Introduction - Kenny

Introduce Yourself
#1

I’m Kenny originally from Kentucky moving to the Shire in June 2017. I’m 28 years old with an old heart, a voluntaryist, into rock and roll, and live an alternative lifestyle. Being an open, honest, and blunt kind of guy always went to the extremes with me - did me very good or did me very bad.

I may be young, but I’m pretty retro; I’m a rock and metal freak, but also love country and blues; and I’m a writer (like everyone else), I write poems, song lyrics, movie treatments, and articles (for Everything Voluntary and on Steemit, and have wrote for the Odyssey Online, the Smoke Filled Room, Kentucky Free Press, and Independent Kentucky).

I’m here because the Shire is more free and even with its challenges looks better than the states I’ve lived in before, like Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas. As much respect I have for the Free State Project, I find that the Shire Society takes libertarianism to its final conclusion - voluntaryism.

Finding these forums is pretty easy when you listen to Free Talk Live, follow the voluntaryist going-ons of other FSP members, and follow Free Keene, Cop Block, and Robin Hood. After signing the Shire Society declaration I clicked on the “Forum” tab and went down the rabbit hole.

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#2

Welcome Kenny! What are you considering for your destination?

How can we help?

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#3

Welcome!

It’s awesome to see a bunch of new movers. Well, I guess that is what happens when things warm up a bit. I can also be a bit too blunt myself. I suspect you’ll find a lot of that amongst this group. A good chunk of people here lean in that direction. We have a lot of technologically inclined people and fewer English/writer types. The technical types tend to be more blunt in my experience.

New Hampshire isn’t perfect- but it’s a got the best groundwork and optimal conditions for achieving change. I think it was a good choice by the Free State Project participants.

If you haven’t made it out to Porcfest I’d suggest checking that out. It happens June 21-25. I’d also highly recommend going to Somalia Fest if you can make it. Somalia Fest is June 16 - 20 at the same camp ground that Porcfest is being held at. The difference between the two is Somalia Fest broke off from Porcfest due to Porcfest not staying true enough to principles. It’s also going to focus more on building a parallel society according to the planks of the Pirate Party ship including civil rights, direct democracy and participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharing of knowledge (open content), information privacy, transparency, freedom of information, anti-corruption and Internet neutrality. This all within or from the voluntarist/principled libertarian perspective.

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#4

I’m considering Keene. If I can find a roommate my partner and I will do Keene, otherwise anywhere in Cheshire County. Besides the obvious activist reasons, Keene is nestled in a valley and has less snowfall than much of the Shire - which is perfect for my partner who is Native Hawaiian and hates the cold.

Help? Well, I’ll be apartment- or room-hunting when we move there in June (during Porcfest). For now it’s me, her, and our Shih Tzu lapdog who is pretty quiet and house-broken. I’ve been in touch with Porcupine Real Estate and hope they will be able to help when we arrive.

If you know of any available apartments who are either pet-friendly or would allow an exception, or if you know anyone wanting to room with a voluntaryist couple, who work, it’d be nice to met me know. I’m in the housing and jobs FSP groups on Facebook, to boot.

Thank you for welcoming us, and forming the Sire Society.

#5

I know what you mean. I’m not that technical, though I know the basics. For example, I just now downloaded Cell 411 and Cop Block on my cell phone, though I’ve known about them for a while, and just recently got interested in investing in Bitcoin. But, I agree, it’s a learning experience.

No state is perfect, but having no state would be amazing. The Shire is as close to that for now. Free Keene, from my viewpoint, offered the best challenges to go after - property tax being high on that list for me. #taxationistheft

Yes, my partner and I will be arriving during Porcfest. I doubt we’ll be able to do Somaliafest, though we both want to, since the first day we arrive we’ll be apartment-hunting. Obviously, we’re pretty excited.

Thank you for your comment, and hope to see other voluntaryists once we’re there.

#6

Usually if you put it out there that you’re looking for a roommate, someone will step up. Especially during the Summer, when new movers are more likely. Things are slow around here, but keep an eye on the housing subforum and/or post a request there when you want.

#7

We have a very active activist in Keene that is almost a one-man show unfortunately fighting the city government on a weekly basis. We try to help out about once a year with that by attending a school board meeting where they vote on stuff that impacts property taxes. Unfortunately it’s a difficult fight given the majority who’d know of and attend such events are being paid or otherwise financially incentivized to go and vote. It’s a bit harder to see that from a tax payer perspective and given a sizeable number of people have kids (or at least more people than we have activists presently in Keene) your always going to find yourself outnumbered. I think a lot of what we currently need to do from a principled perspective is just keeping fighting seemingly hopeless battles in the short term not so much because we can win- but because it demonstrates that we have a large number of participants here and combining forces over the long term can make the difference and even in the short term we have won some battles.

The longer term I think we have more of a chance at succeeding in more significant ways. Anybody who thinks this is a short-term project doesn’t understand the ‘liberty in our lifetime’ part of what is happening here. I can talk about small successes and I can talk about losses (in a sense), but even those losses are in a way successes. I’d point to the Robin Hooders as an example. We got some bad press because of that, but we also got people who are really good activists from it as well. David, myself, and others have said these negative things were what helped motivate us/them to move. So, yea- more people- more stuff- even if nothing of significance was gained from feeding meters (actually it appears it did have an impact, but I’m just going to say for argument sake it didn’t).

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#8

I optimistically figured as much. Thank you for all the help.

#9

Being from big-government Kentucky, a culturally conservative family, and friends with their heads in the sand, I’m used to being outnumbered. It motivates me more, so that challenge in Keene won’t be a deterrent for me. Besides, it would give me material for EVC articles.

I couldn’t agree more about long term. If it was easy the FSP would be redundant and each state would have its own Shire Society. In this case, it seems the two areas with the most challenges - Keene and Manchester - attract the thick-skinned activists. That’s good. :sunglasses:

#10

Make sure you check out Mole Hill Theatre in Alstead. Its an old old old machine shop that was been turned into an event center, school and general bad ass place to visit. Just across the river in Bellows Falls VT you’ll find shops and restaurants with very personal live shows.

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#11

I saw Jonny Ray in a play there once. He is always great.

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