on is how we as a community can help each other to prepare for and survive the coming turbulence. Civil disobedience is (again, in my opinion) an annoyance which distracts from the larger issues at hand and actually ties up some brilliant minds with brilliant ideas and lots of energy while they hang out in a cage as "punishment" for doing something just to prove a point. The truth is that this community NEEDS these people to be out and about educating the masses, waking them up, showing them how to prepare for what's coming. How many people do you know who are capable of growing their own food? How many people do you talk to who know how to build anything useful? How many people do you talk to who would survive without electricity or running water or Walmart? How many people do you talk to who even understand that a day is likely to come when they will NEED these basic skills in order to survive? When gas is $8 a gallon and stores aren't able to get deliveries of basic necessities, will all of the people you know and care about be capable of sustaining themselves? When there are bread lines in every major city, can you rest assured that those people will eat? There is nothing we can do to stop the shit from hitting the fan. We're past that. The ridiculous idea of a Bearcat being considered for teeny tiny Keene, New Hampshire is proof of that. We need to move past some of these issues and get ready for the shit/fan collision.
[/quote]
Sustainability to feed the NH population is a fantasy; NH has never been self-sufficient in food, nor can it be at anything approaching the current population level.
If what you describes comes to pass, and in the absence of outside assistance, most people here will die, it's as simple as that. Any planning you do for that future has to take into account that you will need to sustain you and yours over time, and that you will be required to defend your sustenance from both hordes of starving people and the government, who will steal your food to feed their own families and those of their security forces. Remember that you can't both farm and defend at the same time, and that raiders can always concentrate a superior local force against farmers.
Thanks for your reply, Ian. I have spoken personally with members of the city council and have expressed my concerns about the Bearcat. With one exception, I've been given the same song and dance most everyone else has received. "It's a rescue vehicle and will come in handy when hikers lose their way on Monadnock, blah blah blah." I'm sure it will.
I'm very familiar with Joel Salatin's work and I wholeheartedly support his efforts. I base a lot of how I farm my land on his principles (though on a much smaller scale).
As for "victimless crimes," I agree with your stance and I understand why you do what you do. I just take issue with the idea of looking for trouble. I disagree with a lot of the rules I have to follow on a daily basis, but the energy I would have to waste "paying" for my disobedience is energy better spent working toward abolishing such rules or even elsewhere doing something productive. Does that make sense? I have to try to squeeze 25 hours out of every day as it is. lol
@Auspicious Aspect, the population is indeed VERY unsustainable and I've never held any kind of delusion that it might be otherwise- in New Hampshire or anywhere else. Seven billion people is simply too damned many no matter where you live. In a book I read two summers ago (the title and author of which I can't recall at the moment), it was determined that, with a population of 6 billion people and with x number of acres of arable land on earth, each person would be allowed 4.3 acres on which to sustain themselves. This was referred to as each person's "fair earth share." Obviously, both figures change exponentially on a daily basis, so that number was outdated probably as the book was being printed. I can say this though, we have 10 acres with two adults and two children living on it and I can promise that this land would, without question, sustain us (in terms of food) for the rest of our lives. When you get down to firewood and building materials etc., that certainty is a bit dicey. If what I describe does come to pass, yes, many will die. I hope with every ounce of my being that's a paranoid outlook and nothing of the sort will ever happen here, but the possibility of something along those lines occurring seems to loom larger with every stroke of the presidential ballpoint. Even a fraction of that turbulence would be disastrous for us. Defending my farm is something that has been considered and accounted for. There are provisions in place to assure to the best of our ability that we'll be the only people who reap what we sow. If it's the government we're up against, the only viable answer is to "bug out" and there are provisions in place for that eventuality as well. With careful planning, it is possible to farm and defend. As a mother, you can believe I'll do anything necessary to insure the safety, health and well-being of my children.
