Volume 3, Issue 13 | October 2023 |
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“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel |
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In this issue…
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From the ChairEvery so often, events occur that remind me why I am Libertarian. Obviously, things like the authoritarian lockdown during the covid tyranny reaffirm my philosophy, but I mean things like what we saw this weekend. Libertarians are pro-human. We defend life and Liberty, and we are opposed to any aggression against someone else’s life and Liberty. This includes all acts of war and terrorism. Like most of you, I was sickened to see the videos of terrorists from Hamas wantonly attacking and killing Israeli civilians. I am similarly sickened when I see images of Palestinian children maimed from an air strike. Or Yemeni children as thin as skeletons from malnutrition caused by bombings and sanctions. Or children from Ukraine, or Syria, or South Africa, or Venezuela, or anywhere else in the world where violence, ultimately perpetrated by the State, the world’s monopoly on violence, is inflicted on children. Where innocents suffer from the aggression of psychopathic power-mongers, this is where we need to stand strong in our principles, and let the light of Liberty shine bright. We must be the beacon of hope that leads people away from millennia of seething hatred. We must be the paragons of hope. It is hard to write about things in North Carolina this close on the backs of those horrific images. But I remember that these atrocities are going on around the world. And, while I call for peace in Israel, Gaza, the Middle East, and everywhere people live, I also remember that where we can make a difference, really drive change, is right here, in our beautiful home state. Then, when Liberty in North Carolina rings clarion and true across the whole world, maybe we can be the source of change that spreads and lasts. At the very least, we can make sure we, in our state, never have to face the kind of violence and the uncertainty that comes with it, like we saw this weekend. So, on that note, I have to mention the candidates we have running all across the state. This is the last time I will get to address you in the newsletter before the 2023 elections. By the November Tar Heel, I hope to share with you the good news of elected Libertarians. To get there, we need your help. JJ Campbell, Justin Herbe, Mitch Bridges, and Andrew Kinzie all have non-partisan elections today, winnowing down the fields in each of their races. JJ and Andrew were the guests on this week’s Liberty iNC, just released. Check them out, make a donation, volunteer to help. For us, a little goes a really long way. Mostly though, considering everything that just happened, I want you all to know how much I appreciate you, every one of you. From the volunteers who show up day in and day out to keep us growing, to all of our donors, to the people fighting to spread Liberty in everything. I see you, I appreciate you, and I thank you. I remember what we are fighting for, and why you are in this. And I promise, the best is yet to come. -Ryan Brown, LPNC Chair |
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Candidates SpotlightAndrew Kinzie and JJ Campbell on Liberty iNCAndrew and JJ have votes TODAY, and need your support. Check out their appearance and reach out, right now, to see how you can help. Check out our other local candidates here! |
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Liberty in North Carolina - A Historyby Joshua D. Glawson If we, as the Libertarian Party of North Carolina, wish to see a return to liberty in North Carolina, it is a good idea to understand the historical and philosophical approaches to Liberty that have enabled that Liberty to thrive in the past. Liberty in North Carolina was an essential element of what made North Carolina unique at the founding of the United States of America. There are three specific North Carolina contributions to Liberty that should be given more consideration today in the state and across the United States of America. North Carolina provided constitutional protections for individual sovereignty and Liberty, freedom from nonrepresentative government overreach or tyranny, and the pursuit of sound money policies to safeguard those Liberties. John Locke and the North Carolina Constitution The earliest models of North Carolina’s constitution were directly influenced by the work of philosopher John Locke. It was Locke's work titled Essay on the Human Understanding that led to The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, also known as the "Grand Model." This colonial constitution aimed to protect proprietary interests and abandon pursuits of democratization. This first NC constitution was implemented from 1669 to 1698 and was adopted by the eight Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina. Technically, this constitution covered North and South Carolina, as