In excess of 100 celebrants, with signs and bullhorns, guitars and drums. Dancing girls, even. And lots of cameras...
Initially out front, on the Main St. sidewalk, waving to honking traffic. Eventually smoking right on the State House steps (not that that hasn't happened before, of course), and chiding the bureaucrats inside for their infidelity to liberty.
NH Public Radio had been reporting the planned celebration all day, and much of NH's most dominant mainstream media were represented on-site. Yet despite recent coordinated crackdowns and subsequent roundups related to similar -- and similarly peaceful -- celebrations, the cops apparently never got word, somehow: three uniforms meticulously avoiding us across the street was as close an encounter as we experienced.
NH Public Radio had been reporting the planned celebration all day, and much of NH's most dominant mainstream media were represented on-site. Yet despite recent coordinated crackdowns and subsequent roundups related to similar -- and similarly peaceful -- celebrations, the cops apparently never got word, somehow: three uniforms meticulously avoiding us across the street was as close an encounter as we experienced.
On the drive home, NHPR was reporting that the NH State Police stationed inside (as usual) were watching, but had no intention of doing anything unless the crowd got agitated. (edit: the word they used was "unruly," actually)
Umm, yeah, uh-huh. The pot smokers were gonna get agitated. So basically, the official position was that as long as the cops didn't escalate the situation, the cops wouldn't escalate the situation.
Umm, yeah, uh-huh. The pot smokers were gonna get agitated. So basically, the official position was that as long as the cops didn't escalate the situation, the cops wouldn't escalate the situation.
Boringly uneventful as a result, actually. Which is the point, after all, right...?
And here's an interesting list.
Coverage (as I find it):
Associated Press
Concord (NH) Monitor
Manchester (NH) Union Leader
And here's an interesting list.
Coverage (as I find it):
Associated Press
Concord (NH) Monitor
Manchester (NH) Union Leader
Fox Boston
Manila Bulletin
Seacoast Online (borrowed from Concord Monitor)
NPR
(Johannesburg) Times LIVE
(Munich) Focus
CBC
Daily Mail
More coverage links
Manila Bulletin
Seacoast Online (borrowed from Concord Monitor)
NPR
(Johannesburg) Times LIVE
(Munich) Focus
CBC
Daily Mail
More coverage links
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ReplyDeleteThis is something I don't understand:
ReplyDeleteI keep tabs on the FSP every so often to see what they're up to, considering how I've been a resident of NH since I was four years old. I've been questioning most of the FSP's positions, especially the notion that they want to form some kind of "stateless capitalist" system in NH ("stateless capitalism" being a total contradiction, by the way).
But here's what I've really noticed. Almost everything the FSP does consists of mindless stunts and mouthing off at the local police. Nothing they've done has really achieved anything for most residents of NH. Do they reach out to working-class people? Do they try to improve conditions throughout the state? No, they just provoke the cops into arresting them and then videotape their arrests to post to youtube and such, most of the time. To me, it seems like the FSP is really just a joke and everything they say doesn't really have any teeth to it.
"'Stateless capitalism' being a total contradiction?" Sorry, you're gonna have to explain that one. True free-market capitalism requires -- indeed, accommodates -- no state: merely a non-coercive marketplace. What we currently have is in no way free-market (regulated only by voluntary exchange) capitalism. Corporatism, yes. Crony capitalism, yes. Mercantilism, yes. Socialism, yes. Unwelcome government interference in peaceful voluntary contracts, yes. Free-market capitalism, not even close.
ReplyDeleteFirst, that you take issue -- sufficient, even, that you feel compelled to take time out of your busy activist day to comment on it on my pissant little blog -- with the notion of other people living and reacting to their servants as if they're actually free is, I submit, more your problem than theirs.
Second, the FSP hosts 2 annual events, "Porc Fest" in the summer and "Liberty Forum" in the winter. That is the extent of the FSP's activities within NH.
Third, there's far more going on -- spurred by those who have moved to NH BECAUSE of the FSP (there are 4 elected to the House already, for example), as well as those of us who welcome them (based on your Blogger profile, I've been in NH longer than you've been alive) -- than you're aware of. Clearly. Like the anti-war stuff, and the agorism, and the afore-referenced legislative activism, and the... But if the change YOU want to make eschews mutual consent, I suppose I can understand the disconnect...
I'd even go so far as to propose that you don't/wouldn't appreciate all that activity because you don't really appreciate or even understand the liberty that was intended as your birthright, your "anarchist" protestations notwithstanding. If you really WERE an anarchist ("no rulers"), I assure you you'd be among friends, and you could even help do some good. At the grassroots. Again based on your profile, I might suggest checking out the forums at nhunderground.com