All of that being said, I think more CSA efforts would be very wise. I think people should peel themselves away from their idiot boxes and learn a useful skill or two. I think paying a little extra money for durable goods is wise- our society is sickeningly disposable. I think getting used to the idea of living without plastic would be a healthy decision (no, really- petroleum isn't going to last forever). Learn which native plant species are edible. Learn how to fire a gun and clean and prepare wild game. Utilize renewable energy sources where possible. Try going without electricity for a summer if you can. Bike or walk to work when it's feasible. Get to know your neighbors. Forge bonds with people who you'd be comfortable standing back to back with in a conflict. Learn how to live as a community instead of finding new ways to draw lines in the sand between "us" and "them." It's ALL good advice even in the best of times, but damn will it come in handy in the event of a collapse.
The "trouble making" activism that you speak of can garner some attention and bring people into the movement. However we need to start getting serious about forging this new free society we all so desperately want. I am a philisophical anarchist in that I want to eventually see a society free of coercive state control. Many others who post here are self-proclaimed anarchists as well. But we must get real, even if we do creat a state-less soceity within the Shire we still have a Federal overlord that loves to use violent force and coercion. Thats why I argue for organization, mobilization, and advanced efforts so that we can have an upper hand at our own defense. I'm sorry if many people see that as me coming off as an aggressor… To them I only have to say have fun being led to the slaughter. I won't go so easily.
Yeah, I don't agree. This is where I butt heads with the Free Keene movement. You see, getting arrested multiple times for the same infraction is, by definition, insane. (Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.) I tend to steer clear of insanity and would therefore, not be attracted to an entire movement where insanity was encouraged. lol Clearly, there are a number of people who disagree with me and if they have enough spare time in their schedules to allow for preventable, predictable, avoidable run-ins with the police, then that's their deal. I choose not to poke the tiger. I go about my business quietly, politely, and as a result, have never had an experience with a law enforcement officer that I can legitimately call unfair or even unpleasant. I'm not recognized by any police beyond those in my little town and I quite like it that way. If I get pulled over, I won't be able to claim they were gunning specifically for me. But that's me and that is subject to change depending on the situation. This is something I've come to learn through the experiences of others who haven't fared so well. There are bad seeds in every variety of fruit- police are no different.
I won't label myself as any particular kind of anarchist. Mostly, I'm just a simple farmer who would prefer to just be left alone to do as I please. I'll vow until I'm blue in the face that I will not do anything to intentionally or unnecessarily harm the environment. (My animals release methane- I get it. Not much I can do about goat farts.) I won't do anything to intentionally anger anyone else so long as they stay the hell out of my business. That includes the police and government. There are things we can do to safeguard ourselves against that sort of intrusion. See the paragraph above for starters. Again, there are always ways for them to weasel their ways into our lives uninvited and those situations need to be dealt with when they arise. The National Animal Identification System was one such worry for me at one point in time. Hell NO, I will NOT enter every animal on my farm into a government database. Thankfully, that situation seems to have quieted down a bit. Local regulations on stupid shit like where I put my manure pile are constant threats that I worry about. My town just LOVES to meddle in that way, but again, I keep to myself, don't make waves, and no one bothers me. They will eventually and they'll be dealt with appropriately when it happens.
As for you being an aggressor goes, if it works for you, then rock on. I prefer to quietly prepare for any eventuality and I encourage everyone I know to do the same. I don't intend to be led to the slaughter either and foresight will be the biggest key in avoiding that scenario. I consider us and likely everyone who is reading this to be miles ahead of the masses just by virtue of our state of consciousness. We're awake, we're aware and we're planning accordingly.
I wouldn't necessarily call myself an aggressor. Many on this forum would. I would love to live in a society without violence and state aggression. But I believe if we're going to do this whole activist thing, as most within the FSP are, when do we get to a point where we refuse to go to jail, refuse to be kidnapped and work together to prevent this sort of thing. I understand where you're coming from; you want to be left alone and I respect that. Many of us on here though are activists. I choose to put myself in the limelight. I choose to make waves. I live for the promotion of liberty and will die for it. Liberty is worth fighting for; we're losing more of it every day.
