News

Unveiling the Ona Judge Mural

This entry was posted in News and tagged history liberty New Hampshire on by

On Saturday, May 23, I went to Portsmouth to see the unveiling of the mural of Ona Judge. The crowd was huge, spilling over onto Court Street so the police had to close the street for a block. I’d say a couple of hundred. Various speakers had their say. Some were politicians who showed up to look important, others were actually involved with the project, and one was the artist. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear any of them very well from where I was.

The main point of this post is to let you see the pictures, so I’ll leave it at that.

Ona Judge mural with crowd around it

Ona Judge

This entry was posted in News and tagged history liberty music New Hampshire on by

On Saturday, May 23, at 2 PM, a mural of Ona Judge will be unveiled at 222 Court Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I would have missed it except for someone passing on the news yesterday evening. It’s supposedly historically accurate, and it will be a good addition to Portsmouth’s many historical sights. I like to think of her as one of the first Free Staters.

In looking for information about her and the event, I learned that today, May 21, is Ona Judge Day in Philadelphia. So that’s two reasons for quickly throwing together a post this morning.

I should also mention my song about her, “Washington’s Slave”, which is on Bandcamp as part of my album, The Road to Freedom.

Kingston and Newton and ICE. Oh, my!

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged ICE liberty New Hampshire on by

Two towns bordering on the one where I live are entering 287(g) agreements to collaborate with ICE. As you can guess, this has me worried. I have to go through Kingston to reach places to the north like Exeter and Portsmouth, unless I take a longer way around. Probably I’m not in much personal danger, but no one is safe when ICE is around.

I don’t know why the police departments of Newton and Kingston made this decision. Maybe there was money for them, or they were put under pressure, or they like bashing immigrants. Regardless, it will force people to think about how they interact with the cops. A casual request for information on a neighbor might be a prelude toward a snatch. People whose immigration status has the slightest doubt will need to avoid the police, and they’ll have to think twice before reporting crimes. Even people who just look foreign will have reason to worry. The big question is whether they’re now working for the people of their town or for Donald Trump.

NHPR says there are nineteen municipalities in the state that have made deals with ICE. They’re found all over, but the heaviest concentration is in the southeast part of the state. Rockingham County has cut a deal, thanks largely to Trump pawn Steven Goddu. The town of Troy, in the southwest, has been especially aggressive, to the point that it might be wise to avoid Troy altogether.

So far I haven’t heard of anything happening in Plaistow, but it could be the next domino. I’ve contacted the acting police chief urging the town not to collaborate with ICE. In a small town, one voice can make a difference.

The New Hampshire “Sanctuary Cities” laws are often interpreted as requiring cooperation with ICE, but that’s not really true. Basically, they forbid the adoption of non-cooperation policies, but they don’t require law enforcement to do anything. Governor Ayotte has pandered to the immigrant-haters in talking about the legislation, but her rhetoric is worse than the laws’ content.

People in 287(g) towns should know their rights when encountering ICE. The ICE agents may not care, but following these guidelines will help you in subsequent legal battles.

There’s some good news to go with the bad; Grafton County is pulling out of its ICE agreement under public pressure.

Whatever happens, these agreements will increase the distance between the people and the police, and some will be more afraid to report crimes or share information. The Kingston and Newton police departments have slapped their towns’ residents in the face. The residents need to be prepared.

Reclaiming liberalism, revisited

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The words “liberal” and “liberty” look similar, and they come from a common root. At one time, the word referred to the advocacy of liberty. In the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in the USA, it took on a different meaning, advocacy of government as the solution to everything. The pendulum is swinging, back, though. As I noted in my earlier post on “reclaiming liberalism,” advocates of liberty and justice under law are being attacked as “liberals.” Meanwhile, the government-solves-everything bunch now prefers to call itself “progressive.” They’re vague on what they’re progressing toward.

I’m bringing this up again because the Institute for Humane Studies has launched an exciting new website, Liberalism.org. Many of the names on it will be familiar to advocates of liberty: Jason Kuznicki, Aaron Ross Powell, Radley Balko, Ilya Somin, Sarah Skwire, and others. And they pay for articles! I need to look into that. Their choosing to label the site liberal rather than libertarian is significant. While there are still overtly libertarian individuals and organizations fighting a good fight, the Libertarian Party has damaged the name by accommodating populists. It’s time to say that we, not the Democratic Party, are the real liberals.