Random Thoughts From the Polls By Marc Montoni A Libertarian went to Harrisonburg, and found a politician... You can finish the punch line. In all seriousness, I went to cover a couple of precincts on Tuesday, as many of you did. Granted, no one will ever make a movie about it, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but I did jot down a few notes on the experience nevertheless. I chose to work polls in Harrisonburg because not only did we have Rob Sarvis and Will Hammer on the ballot there, but also two friends of mine were running for Harrisonburg City Council -- Helen Shibut and Joshua Huffman. Helen was formally endorsed by the Harrisonburg Libertarian Committee, which she also chairs. Joshua chose to run as an independent. Both are members of the LP. During my day handing out literature, I had a chance to speak with other political activists and one or two candidates directly. One of the candidates I had a conversation with was a Harrisonburg City School Board candidate, Kelly Rooney. https://facebook/KellyRooneyforSchoolBoard As I spoke to her, the thought bounced around in my head that people with her attitudes are the reason why there are courts: to restrain the most extreme abuses of power by those who get elected to public office. Really: In everything she said, I heard not the least bit of a hint for compassion for taxpayers whatsoever. Im going to digress for a moment and review the profligate spending on just one school: Harrisonburg High School. There had been an existing school that was quite sufficient. In fact it fit so well with the city that in 1994 the city spent $11.4 million renovating it: cdn3.volusion/rtsdv.jdvdu/v/vspfiles/photos/161-Long-2.jpg?1390475283 But just six years later, the school board, in a fit of empire-building, decided it was no good any more. They went on to build an entirely new high school (opened 2005) at a cost of $42.4 million (the city still has $27 million remaining to pay off on it), and sold off the old one for not much more than they had just spent on it nine years earlier. The city built the brand-new Harrisonburg High School in a greenfield area which was generally not practical for students to walk to (the old school was centrally located and many students could and did walk or bike there). Hello, sprawl -- but thats another story. But the new school is palatial, it has great views of the Valley, and it has every luxury: staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~ajackson/uploads/1281728187.jpg Now, the educrats, including Ms Rooney, are talking about building yet another school just a few years after selling the grand old HHS school building. The price tag? Ive heard $30 million bandied about, but then government projects always bloat, so its a fair bet that it will end up costing $40 or $50 million. Plus interest. Rooney mentioned the new school briefly. There was no hint in anything she said that she thought the price tags so far mentioned were excessive. It sure seems unlikely that whatever the superintendent asks for, Rooney will not act as anything resembling a roadbloack to the excessive desires of the educrats. In other areas of the discussion, Rooney barely acknowledged that there are private schools; and pretty much dismissed homeschooling as an option altogether. A few of the things she said strongly suggests that if she had the opportunity and thought she could get away with it, she would be among those who would happily prohibit homeschooling. This is one of the more beneficial aspects of being in a Dillon Rule state: Petty local control freaks in every county and city cant change the rules willy-nilly based on their personal prejudices. they actually do have some constraints upon them. One of her supporters said, on the campaign Facebook page: I’m confident that voting for Kelly Rooney ... will enable Harrisonburg’s School Board to make decisions that are in the best interest of ALL the city’s children... Well, thanks, guys, but I dont want you making any decisions for me or my children AT ALL. Id much rather see petty bureaucrats made irrelevant. Their wishes and wants should have no effect on my life or that of my children. Libertarians can fight this two ways. One is to never, ever, let your children be mentally molested by the state. Homeschool, or private school your children. Taking warm bodies away from the school bureaucracy reduces their power. The more people who do it, the more educrats will simply be irrelevant and impotent. Second, Libertarians need to run for School Board. Yes, we would face a huge hurdle against getting elected, especially if were **honest** and call for alternatives to public schooling and steep, bone-deep cuts to the schools budgets: ontheissues.org/celeb/Libertarian_Party_Education.htm lewrockwell/2014/09/laurence-m-vance/why-libertarians-despise-public-schools/ wired/2008/01/a-libertarian-s/ Competing for those office enables a Libertarian to begin challenging the people who are wholesale enablers of the erosion of our rights. As things are now, they are never really challenged; they are never forced to defend their covetous actions in office. Attitudes that contribute to the increasing level of violence with which governments treat individuals (every tax is backed up by uniformed armed men) MUST be challenged. Even if the challenge ends in failure, they absolutely MUST be challenged -- because without a challenge, bad impulses only get bolder. This quote is one of my favorites, and sums it up well: Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue til they have resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress. -- Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849 Are **you** ready to challenge the state? If so, then run for office in 2015, for your local school board or any other office. Let us know here: Campaign.LPVA If youd like to see whats up for election next year, review the state election calendar: elections.virginia.gov/Files/Media/Calendar/2013_2017_Calendar.pdf Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------- Vote Libertarian. Challenge the state. Vote for freedom. LP.org * 800-ELECT-US
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 21:55:56 +0000
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