NHfarmgirl, I find myself split between your independent isolationism and the activist antics of FreeKeene. I see positive and negative attributes in both camps. While you hunker safely away on your plot of land preparing for the inevitable collapse, for which I applaud you wholeheartedly, the cancer that is government continues to grow. Staying out of its way won't prevent it from one day finding you. I assume you pay taxes on your land. What would happen if you couldn't make that payment one year or even decided you just weren't going to pay it anymore? That cancer that never bothers you would suddenly start bothering you and remind you that you really don't own that land at all. All your hard work would be for naught because they would take it from you. On the other hand, I would agree some of the stunts performed by the Keeniacs do seem pointless and unproductive at times, but I also see it as a great way to test the waters and find the most effective means possible to do combat with the enemy. If anything, those antics are bringing national attention to the FSP. And I do see some making changes in their strategy. For example, Ian's plan to run for school board is a great idea in the right direction. Fight the problem from within. I hope it turns out well. My biggest concern deals with any bridge burning that may be going on with the original residents. Unless of course they are complete Statists and then I could care less. My ultimate goal is to be a part of a society that will be able to keep its head after a collapse and recover swiftly. The more independence from government and Bearcats, the better.
At the end of the day, like you, I just want to be left alone. I hate politics but I hate the state interfering in my affairs even more. So much so, that I'll involve myself in politics and activism in order to fight the man more effectively.
People are individuals and they all have different ideas of what are the most pressing issues. My response to that is to figure out what my most pressing issues are and work on them with anyone who is willing to help me. I like to spend some time on issues that are still important but less critical. But I'm not going to condemn others for having different priorities.
For example, my biggest issue is the monetary system, which is why I created Shire Silver and am spending most of my time on that. I personally can't do marijuana so it isn't as pressing an issue for me, but the drug war is seriously eroding our freedom so I'm willing to help some with that. But I'm not going to get angry if anti-prohibitionists don't want to use their time to help with my crusade - they have their own battles to win.
We do get better results when we work together, but you can't get freedom by trying to force everyone to all work the same way.
[quote author=Coconut link=topic=6121.msg58097#msg58097 date=1330005212]
[quote author=NHfarmgirl link=topic=6121.msg58092#msg58092 date=1329971763] You see, getting arrested multiple times for the same infraction is, by definition, insane. (Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.)
[/quote]
I wish people would stop quoting this over-used cliche. I have never seen a medical or accredited definition of "insane" that comes anywhere near this.
[/quote]
I think this type of behavior (repeating something that seems ineffective) characterizes a majority of people. I don't think you can label something that widespread as insanity. Humankind has a history of perpetuating behaviors that seem irrational, believing in things counter to evidence, etc. I think it's simply part of our evolution to work through this. It seems like conditioning to me. Someone wants answers but the problems are difficult and the answers are elusive so we grasp at whatever we can to satisfy ourselves, even if it's delusional–superstition, religion, bad science, bad policies. And children are conditioned to carry forward the delusions of their parents and people around them as they're developing.
The issue I have with most activism (not all, as nothing is ever "never" or "always") is that it rarely produces real results. As I mentioned way back in this thread, you can chain yourself to a tree for days or weeks on end, but when that bulldozer gets serious about knocking the tree down, one of two things will happen. Either it will take you with it (in which case, the tree is knocked down and you die with it), or you'll unchain yourself at the last moment and the tree goes anyway. Very rarely is civil disobedience rewarded with any kind of change. There are cases where this premise is not true. Occupy Oakland has been successful in achieving many of their goals. I applaud their efforts and am excited to see some results. There was a time when I would have moved heaven and earth to be there alongside them. I've participated in activism before- mostly environmental activism and animal rights issues in my early twenties. I had the time then, little to lose, and so many inflated glittery ideals I could have written a tome rivaling any Tolstoy novel in size outlining my vision for the perfect world. I'm no less idealistic now, not a whole lot older (I know I'm speaking as though I'm a crusty senior citizen with a "been there, done that" attitude), and only slightly wiser. The difference, as someone pointed out below, is the order of my priorities.
