Liberty Maven

I’m a believer in freedom because of Harry Browne. Well, perhaps it was just convenience and timing, but I became a lover of liberty in the mid 90’s as a college student. Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party nominee for President in 1996 and 2000. He was a tall glass of freedom-loving ice water in the hot and dry politics-as-usual desert. He quenched my libertarian soul.

While everyone else is celebrating the “4th of July” I’m celebrating Independence Day. On this Independence Day I’m celebrating by remembering the man that spoke with my voice before I knew what my voice was. Browne wrote an article on July 4th, 2003 (3 years before he died) called, “Uncelebrating the 4th of July“.

The article sums up perfectly how I feel about Independence Day right now. As was so often the case, Harry Browne was years ahead of his time.

I remember around that same year (2003) I was one of those libertarians that supported the Iraq war. I was a libertarian-in-progress or maybe some today would have called me a “Wayne Allyn Root” libertarian. I wrote an email to Harry Browne giving him my opinion about the war and asking him what he thought of my reasoning. He didn’t think much of it.

I was surprised to get an almost immediate reply from him. I wish I saved it but I remember it very well. He more or less told me that he respected my opinion but he disagreed. He was always very considerate even in disagreement. He reminded me a lot of Ron Paul that way. He went on to tell me that he was sorry I didn’t see it his way and that in the future I would likely come around to his way of thinking. Needless to say, I did.

So on this Independence Day I will watch the fireworks and look beyond them to the stars and think of Harry Browne. I will then look into the eyes of my children in the hope that I will still be able to teach them what freedom truly means in an increasingly unfree world.

Please take time on this libertarian holy day and think about our Founding Fathers without prejudice. Think WWTFFD? Would they support government health care? Would they support Cap and Trade? Would they support government-run automobile companies? Would they support using taxes to prop up private industry? For that matter, would they support taxes at all?

You know the answers. Now honor our Founders by acting accordingly.

Harry Browne’s “Uncelebrating the 4th of July”:

Unfortunately, July 4th has become a day of deceit.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared its independence from Great Britain. Thirteen years later, after a difficult war to secure that independence, the new country was open for business.

It was truly unique — the first nation in all of history in which the individual was considered more important than the government, and the government was tied down by a written Constitution.

It was the one nation where you could live your life secure in the knowledge that no one would ask for your papers, where you weren’t identified by a number, and where the government wouldn’t extort a percentage of your income as the price of holding a job.

And so each year July 4th has been a commemoration of the freest country in history.

But the America that’s celebrated no longer exists.

Read the rest of Hary Brown’s excellent article here.