I love my life in New Hampshire! As someone who moved from New York City in February 2008 (during, yes, a blizzard because LIBERTY IS WORTH IT!), and as someone who has been actively involved in increasing Liberty in Our Lifetime here in the Free State since then, it is SUPER VALIDATING to see the massive interest and growth in the Free State Project that is happening right now, including yesterday’s “pre-game” events that took place across the state before our SOLD OUT Liberty Forum 2022. [Looking to get a flavor from the past? Check out this Bitcoin Magazine coverage from 2014.]
Firstly, the bus tour! Dennis Pratt, Chef de Village at PorcFest, has been putting together several regional luxury bus tours to showcase this incredible little country-state we get to live in to newcomers. Everyone I spoke to said the tour was amazing!
I met up with the passengers for lunch at Brian B’s Appeal to Heaven spot in Weare, where he is renting his property to a brand-new homeschool initiative, Granite Minds Homeschooling, spearheaded by Michelle McC.
Brian put together the lunch, catered by Lauren N, with venison or vegan stew and salad, to show off the barn on his property that recently became available after an antique store closed. I love me a good roughhewn New England barn (hey, we all our have our weird loves!) so I wanted to check it out for myself, and I was not disappointed. This beautiful old barn is a great space that will likely get snagged by the homeschoolers, but it would, nudge nudge, wink, wink, make a great interim FSP Museum while I figure out the final location. [HERE? HMU if you want to invest!]
About 70 people attended the luncheon, and Brian spoke about his journey to NH, how he moved in 2016, left for a while and as he travelled extensively, realized ONLY NEW HAMPSHIRE AND THE FREE STATE make sense as a long-term strategy for freedom for him, personally. So he came back. While it still hurts when people leave (but you can’t control other people’s choices), everyone who comes back gets forgiven! 😉
Late afternoon, I headed over to Liberty Forum to help set up the merch table, and ran into these incredible women working tirelessly to expand liberty for themselves and their children. If you want a Porcupine Day VI mug or a copy of my book, The Ecstatic Pessimist: Stories of Hope (Mostly) please stop by today ($20 each). You can also sign up for the hosted dinners for tonight, so make sure to stop by and say “hi”.
We’re the fab women of the Free State and we’re making Liberty in OUR lifetimes happen in the @FreeStateNH. Excited to share our community with newcomers at Liberty Forum this weekend! @RachelBTCsmith @chrislopez2004 @Constance_603 pic.twitter.com/6F7dhhOSnh
— Carla Gericke, Live Free And Thrive! (@CarlaGericke) March 4, 2022
Ran into some of my favorite visiting speakers, including Brownstone’s Jeffrey Tucker, who is a stalwart speaker at our events. He looked dashing, as always, with his bowtie and sporting a new, somewhat superhero-y cape. It gets cold in New Hampshire in the winter so as one fashionista to another… I geddit!
Louis and I topped off the evening by hosting a dinner at 110 Grill on Elm Street in downtown Manchester. About a dozen people came and we chatted about life and liberty, about where people live now and what it would take to persuade them to move (A.B.C., baby!) and even some locals came [<–#winning]. Of course, Covid-Mania was the main topic, but it was cool to learn about the activism and passions driving people interested in the Free State Project. I hope y’all move (or stay!).
Today, Saturday, March 5th 2022, kicks off with Rachel Goldsmith, Liberty Forum 2022’s main producer, opening the event at 9AM and then there is an amazing day of speakers. Nothing beats learning from some of the greatest free thinkers of our times!
I’ll catch y’all over there for Jeffrey Tucker’s 10AM talk, and then I am very much looking forward to hearing from Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, especially since Jimmy Wales, the other Wikipedia founder, refused to speak at Liberty Forum back when I invited him years ago because I supported Ross Ulbricht and encouraged Lyn to speak at our events.
I’ll report back with more details as the weekend progresses, but follow me on Twitter to stay tuned in the meantime!