Writes John Sampson:

I just had to write to say “Thanks!” and to tell you how much I admire your courage and your keen intelligence. Intelligence is not quite the correct word to use; lots of people are smart.  I mean Awareness, really, the bravery to look at reality without any preconceived notions and to call a spade a spade.  I mean your forthright sponsorship of a Stateless society, or peaceful anarchism, or the free-market organization of society.  I mean your acknowledgment that our government is a rogue government that violates all the principles it rhetorically supports: that it lies, cheats, kills, tortures, kidnaps, and destroys at will, all in the name of “good.”  And I admire your effectiveness.  You are doing a tremendous job winning hearts and minds.  That is the most challenging task we paleo-libertarians face. You are the man!

I am an instructor for the Appleseed Project.  I know you are aware of us; I first learned of Appleseed from an LRC link.  I taught at an Appleseed weekend “shoot” in Florida last weekend.  An integral part of Appleseed is telling the story of April 19, 1775.  Implicit in the story is individual sovereignty, the rule of law, and government of consent.  Yet some people showed up with a portable flagpole and our shoot Boss thought this was the greatest thing in the world.  He assembled it during lunch and ran up the national flag.  He exhorted the shooters at the end of the shoot, that our nation has drifted far from the ideals of the founding fathers (which I strongly agree with!!) and then offered the totally unrealistic solution to the “problem” that each person write short “minute-long” letters to their representatives letting them know how they feel about various issues.  And that they vote, after “learning everything about every candidate on the ballot.” He may have well said that if every American take off one week and go to the the Gulf Coast to pitch in, we can get the results of the oil spill cleaned up and everything will be OK.  I came away horrified and discouraged.

You must be discouraged very often.  The task before us seems insurmountable.  But when I consider that the Creator placed the spark of Liberty in each human heart, whether American or not, and created the laws of economics, I know that all is ultimately well, that we are on the winning side in the struggle either to advance civilization or sink into depravity.

So thank you for being the person you are, and for the work you do.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.