the district colonies did not separate until 1712. Unfortunately, this constitution led to temporary government-protected feudalism and aristocracy, as it was still paying some respects to the United Kingdom and King Charles I. Carolina is from the Latin name Carolus, which is the origin of the name Charles in English. However, this Carolina constitution also provided a voice for freemen in the colony's government and established greater property rights as protected by the state government. The early constitution even went as far as to provide greater religious freedom and provided secret voting ballots for freemen. The lessons learned from this constitution helped inspire further changes that inspired the Revolutionary War and American Independence. North Carolina was First in Freedom North Carolina is widely considered among the first colonies to declare independence from British rule with the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (allegedly May 20, 1775), the Mecklenburg Resolves (May 31, 1775), and the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776). There is serious speculation that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was a hoax. Even Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Stephen B. Weeks, John Spencer Bassett, and R.D.W. Connor contended it was a fake. Nonetheless, John McKnitt Alexander, Macon Alexander, William Alexander, William Polk, Thomas Polk, and William Henry Hoyt defended its genuineness. Whether or not it was a real document, it was this genuine spirit of Liberty and independence that inspired the actual signing of other documents that led to the American Revolution including the Mecklenburg Resolves and the Halifax Resolves. The Mecklenburg Resolves rejected the authority of Parliament over the colonies while investing that power into the hands of the Provincial Congress. The Halifax Resolves voted for colony independence from the British. The signing of these documents directly led to American Independence. The North Carolina Gold Rush Widely considered the first gold rush in history, the North Carolina Gold Rush lasted from 1799 to 1849. Beginning in 1799, a boy named Conrad Reed was fishing in Cabarrus County, which is northeast of Mecklenburg County, and found a 17-pound gold nugget that he used as a doorstop for a few years until he realized what this yellow rock was that he had found. This eventually led to the establishment of the famous Reed Gold Mine, and more and more gold was being discovered. In fact, all gold coins produced by the U.S. Mint from 1804 to 1828 were coined from gold found in North Carolina. This prompted the U.S. to open the Charlotte Mint which minted gold, silver, and copper coinage from 1837 to 1861. The fading of the North Carolina gold rush was driven by the California Gold Rush which lasted from around 1848 to 1855, and the fading of the California Gold Rush was brought about by the Australian Gold Rush from 1851 to 1914. The approach to making money from precious metals like gold or silver was well-established by the bimetallism supported by the Coinage Act of 1792, and this reflected the economic and monetary philosophy of sound money. Sound money made from a widely traded commodity such as gold and silver creates greater stability and purchasing power, reduces transaction costs, provides checks and balances against government overreach through monetary inflation or debasement schemes, and perpetuates honesty and other morals or ethics among people that use this medium of exchange. North Carolina helped spearhead the sound money movement in the United States by leading the way for gold mining and the use of gold in the coining money. Joshua D. Glawson is a writer and speaker in the Liberty Movement. He has been active with the Libertarian Party of California since 2015. He now resides in his home state of North Carolina. Check him out at Home - Joshua D. Glawson (joshuadglawson.com) |
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OpEdI Hope You Said "Happy Columbus Day!"by: Rob Yates, LPNC Communications Director
Unless Columbus was actually a great man, loathed solely because he personifies Western culture. He was a brave explorer who selflessly and courageously sought a trade route by sea to East Asia. His morals were his guide, as he was a dedicated Christian and man of God, concerned first with serving the Lord and his fellow man. And he should be venerated with a day in his dedication and anyone who disagrees deserves to be expelled from the country in shame. That about sums up the two current perspectives on Christopher Columbus, neither of which matter at all until we get to Columbus Day, aka Indigenous People Day. Then everyone has to virtue signal as loudly as they can for a day, making sure the whole world knows which side of the fence they fall on, respectively. I am here to tell you this is stupid, and you should be supporting Columbus Day. It doesn’t matter what you think of Christopher Columbus. In fact Chris the Conqueror has almost