Taxes… the bane of my existence. I consider them a necessary evil and one I would gladly forego if I could figure out a feasible way to do so. Thankfully, our tax bill is comparatively low, but the sight of the bill in the mailbox still makes me clench my butt cheeks. You're all too right- failure to pay my taxes would render every minute of my back breaking work useless. It would render my family and I homeless. I don't know how many of you have ever read Ghadaffi's "Green Book," but parts of it reaffirm how bat shit crazy the man really wasn't. In Libya, no one owned land. So long as you occupied and worked a parcel of land, it was yours to do with as you pleased. No property taxes either. I can see why he was such a threat to our government and why his murder was necessary, but I digress. If anyone has any ideas on how to really "own" property, I'm all ears.
Currency is another battle in the war and one I've brainstormed about for a long long time. The main basic idea is to trade something of value for something else of equal value. The barter system is really the only answer. In my circle of friends and peers, I ALWAYS prefer to trade goods and services whenever possible. If I am going to hay someone's land, for example, I make sure the value of the hay I take is returned to them somehow. Maybe we spend a weekend painting their house or replacing a roof, maybe we split the hay down the middle if they have livestock, etc. I avoid having money exchange hands whenever and wherever possible. I still mail greenbacks to those who demand them every month though. I've tried offering goats and vegetables- they won't do it.
Infiltrating the bureaucracy is brilliant and necessary. All levels of government NEED representation from each side of the political aisle. The school board, city council etc. are great places to start.
@Coconut: I think it's cute that the only part of that lengthy diatribe you could find to debate was the overused "cliche" definition of insanity. How about you remove the word "insane" from that entire paragraph and insert "ineffective" or perhaps "impractical." Feel better?
@ShireSilver: No, you can't get freedom by forcing everyone to all work the same way. You attain freedom by all recognizing he same goal and working as a united entity to achieve it. You work as a team to get the ball to the opposing side's net. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, right? Then why would it make any sense for one of your teammates to take the ball, run outside through the parking lot, in through a back door, and then to the opposing side's net? It's a waste of time and energy. Work as a team to effectively forge through the opposition. You'll get more solid, credible and permanent results if you do it in an orderly and practical fashion.
@Dalebert: I like what you said here. Humankind's tendency to perpetuate behaviors that seem (or in my opinion, ARE) irrational is why our stay here on earth will be so very temporary in the grand scheme of things. In the animal kingdom, that behavior is the fast track to death. We'll be no different unless, as you said, we evolve. We're running out of time to catch that train though. As a matter of fact, here in the fat and happy U-S-of-A, we're DEVOLVING. We (by "we" I mean our society) have based our entire existence on perpetuating irrational behaviors, attaining unnecessary things, working in practical fields to achieve impractical goals. You have likely never eaten because you were legitimately HUNGRY. We don't eat to survive. We don't work solely to feed ourselves. We are TAKERS. In the animal kingdom, that is absolutely irrational. Grasping at whatever we can to satisfy ourselves is just a way to justify our gluttony. Sucking the earth dry of every resource it has to offer can be blown off as "God's will." How convenient. The truth is no more difficult- the answers no more elusive- than an episode of NOVA on PBS. Nature has had it all figured out since time began and we've stopped paying attention. We over consume, we over indulge, we spend our entire lives seeking MORE and we leave nothing but a path of destruction in our wake. Then, in a preposterous hilarious twist of irony, we turn and look at what's left and we're PISSED. Irrational? It's synonymous with HUMAN. Don't like it? Good. Change it. Teach YOUR kids the difference between being a "leaver" and a "taker." (For clarification on those terms, if you haven't already read it, I strongly suggest the book "Ishmael.") Don't give them access to excuses. Now, does that mean I'm living in a grass hut in total respect of the laws of give and take? Nope. I'm nearly as much a hypocrite as any other lard-assed American. Being aware of my hypocrisy makes my gluttony that much more abhorant. I'm trying to make it right though. Little by little, I'm reducing the path of destruction I leave and I can only hope that, in conjunction with teaching my children the right ways to live, this approach will be enough to leave them with something to work with.
