Darren Wolfe at the Montgomery County Day of Resistance (video)

As part of the nationwide series of rallies standing up for gun rights the liberty minded people of Montgomery County, PA came together. I had the honor of addressing them. In this speech I bring up the fact that in February of 2010 students in Venezuela marched unarmed and were violently repressed. Also brought up was the gun buyback in Bensalem, PA (http://theinternationallibertarian.blogspot.com/2013/02/bensalem-gun-buyback-video.html). The talk finished with the main point that we can't submit to the government when it comes to money confiscation (taxes) and then think we have a leg to stand on when they want to confiscate our guns.

Focus on Peace - Darren Wolfe at the Agora I/O Unconference March 26, 2011 (video)

The founder of Focus on Peace, Darren Wolfe, speaks about the new organization at the Agora I/O unconference in Valley Forge, PA on March 26, 2011. He explains why there is a need for a peace movement that isn't part of the political left. Darren goes into how a politically neutral peace movement, such as Focus on Peace, can bring into the movement many who will now have nothing to do with it.

Focus on Peace: A Peace Movement for Everyone

Like most libertarians I want to advocate for peace. I’ve worked with the left’s peace movement and have been frustrated by the fact that they insist on attaching their social and economic agendas to their activism. They then strangely say they have an "inclusive" peace movement. An excerpt from "An Inclusive Antiwar Movement?" illustrates this point well:

Libertarians are reaching out to the left to stand together for peace. (See "Organizing a Left-Right Alliance Against the War Parties ") This author approached the organizers of the October 16, 2010 peace rally in Philadelphia (See "Raising Eyebrows at a Peace Rally") at their planning meeting a few days before the event. There I was politely, but firmly, told that they were completely unwilling to change their agenda for future rallies to accommodate other points of view.

When the left tacks on a social agenda to their antiwar coalitions that the liberty minded cannot endorse they tell us we’re not welcome. We’re not asking any of the organizations and individuals that are part of IAC or similar groups to change their advocacy. Their speakers can advocate all the same things they have before. Same with the signs they carry. All we ask is that the antiwar coalitions themselves be politically neutral so we can all join them in good conscience.

On other sides of the political spectrum there are libertarian and conservative organizations that are anti war. However, while they advocate peace they are not, with rare exceptions, explicitly peace groups. They also don’t, with few exceptions, hold peace rallies or engage in other kinds of peace activism.

My recent experience with the Chester County Peace Movement also attaching their political and social agenda to their activism lead me to the conclusion that what we need is not to try to change the existing left wing peace movement but to broaden the movement by adding to it organizations that everyone can comfortably join. To that end I’ve created Focus on Peace, a peace activism group with no political agenda attached. We only advocate for peace, nothing else.

Why should you join us? If you’re an anti war conservative or a libertarian the answer is obvious, you can now engage in peace activism without feeling like you’re endorsing the left’s agenda.

If you’re on the left I ask you to join us too. Don’t leave the peace groups you’re presently working with, we need them strong. Some on the left that I’ve talked to have said they like the idea of working with people of other ideologies. Even if you’re perfectly happy with the peace movement as it is I ask that you join us. We need your support. Surely, peace lovers of every political persuasion can see the value of broadening the peace movement.

Focus on Peace will hold its first action on March 19th in King of Prussia, PA to coincide with the World Can’t Wait’s rallies on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Join us if you live nearby, start your own chapter if you don’t.

The wars abroad are less popular than ever. Now is the time to give people that are not on the left in their thinking a place to go to engage in activism for peace. Hopefully, Focus on Peace will fulfill that vital role.

"They’re Democrats here!"

"They’re Democrats here!". That’s what a man said when he saw me standing on the anti war side of the street. This was last Saturday in West Chester, PA where there are pro war and anti war factions demonstrating opposite each other each weekend. What got him started was seeing me holding up my Gadsden flag and a sign that reads "End the Fed - End the Wars" *:

(This picture is actually from a previous Saturday not the one this article is about.)

We had a pleasant conversation during which he said that I was on the wrong side of the street. This seemed like a very strange thing for him to say since I was with the people advocating peace and that is my stance as my sign makes clear. He explained that I was standing with Democrats that have insulted the troops and hate America. When I said that I stand here representing only my own libertarian views this man went on to say that he too was a libertarian and also a Ron Paul supporter. Continuing he claimed that he stands with the other side not supporting the war but supporting the troops and the country. That is how most on his side of the street feel, he added, though he did admit that some were neocons (his word).

During the whole conversation I kept feeling that this man was terribly confused. One cannot support the troops without supporting their mission. One cannot stand for their mission, imperial wars, while standing for the republic of the Founders (as one does by supporting Ron Paul).  Not to mention, I have to assume, that he thinks the Republicans are the good guys and the Democrats evil. (For the record, I think both parties are corrupt and evil.)

At this point it is worth looking at a picture of the pro war crowd:

(This picture is also from a previous Saturday not the one this article is about.)

In the picture we see many signs advocating victory also thanks to and support for the troops and their mission. None about liberty or bringing the troops home. There is a predominance of American flags too.

This brings to mind the warning by President John Quincy Adams from way back in 1821. On the 4th of July that year he gave a speech concerning the issue of whether or not the United States should support the Greeks in their bid for independence from the Turks. The she he refers to is the United States:

Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been unfurled, there will her  heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own...

The reason why the United States should not go abroad is made clear:

She well knows that, by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the color and usurp the standard of freedom.

President Adams went on to explain why this is a problem:

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlets upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished luster the murky radiance of dominion and power.

After speaking to that man on Saturday and reflecting on the pictures from the previous demonstrations two parts of President Adam’s speech really stand out. The first is, "…wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the color and usurp the standard of freedom." This, sadly, is an apt description of the wars the United States is now fighting and how the government propagandizes about them.

The second is a part of the speech not shared above that very accurately describes the United States today, "She might become the dictatress of the world; she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit." We will only find our spirit, the spirit of liberty, when we put fear aside, stop being an empire, and end the wars.

* The Fed is the Federal Reserve System, the American central bank.

TV and Newspaper Coverage of Rally for George Donnelly

The rally on Friday June 4, 2010 in Allentown, PA demanding the end of George Donnelly's legal ordeal was a smashing success. About thirty people marched in support holding signs and chanting. All was peaceful, the US Marshals behaved themselves this time.

The local TV station WFMZ covered the march:



A local weekly Spanish language newspaper, El Torero (no website), also covered us. Their next issue coming out on Thursday should have pictures and an article.

George Donnelly, Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) activist, was wrongly charged with assaulting a US Marshal on May 11, 2010.

A big thank you to all who participated.