nothing to do with the day bearing his namesake except that he happens to be Italian. The first celebration of Columbus Day, or at least a holiday to mark his arrival in the Americas, was in 1792, hosted by the Columbian Order of New York, commemorating the 300th anniversary of his arrival. Over the next 100 years, the holiday was celebrated haphazardly – and unofficially – until 1892, when President Benjamin Harrison held the first national Columbus Day celebration to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his landing in the Americas. Harrison made this an official holiday for a particularly harrowing reason. In 1891, the prior year, eleven Sicilian immigrants were murdered in a savage lynching in New Orleans at the height of anti-Italian sentiment in the country. The details of the attack are too gruesome to put into a distinguished family publication like the Tar Heel, but rest assured, they are atrocious. It actually created a diplomatic crisis with Italy. The attack was so supported by politicians, blinded by hatred for Italians, that the conspirators were said to operate essentially out in the open with no fear of reprisal. Essentially, the government signed off on it. Over the next 50 years, Columbus Day remained a haphazardly celebrated holiday until WWII, when Italians were designated “enemy aliens.” Again, the government went after Italians for being Italian, despite the numerous contributions and commitments they had made, broadly, to the growth of the United States (including their role in ending prohibition). FDR again made Columbus Day a federal holiday as a mea culpa, this time for the government’s racist stereotyping of an entire people for who they were. This was done annually but not permanently until 1972, when Nixon established the modern holiday by presidential proclamation. So before you go trashing Columbus Day, remember that it exists far less to honor the man himself, a controversial and complicated figure with a nuanced history, some of it awful and some of it magnificent, all wrapped up in the context of the time 600 years ago, a setting none of us can truly imagine. Instead, think of it as a holiday that stands as a testament to the egregious acts of the government against Italians in the United States, and make sure to wish someone a “Happy Columbus Day!” |
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Events2024 North Carolina State ConventionJoin us at the 2024 Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC) Convention, where freedom takes center stage! In this exciting event, Liberty-minded individuals from across the state will gather to shape the future of our great party. As we convene, we'll elect delegates who will represent North Carolina at the national convention, giving our state a voice in the broader libertarian movement. Additionally, we'll be choosing the members who will serve on the judicial committee, ensuring that our principles are upheld within the LPNC. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a historic moment in North Carolina's political landscape and make your mark on the future of Liberty. Join us in 2024 and let freedom flourish! |
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LP in NCCongratulations to our very own Strategic Communications Adviser, Joshua Glawson, for being named a Top 25 Venerated Voices by Author by VettaFi ETF trends! --- The LPNC's very own Susan Hogarth joins Liberty Dad for a weekly discussion on Sunday evenings, looking at the great work affiliates are doing around the country. |
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County CornerCandidate Meet-N-Greet Reviewby: Trevor Miles, LPNC
As a supporter of the Liberty movement, it was exciting to see a group of likeminded Libertarians come together to show support for candidates and discuss local and state level issues. As a resident of the area, it was nice to meet with fellow local libertarians to establish interpersonal connections, and to use those connections to build a coalition of voters to challenge the uniparty establishment in the area. #FiretheUniparty It was also useful to be able to connect with the Mike Ross campaign and discuss public outreach tactics and skills that could be useful to helping any local candidates that might come along now or in the future, and I certainly enjoyed reaching across the intra-party caucus lines to discuss issues with a member of the Mises Caucus while being on the board of the Classical Liberal Caucus, and ultimately to help advance the Liberty movement as a whole. In short, despite the turnout being somewhat small, I consider this event a success on several levels other than the number of people in attendance, and I look forward to hosting other events such as this in the future, in addition to our regular monthly affiliate meetups. --- Freedom Fire Fest 2023 Reviewby: Kim Acer