NHfarmgirl, you are my kinda woman. If only I hadn’t grown up on the west coast… haha. No, I absolutely love the Pacific Northwest, but there are a lot of great things about NH that have kept me coming back a number of times (and Keene specifically) over the last 13 years.
A lot of what you have mentioned really resonated with me, but I’ll try to take it easy on quoting the crap out of too many things.
[quote author=NHfarmgirl]The truth is that this community NEEDS these people to be out and about educating the masses, waking them up, showing them how to prepare for what's coming. How many people do you know who are capable of growing their own food? How many people do you talk to who know how to build anything useful? How many people do you talk to who would survive without electricity or running water or Walmart? How many people do you talk to who even understand that a day is likely to come when they will NEED these basic skills in order to survive?
Learn which native plant species are edible. Learn how to fire a gun and clean and prepare wild game. Utilize renewable energy sources where possible. Try going without electricity for a summer if you can. Bike or walk to work when it's feasible. Get to know your neighbors. Forge bonds with people who you'd be comfortable standing back to back with in a conflict. Learn how to live as a community instead of finding new ways to draw lines in the sand between "us" and "them."[/quote]
Contrary to what some have said, calling you an isolationist who doesn’t seem to want to do anything for anyone other than you and yours, I do see you wanting to still take part in a degree of activism. "Think globally, act locally”- you're living it, and you're trying to spread the word. You’re clearly well read, well spoken, and are still very passionate and full of vigor.
I’ve found a few things of use through these pages that are along those lines, like the Appleseed Marksmanship clinics that are in the area. On the theme of “bugging out” and preparation/preservation, are you familiar with the Zombie Squad Forums? While zombies are always fun to talk about, they’re the very real metaphor for any/all of some of the contemporary issues like the pervasive American xenophobia, runaway consumerism, and the tenuous line between between civilization and barbarism.
There are some other things of interest that I would, or have, happily engaged in- like some of the more outwardly helpful little things like “Robin Hooding”. I’ve kept members in the loop about jury selection dates, and kept the idea of nullification alive as a juror, though the case I sat on was far from victimless. Things that raise “public opinion” and awareness in positive ways and serve as acts of kindness or justice for the greater good of our fellow man, not more things that just paint Free Staters as cop harassing potheads with too much free time on their hands (like comments on any given youtube video often echo). Perception shapes reality, it’s another one of those harsh truths. “We” may know or think differently, but “they” are the ones we’d have to win over, right?
[quote author=NHfarmgirl]The issue I have with most activism (not all, as nothing is ever "never" or "always") is that it rarely produces real results. As I mentioned way back in this thread, you can chain yourself to a tree for days or weeks on end, but when that bulldozer gets serious about knocking the tree down, one of two things will happen. Either it will take you with it (in which case, the tree is knocked down and you die with it), or you'll unchain yourself at the last moment and the tree goes anyway. Very rarely is civil disobedience rewarded with any kind of change[/quote]
I grew up in Oregon, and have distinct memories of getting dragged along to tree spiking rallies with my father. Great, so now you’ve damaged and possibly killed this tree that was going to be cut anyway, ruined some hard working average guy’s chainsaw and means of maintaining his livelihood, and the guys chained to the trees weren’t faring too well either… We also went to various rallies in Portland that often turned out less than peaceful (I was under the age of 10 for all this… good looking out dad). He also spent +20 years “fighting” the State and the corruption in the government and with local law authorities, his personal crusade being that people shouldn’t have to pay for licenses to travel freely on roads. Well, in and out of jail countless times, beaten by cops regularly, and currently incarcerated in a state mental hospital, a lot of good all that “activism” did him. Another father goes on barely knowing his own son, Oregon still licenses its drivers, and few will remember Richard Lucas Koenig for very long.
[quote author=NHfarmgirl]Infiltrating the bureaucracy is brilliant and necessary. All levels of government NEED representation from each side of the political aisle. [/quote]
I feel this is part of my driving force for staying in the military. Unfortunately I’ve seen a number of sentiments around here to the tune of “shame on you, you should know better for serving…” but having an “inside man”, working for change from within, to receptive ears and open minds is much better than most could ever hope to accomplish in such venues from the outside. As an instructor I have many senior leaders come through my classes, and we bring up several ethical decision making scenarios, we talk about the Oath Keepers, how to better ourselves and our peers, superiors, and subordinates to be more conscientious decision makers.
