Good evening and thank you. That was a very fine introduction. I couldn't have written a better one, myself.

I wanted to address this group for several reasons. First, I was asked in January to help the Harris County Libertarian Party by coordinating speakers. So, I wanted to report on a few of the speakers that I've identified, and request additional support from this audience. Second, I wanted to speak briefly about what I think it means to be a libertarian today, especially given recent events both locally and nationally. Third, I wanted to speak in general terms, and some specifics about things that we, as libertarians, ought to be doing. Finally, I wanted to speak here tonight because it wasn't practical to arrange for another speaker on such short notice.

Let me begin by speaking about the speakers I've identified so far. Tom Glass has agreed to speak at our March Supper Club on the subject of the Fully Informed Jury Association, and will probably relate some interesting facts on the Laura Kriho case, about which I'll mention more later. Rob Thorn has agreed to speak. As you may know, he recently ran for Congress, and has been the host of a radio talk show. I've also gotten an expression of interest from Thomas Rush, who is active in Libertarian politics in the northern part of this county. Finally, I've gotten a strong interest from Victor Milán, an author of over 70 books, many of which have very strong libertarian themes. Victor lives in New Mexico, and if we want him to speak to us, we'll need to organize a special event, which is also something I'll talk about later.

I mentioned that I want some additional support from this audience. If you would like to speak at one of these supper club meetings, please see me after my speech. Also, if you would like to speak at other venues, I'm working on such arrangements. Second, if you know of anyone that you would like to hear speak, or that you think might be available to speak, please let me know. I'm interested in all ideas, even if you think the person might want a speaking fee or expenses paid. Let's get lots of ideas on the table first, and then we'll worry about logistics. For now, if you'll just hold your thoughts until after the meeting, we can talk directly then.

In any event, four people have already come forward with an interest in speaking. I'm pretty sure there are some others I can convince to speak, and I'll be working on that in the coming months. However, I hope we can have at least three of these speakers at our next three Supper Clubs. One of my goals for this month is to identify a complete list of speakers for as far out in the future as possible, but not less than a year. That way we can make everyone aware of the whole series of speakers, the specific dates for the Supper Clubs, and that should help attendance immensely.

On the subject of attendance, I wanted to speak briefly about the sort of person that I think should be attending these supper club meetings, and what it means to be that sort of person. Of course, I'm talking about libertarians. I hope that everyone here tonight is a libertarian, or is dating one.

What does it mean to be a libertarian? There are a number of definitions, of course. One of them speaks to the non-aggression principle. There is a magazine that has been distributed online since October 1995 called The Libertarian Enterprise. For many months now, every issue has included the statement, "A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

From my perspective, that's a pretty good definition, although a bit long, and perhaps a bit involved. Let's say that it might add a certain amount of confusion to the uninitiated.

My favorite dictionary, American Heritage, offers this definition: "One who believes in freedom of action and thought. One who believes in free will." In my view, this dictionary definition is somewhat better, because it is much easier to comprehend.

However, I would argue, at length if necessary, that freedom of action and thought is only possible in a place where people agree that the initiation of force is wrong, and refuse to engage in it, or even to use the threat of force for purposes of intimidation. I think we will all agree, after even the briefest of reflections, that we don't live in such a place.

It is often said that this is a free country, but for many years that simply hasn't been true. The governments of our country and of our cities consistently use force for a variety of immoral purposes.

• Folks are not free to travel. In many cities, Atlanta Georgia, for example, road blocks are used aggressively to stop all travelers, require that they identify themselves, and subject them to random searches.
• Folks are not free to express themselves. In Houston, people who use dance as a form of expression are being required to register, obtain permits which may be denied for many reasons, and wear an identity card at all times while performing. The Communications Decency Act is another example of how the government is attempting to regulate speech. We may see that overturned by the Supreme Court, but we can be assured that it is not the only, nor the last threat to free speech. The Federal Communications Commission is considering a new rule to allow local phone companies to charge a per minute fee for Internet access.
• Folks are not free to petition the government for redress of grievances in an unabridged fashion. For example, in order for your comments to the FCC to "count" in their review of the proposed new rule, you have to submit an original and four copies. If you sent your email without including your physical address, I'm told your comments will be deleted without further ado.
• Folks are not free to keep and bear arms. All manner of restrictive gun laws have been passed, and more are on the way.
• Folks are not secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects from unwarranted searches and seizures. All manner of violations of this provision of the Constitution are undertaken every day. Examples include compulsory breath testing, compulsory fingerprinting for drivers licenses, and compulsory blood and urine testing.
• Folks are still not informed of their right to remain silent, their right to an attorney, and other Fifth Amendment rights. These are regularly denied or subverted.
• Folks are not given the same rights to trial by jury that were traditionally available. Laura Kriho and many other jurors have faced punishment for speaking out against unjust laws, and for refusing to convict persons accused of violating laws which they believe are unfair or unconstitutional.
• Folks are not free from double jeopardy, nor is the Seventh Amendment requirement that no fact decided by a jury can be considered in any other court being upheld. Bernard Goetz and OJ Simpson, among many others, have been subjected to lengthy and costly civil trials after being acquitted of all charges in criminal trials.