Later, attendees changed locations to enjoy an outdoor BBQ dinner. Participants were invited to "be the spark" as the evening bonfire was lit. The event brought opportunities to meet new faces and converse with old friends. Some camped overnight as well. The Cape Fear Libertarian Party would like to thank all those who joined us, and our wonderful volunteers, for making this event a success! We hope to see you next year! |
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Candidate SpotlightMy Police Ride Alongby: Justin Herbe, Fayetteville City Council District 5 Candidate Recent publicity around negative police encounters has led to dramatically increased scrutiny of police departments in the U.S. That scrutiny has forced change in the way Policing is conducted. We need change, but not always. Since this increased scrutiny has occurred the Police Force garners little to no respect from the community while trying to improve with an Officer population that is young, inexperienced, and inundated with paperwork. Fayetteville needs non-biased law enforcement, and in order to accomplish this, the city needs Officers on the streets…Veteran Officers, not just Rookies straight out of the Police Academy. I volunteered for a Police Ride Along so I could experience firsthand the situations that Officers and the Community deal with on a daily basis. I had some pre-conceived notions of racial profiling, targeting homeless, and some big gruff bullying and intimidating Officers in my mind before I signed up, and I wanted to see if those ideas held weight or if our Police Force was non-biased and racially blind like they say they are. The night started out with foreboding thunder clouds moving towards the sector that we would be patrolling. The Central District encompasses a large area in the middle of the city, known for drugs, guns, and prostitution. It runs from Bonnie Doone in the North abutting Ft. Liberty, west to Skibo rd., heading east and south into Murray Hill, Haymount, and farther south into Douglas Byrd and Lakedale. The first stop was a triggered building alarm. By the time we arrived, the rain clouds were directly above us and it began to pour. We were drenched within seconds and began searching the perimeter of the building and determined it had probably been a weather-related issue that caused the alarm to get triggered. We searched high and low for any points of entry or broken windows and none were found. We jumped back into the squad car, turned off the A/C because being wet it quickly got cold. I was really hoping the entire night would not be like this. Throughout the storm we continued the street patrol where we scanned license plates, checked registrations, and validated current driver’s licenses all from the comfort of the vehicle using the hood mounted cameras. While driving on Raeford Rd., we noticed a car driving with its lights out. The Officer turned his car around, began following the car into Haymount, scanned the license plates, noticed they were expired, and flashed the lights. He stopped the car, approached the driver, politely asked for her license, returned to his vehicle and ran the license through the computer systems. She already had a ticket for the registration and a court date so he decided not to give her another one, which would have compounded the bad situation, and he also decided just to give a warning for the headlights being off. The Officer told me he usually gives warnings for nearly all minor infractions. But this warning began what I will call a paper trail of documents throughout the night that will engulf the quiet moments in-between calls. The Officer will quite possibly miss opportunities where positive engagements could have been conducted. The traffic stop report was the easiest report of all to fill out but still took 10-15 minutes. We drove around a little more and found some unsheltered individuals hanging around an abandoned Circle K. We pulled up, exited our vehicle, and began talking to the individuals. The three individuals who were standing there looked like they were living outside, and carrying everything that belonged to them. The Officer told them about the Day Resource Center that was now open at 128 King St., they were excited to hear this because they had not known about it. They even asked if there were any counseling services available at the Center. The conversation was amicable, I got to hear more about the homeless situation, and they learned about the resources at the Day Center. It lasted about 15 minutes, but the paperwork took nearly twice that. One field contact sheet for each individual that he spoke with took 10 minutes to write out and link the individuals’ names together in the system. We reviewed their rap sheets and saw a long history of arrests, some more serious than others. It was concerning because I sympathized with them and could tell they needed help, but I did not know what kind of help they really needed. Drug counseling, maybe mental health counseling, just somewhere to go to get out of the rain would have easily helped them. But the Police are not a taxi service, nor do I want them to be. We began the patrol again by driving through the