You want, no, NEED people like this on the inside. If they were all truly the mindless, unthinking trigger happy drones that the uber-paranoid types make us out to be, then we really would be in a world of hurt. I guess all the Ron Paul fanfare about his unprecedented support from the troops, more than any other candidate, doesn’t mean much to people only looking for the negative, or for reasons to “rise up”. I love being a force multiplier- I have hundreds of these mid to senior level leaders who come through each year, and I am fortunate to spend a good chunk of time mentoring and inspiring and sharing ideas with a new generation that will of course say no to illegal orders, who wouldn’t think twice about NOT shooting down their own people who they swore to protect, and who will try to traverse the world a bit more lightly and a bit less blindly- not being the “typical American” that loudly stomps through the world, only focused on what’s in it for “our own good”. And like a scene from any post-apocalyptic film, Children of Men comes to mind, if/when things DO get that crazy, and some DO get on the wrong side of the government, you're going to want insiders to lead a resistance, to help smuggle aid, free captures, etc…
[quote author=NHfarmgirl]I've participated in activism before- mostly environmental activism and animal rights issues in my early twenties. I had the time then, little to lose, and so many inflated glittery ideals I could have written a tome rivaling any Tolstoy novel in size outlining my vision for the perfect world. I'm no less idealistic now, not a whole lot older (I know I'm speaking as though I'm a crusty senior citizen with a "been there, done that" attitude), and only slightly wiser. The difference, as someone pointed out below, is the order of my priorities. [/quote]
Speaking of clichés, I can’t help but think of the quote "If you're young and a republican you have no heart. If you're old and a democrat you have no brain", surely there’s gotta be an activist’s equivalent. I’d wager a lot of the more visible activists in and out of cages on a regular basis are mostly in their 20s, with no dependents to worry about. I was an environmental policy major in college, took a few trips down to Mexico to save sea turtles back in high school, and did a lot of local projects when at Keene State College. I could certainly see a time when I would have gotten involved in other ventures that some would argue would be “too small minded” or even just “spinning my wheels”. I’m still painfully idealistic and my drive is still high, but my eyes are a little bigger, and the things I do and my priorities are different (I’m also in my 30s). Spanning the country from one side to the other, as well as being a world traveler (Europe and the Middle East) certainly doesn’t hurt adding to a much different, global perspective. 2012 baby, here we come… haha (and beyond!)
[quote author=NHfarmgirl]We'll be no different unless, as you said, we evolve. We're running out of time to catch that train though. As a matter of fact, here in the fat and happy U-S-of-A, we're DEVOLVING.[/quote]
Oh yes… God bless America. As long as we keep the masses stocked up on (and distracted by) their beer, pizza, and football, all is well in the American dream. At least they can watch it all in 3D now, so when it’s real, they may confuse it/mistake it for reality… One can only hope that all the recent national/global turmoil and strife means we’re on the cusp of a new evolution break through!
Anyway, I’m also in Keene, also on a farm. Well, a former dairy farm. No more chickens or cows though… Just 13 acres of a pie slice shaped chunk of property, a small bit of it is hayed (yields about 9 round bales per cut, usually 2 cuts a year), but most of it wooded, so if you’re ever in need of some firewood (or lumber, my uncle took enough to build a new barn a few years ago from the family forest- my great grandfather planted most of the trees north of Keene (the new middle school area), pretty awesome!), I’d be happy to barter for some fresh produce, or… you make goat cheese?
I’m kind of “new” (again) to the area, and would like to get to know my neighbors, perhaps get some insight and advice on my land. And I’m also a gun enthusiast, if anyone in your household ever wants to go shooting, I’m always down for keeping up or helping with marksmanship, the gun range isn’t too far down the road, happy to share some ammo in exchange for stuff as well.