Beyond the many and diverse failures to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties, we are beset on every side by attacks on our property. Civil forfeiture laws have recently been upheld by our nation's highest court, so we have to fight that one in the legislatures, or with a Constitutional Amendment. The Internal Revenue Service continues to pretend that its actions are authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment. I should point out that the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment prohibiting the sale and consumption of intoxicating liquors were repealed in some part by the 21st Amendment, so it is possible to repeal an amendment to the Constitution, or amend one of its fundamental provisions. At the same time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, pretends that its regulation of the liquor industry is authorized by the same 21st Amendment that repealed Prohibition. Again and again it uses this unfortunately worded Amendment to strike at all manner of property rights.

The so-called elastic clause, which allows Congress to regulate commerce among the Several States, with Indian tribes, and with foreign nations, has been abused to such an extent that it is frequently quoted as the authority whereby Congress regulates minimum wages or the right to carry guns near public schools. It has also shown up in all manner of controversies over whether commercial speech is protected to the same extent as private or political speech. The tobacco industry is facing new reasons to regret its capitulation in being forbidden the right to advertise on television, with all kinds of restrictions on where and how they can advertise.

Taxes are too outrageous to number. The maximum tax rate is now 38% for federal income taxes, to which those self-employed must add 15.3% payroll taxes, and to which we in Houston must add 8.25% sales tax, plus numerous other taxes such as a 38 cent a gallon set of gasoline taxes, a cigarette tax, all manner of duties and customs fees, alcohol taxes, property taxes, airline ticket tax, and numerous user fees. My list is by no means comprehensive. Adding these up, a conservative estimate of your tax burden is 67%. But it doesn't stop there. You pay higher prices everywhere because of the tax burden on others. At least half of the money that remains to you is allocated to taxes by the people you buy goods and services from. And if you think that it is still possible, however unpleasant, to live on 16.5% of your annual income, you must also consider the impact of regulations. Milk, which is merely water that has been passed through a cow, costs more per gallon than gasoline because the price is artificially supported by intervention from your government. Other regulations affect the cost of telecommunications, the cost of motor vehicles, the cost of almost every product ever sold. Regulations have been estimated to eliminate over 12% of the real income of the average American. That leaves you with less than 5%.

Think about that. "Here's one for you, nineteen for me. Because I'm the tax man. You think 5% a bit too small? Be thankful I don't take it all."

And it isn't like regulations are saving lives. The requirement that we have mandatory seat belts laws in every state was foisted on us because the auto industry told us they didn't want to be forced to put passive restraints and airbags in every car. Yet, after those seat belt laws were passed, the federal regulators insisted that airbags be phased in, anyway. Ralph Nader and his allegedly "public interest" research groups rejoiced as more and more new model cars were made available with airbags. Unfortunately, we find that if infants, such as young Gabby here, are put in the front passenger seat of a car, and the airbag goes off, the infant can be decapitated. Oh, gee, Ralph, minor omission, do you suppose?

Children are being used as the excuse for many restrictive regulations. In spite of a long-standing prohibition that keeps children out of adult entertainment clubs in Houston, and in spite of an existing ordinance keeping such establishments at least 750 feet away from churches, schools, parks, and other such establishments, a new ordinance has been passed by your City government insisting that all such establishments must be moved to a minimum of 1,500 feet from churches, schools, parks, and each other. The excuse is that children must be protected.

In spite of a long-standing prohibition against the sale of tobacco to minors, which interferes with the rights of parents who wish to send their children to the store to pick up their smokes, the FDA is now considering rules to regulate the sale of tobacco, requiring all adults to show photo ID before purchase.

The Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno, has claimed that the actions of the ATF and the FBI in attacking the Branch Davidian church near Waco, Texas, were taken in defense of the children inside. She makes that claim in spite of the fact that Texas Child Protective Services investigated that church on two occasions and could find no evidence of wrongdoing. She also makes that claim in spite of the fact that in the second attack, the entire population of children inside were burned to death by the direct actions of the FBI.

Other deaths may be attributed to the actions of government agents and police officers who are not doing their duties properly. Ruby Ridge, Waco, the MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia and many instances of individual abuse have been documented. A partial listing I've been developing on my web site since earlier this month has already reached 107. That's pretty serious. The Boston Massacre in 1770 only killed 5 American colonists.

So, there is no way in which America can properly be described as a free country. There are many, many reasons for libertarians to be concerned. Even if you don't agree with half of the problems I've identified as being real, or a subject of tremendous concern, I think you'll agree that there is plenty to worry about.