back side of Wal-mart maybe trying to make another positive engagement where we could let more homeless know about the Day Resource Center and what it offers. The situation changed quickly…as we came from behind Wal-Mart, City Dispatch alerted us that there was a 9-1-1 call coming from the Wal-Mart parking lot. She said that a man called asking for help, that he was being chased by five individuals wearing hooded sweatshirts and armed with guns. The Police Officer, knowing I had previous military experience, had told me early this night that if there was ever a reason I might need to assist and get involved to do so. I acted like it was no big deal and said I could help out, but this wasn’t what I had in mind!!! As we were searching for the store that the individual was being chased from, the individual actually saw us first and ran up to our car. He looked petrified, literally fearing for his life… I was wishing I had chosen to conduct a ride with somebody else that had backup or maybe another way to interdict like a K-9 unit before it coming down to a shoot-out in the O-K Corral. The Officer stepped out and asked the man if he was ok. He replied he was not… he was scared, and needed help. Obviously he needed help! He wanted protection because people were after him. The Officer spoke with him, let him know he was safe now. Nobody was chasing him, and he would be protected. The individual put himself on his cellphone microphone, speaking with his daughters who were crying for their father. A minute had passed and we had not found the men chasing him; another Officer arrived as back up and began towering over the individual. I was in shock and I thought to myself, “why are we not searching for the men who were chasing him?” These Officers are clearly misidentifying the issue at hand! Another minute goes by, the man is still on the phone with his kids while trying to talk to the Officers, he is scared, I am scared, he thinks his life is in danger, and I do too. He keeps pointing out the individuals who were chasing him, I look over there and see the men, yet the Officers refuse to chase down these people. The Police motto is Serve and Protect, why in this moment are we not doing that? Trying to regain control of the situation, the Officer who I was riding along with, asks the man for his I.D. I do not know what he is trying to do, what on God’s green earth do you need someone’s I.D. for at this moment in time? He must really want to run his driver’s license and do more paperwork. Come on now, we have bad guys to catch! The guy refuses to comply, he says he has no I.D. and he is not from around here. Sounds legitimate to me, I believe the best course of action is to at least take him somewhere safe, drive him someplace away from the danger. The situation is getting tenser, I hear the girls on the phone screaming, the man is being questioned all the while, quite literally he was the one that called 9-1-1! The man has a black bag sitting beside himself on the curb, the Officer asks what’s inside the black bag and demands to see some I.D. The man pauses, looks at the bag, and reaches in. Within that moment… I consider my surroundings, there are 2 Officers within 3 feet of this man and myself another 2 feet away. I am sure if he pulls a gun out, he is going down no question, but he will get one of us as well. Looks like this is going to be my first and last public ride along with the Cops. He reached in… and out came his brown wallet along with a bag of cocaine. We all saw it together at the same instance, the wallet flopped on the ground dropping loose change, dollar bills, and the drugs. He was handcuffed within an instant and placed under arrest. The Officers grabbed his black bag, placed it on the trunk of the car and pulled out 16 grams of Marijuana, 2 grams of cocaine, 1 crack rock, and a broken homemade zip gun that had already been used. My instincts had failed me…the Officer’s instincts had saved them. We drove the individual to the County Jail and arrived at 8:08 PM, where we spent the majority of the rest of the night. It took three grueling hours to process the arrest in total. The incident report, and arrest report, probable cause affidavit, magistrate’s order, two intake forms, and two sets of pictures, one for the Warrant’s server and other a mugshot for the jail all needed to be completed. We left the Sherriff’s at 10:16 but we were not finished yet, we still had to drive to the Police Department in order to weigh and submit the evidence. But of course, each piece of evidence needs to be tagged and marked. The forms to fill out are just as exhausting, evidence voucher and tags, drug test request, and a felony investigation report for the District Attorney. The pain ended at 11 PM, nearly three hours to the minute after the arrival at the Sherriff’s. Let’s not forget to mention the other Officer involved, who most likely had to fill out his own incident report and collect the individual’s property and take it to the Police Station for safekeeping until his