The Travis County Libertarian party or the TCLP as it likes to be called, endorses a live cablecast show on Austin cable access channel 10 called, “ live and let live”. Most Austinites just flipping through the channels may have run across it a time or two, I know I have. I remember watching it once and got very curious about what exactly the Libertarian party stood for. The show mentioned that there was a weekly libertarian lunch downtown on congress avenue open to anyone curious about the party. I wanted to know more, so one Sunday I headed on down to the restaurant to meet with the locals and take it all in. This must have been over a year ago when I did this; I know it must have been before the last local election, because as a result of my curiosity I voted strait Libertarian.
People may think that things as small as a local public access show or even a local radio show do nothing to get a party moving in the big picture of a campaign, but I disagree. Grassroots efforts send a ripple in the collective unconscious of the people who make up a community. It gets people discussing the topics and the platforms of a campaign.
Personally, Neal Boortz on KLBJ is my favorite local Libertarian. I agree with him on just about everything, like today with his comments on whether Ahmadinejad should speak at Columbia University. I agreed, I also thought Ahmadinejad should be able to give his speech and answer questions. It reminded me of something that happened a while back at the University of Texas. Henry Kissinger was supposed to give a speech, but UT caved to protesters and cancelled it. I remember being really upset not because I just love Henry Kissinger, but because we still have free speech in this country. He should have been allowed to speak. I’m not stupid, I know about the whole war crimes issue with him so protests and information should be brought into the light, but cancelled speeches at our nation’s universities irk me. That is where the exchange of ideas should happen. If the minute men wanted to speak at UT I wouldn’t go hear them, but I wouldn’t hinder them from giving their opinion on immigration control.
Free speech is a right that is constantly being challenged. Right now in Paris Texas a blogger’s rights for anonymity are being challenged. On Friday, September 21, 2007 R.G. Ratcliffe, from the Houston Chronicle stated, “There is little case law in Texas or nationally to give judges a standard for when to expose anonymous postings on the Internet”. (http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/09/21/0921blogsuit.html) So I feel pretty safe giving my anonymous opinions about things at the present moment.
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