That leads me to my third area of discourse. What the hell should we be doing? Obviously, there are many things we can do. We need to begin developing specific plans in many different areas. And we need to become much more organized so that we can carry out those plans, meet our goals, and extend beyond our goals towards our ideals. Finally, we need tests to evaluate plans and projects to determine whether they are worth our efforts.

Let me expand on that a bit. We need specific plans in many areas. We need a plan for recruiting members to this group. The attendance here is pretty sparse, but more than sufficient for a recruiting drive. We need to contact many of the thousands of voters who voted Libertarian in the November election, because we don't have most of them in our database. We need to come up with mechanisms for recruiting, and we need to implement many of the mechanisms that we already know will work.

With members will come money. But we also need a specific plan of action for fundraising. The Party needs money. It needs money to recruit members. It needs money to communicate with those members. It needs money to expand the newsletter, so that more content can reach its members. It needs to print many more copies of the newsletter and find ways to get those distributed at the meetings of groups where libertarians might be found, such as the Houston Area League of PC Users meetings. We need to have good Internet communications, with alerts going out on email when important matters come to our attention. Most of all, we need to be able to spend money helping candidates get on the ballot and get elected. All these things cost money.

We need a specific plan for recruiting and training candidates for office. We need a specific plan for each election on how we are going to go about winning each race in which we have a candidate for office. We need a plan for recruiting staff and volunteers for campaign activities. We need a specific plan for raising money for each candidate.

We need a specific plan for outreach, to arrange speaking engagements for libertarian speakers to talk to audiences far and wide. This outreach program should include a series of special events, at least once a year, on the order of a conference or convention. This convention would attract libertarians and folks who are active on various issues such as victim disarmament, fully informed juries, repealing the income tax, eliminating the drug laws, and many other matters. I'm not talking about a political convention, I'm talking about a public event where we charge for admission and have speakers, workshops, parties, dances, banquets, and other organized activities over a two or three day period. This Liberty Conference can be an important form of outreach, if planned and organized properly it can help raise a great amount of money, it can be an opportunity for media coverage, it can help educate our members and ourselves, as well as members of the public, and it can be a forum for the exchange of ideas.

We also need a specific plan for organizing our communities. Harris County is a very large area, with far too many people in it for us to hope to embrace every libertarian in the entire county unless we have a lot of help. We should plan to organize Libertarian groups on college campuses, we should encourage children to organize such groups in high schools both public and private, we should organize groups in different parts of town. And we should help neighboring communities organize, as well.

Let me review what I think we need to do, and please be clear that if folks are already working in these areas, all I ask is that we plan carefully and do more.

• We need a plan to actively recruit thousands of members from all over the county.
• We need a plan to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars this year
• We need a plan for recruiting and training a candidate for every office on the ballot in 1998 and 2000
• We need a plan to reach out into the community, and bring that community together at our events.
• We need a plan to organize students and adults in groups all over the area.
• We need a plan to carry our efforts into neighboring communities, neighboring states, and throughout the nation.

Why? As Edmund Burke said, after hearing about the Boston Massacre in 1770, "When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

We have that choice. We can continue to go about our business, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. Be assured, those in power will continue to use the State to oppress us. They will continue to select small groups and individuals for extra special treatment, and rob those people of their lives and fortunes. Those who run the State have made it clear that they want to control your life and mine. If we don't do anything about that, we won't be able to survive against their onslaught.

One other thing I promised to mention. We need to develop tests for our plans and our tactics and our specific operational activities. Here's one that I've been considering, and please feel free to think up others. I call this one the Financial Test of Libertarian Action. "Does the action I am taking do more to further my liberty and the liberty of others, than working the same length of time at the endeavor I use to earn money?" Obviously, if the answer is yes, you are doing more for freedom with the project than you would by making money for yourself and your family, then you should be doing that. And if the answer is no, I think you should be at work, instead.

Finally, tonight, I'd like to do two things. First, I'd like to ask each of you to pause for a moment tonight to reflect. What are you doing here? What are you building by that activity? What is necessary for us to live in a free society? Are you doing enough to further that possibility? Each of us is different, with different obligations and situations. But I want you to take these thoughts home with you and ponder them.

Lastly, I'd like to ask you to reflect on the possibility of living in a free nation. Suppose, somewhere on Earth, maybe even very close at hand, there was a place where you could live in complete freedom. No taxes. No regulations. Hardly any government. Complete protection of your rights. A court system to punish the criminal and enforce contracts, perhaps several competing court systems. An organized, well-regulated militia which can protect the people from all threats to liberty, from whatever source, internal or external. Most of all, a population as dedicated to liberty as you are. People who care about your freedom, seek to protect it, willing to die to defend it.

What would you give to live in a place like that? What would you spend to get there? And if you couldn't go there, but had to create a place like that here, what would you be willing to do?

I urge you to consider the possibilities. For me, I don't believe in predestined fate. The future is what I choose to create. I have no power to grant you freedom. Free Yourself.

Thank you.