release. Our current Police Department is understaffed by 52 Officers. The Officer I rode along with had a graduating class of 12 from the Police Academy back in January of 2022. Only six remain. They have gone to other towns, where the workload is easier, pay is greater, and their life is not in danger every single day. Daily, when running my City Council campaign, I’ve been telling people we must increase the Police Officer’s pay at least 30 percent, otherwise our Force will quickly look like those in Goodhue, Minnesota, or Enfield, NC where the Police Chief resigns because of poor pay and the entire PD follows after leaving the city with no protection. At the beginning of this shift during their shift change, I gave that same pitch to the entire squad. After I finished what I was saying, they smirked and laughed and said to me, “it’s already happening.” At the end of the night my Officer asked me how much money would it take for me to perform his job? I thought about it for a moment…how much would it take? I thought about it for a second longer and I replied back, “I would never do it.” God bless our Police and First Responders. |
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2A TalkShotguns are Weapons from Hell, So Use 'EM to Send the Bad Guys Thereby Andy Stevens, GRNC Vice President of OperationsLast month you heard Shotguns are for Birds, Not Bad Guys from Justin Hinckley, LPNC’s Second Amendment Issues Coordinator. He challenged me to provide a good-natured counter argument, so here it goes... I’ll repeat Justin’s caveat: Rule One of every gunfight is have a gun! That said, and acknowledging circumstances among individuals differ, I take his challenge justifying my shotgun as my home defense weapon of choice. Justin's argument last month to using an AR-15 to defend his castle can be summed up as follows. (1) he wants to shoot (numerous) bad guys, (2) without shooting friendlies, and (3) without overpenetration (4) by taking numerous follow-up shots with (5) the need for reloads while (6) protecting his castle. WHEW! Sounds like the Zombie Apocalypse!
If your loved ones are between you and the bad guys in this scenario then your odds of success are nil, so let’s assume that you’re engaging the bad guys directly to your front. (Your loved ones can be behind or adjacent to the bad guys or behind you.) In this scenario your two or three assailants will likely be stacked up and channeled by the confines of the structure of your home. Your two or three rapid-fire shotgun blasts will approximate something between a softball to a basketball sized mass of 00 buckshot pellets that stand a far better chance of immediately tagging and incapacitating your assailant(s) than even emptying the magazine of your AR-15 will accomplish. Suddenly accounting for all thirty of your FMJ 5.56 or .223 rounds are out the window and your near-by neighbors are all at risk! There’s a big difference between a 500-meter and a 50-meter effective range, you know.
You can learn more about the trench gun here. Keep in mind, too, the effects of noise and flash. Your thirty-round burst has probably blinded you (in a nighttime scenario) but worse, firing in an enclosed space, you’ve now most likely ruptured your eardrums, too. (Darn, I should have grabbed those earplugs on the nightstand, too, right?). Your indiscriminate firepower of your AR-15 is far more harmful than the surgical shotgun blasts pose to your eyesight and hearing. So now the remaining assailants (if any and able, lol) are on the run and retreating. All fired up with adrenaline, you slap that second thirty-round magazine into your AR and start slinging 500-meter lead all over the neighborhood. Whoo Hoo – see the lawsuits coming? Remember, Castle Doctrine only protects you in your castle and not beyond, and certainly NOT once the bad guys start retreating.
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Support Your Fellow LibertariansNon Crappy CraftsAngela Humphries is a free-spirited watercolor artist who lives by the calm, colorful waters of New Bern, North Carolina. With her loose, expressive strokes, she works to impress the magic of flora and fauna onto her canvases. Her lighthearted, whimsical mark making, infused with the inspiration of her surroundings, invites admirers to walk in nature to enjoy it’s beauty and magnificence. Angela is a member of the North Carolina Watercolor Society and enjoys working in the privacy of her small home studio. She shares more of her work in the digital realm on her greeting card creations. Her work may be discovered in New Bern, NC at the local Bank Of The Arts Gallery, as well as the Nautical Star Coffee Shop and finally her online store via Etsy. --- Dr. Dan's Freedom Forum Radio"The right to own private property that cannot be arbitrarily regulated or confiscated by the government is the moral and constitutional basis for individual freedom" Listen Live: Freedom Forum Radio Podcast: Freedom Forum Radio Podcast Index ---
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