Free State Project Mover Events: March 2016
Free State Project movers are setting up activism events and social meetups every day, all across New Hampshire! Here is a small sampling of Porcupine-friendly events taking place this month that we wanted to feature, with a full look at ALL of the events happening in March listed on the NH Liberty Central Google Calendar at the bottom of the page.
Free State Project New Mover Party
Tuesday, March 1 at 7pm
The Quill, Manchester
[View address and RSVP here]
The Free State Project hosts monthly New Mover Parties to welcome recent movers to New Hampshire. (Come hungry and bring a dish! It’s always a potluck!) FSP New Mover Parties are held at The Quill—a private, member-supported, pro-liberty community activism center on the west side of Manchester, NH—on the first Tuesday of each month at 7pm. Make sure to email [email protected] to let Free State Project volunteers know that you’ve arrived in New Hampshire and that you’d like to attend the next New Movers Party; they’ll give you your official FSP mover number and all the info you’ll need to come get acquainted!
Community Market Day: Manchester, NH
Sunday, March 6 and March 20 at 12-4pm
(Yoga with Yury starts at 11am)
Private residence, Manchester, NH
[View address and RSVP here]
The Community Market Day Project connects liberty-lovers who are looking to engage in voluntary exchange of products and services! It’s here that you’ll find your friends and neighbors—hobbyists, home-based business owners, and even local farmers—bartering and selling handmade soaps, jewelry, crochet/knit goods, organic bulk pantry items, natural household products, baked goods, along with homegrown meats, eggs, produce, and more! Clothing alterations, chiropractic treatments, hypnotherapy, yoga, and therapeutic massage are just some of the services you might expect to find at a Community Market Day event!
The March 20th Community Market Day will also feature a screening of the powerful documentary, In Transition 2.0, “an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You’ll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It’s an idea that has gone viral, a social experiment that is about responding to uncertain times with solutions and optimism. In a world of increasing uncertainty, here is a story of hope, ingenuity and the power of growing vegetables in unexpected places.”
Public Hearing: Croydon School Board vs. NH Department of Education
Wednesday, March 9 at 1pm
Sullivan County Superior Courthouse, Newport, NH
[RSVP on Facebook]
Free State Project early mover Jody Underwood, Ph.D is the Chair of the Croydon School Board, which is currently embroiled in a battle for school choice continues with the New Hampshire Department of Education.
The tiny town of Croydon, NH implemented a cost-savings school choice program that enables families to pick alternatives to their “anchor” school. Although the state seemed to be cooperative in the early stages, the NH Department of Education now wants to end parents’ right to school choice. Currently four Croydon students are utilizing the program to attend a private school at a SAVINGS of roughly $16,000 to the town each year.
In mid-December, the state failed to receive an injunction that would have immediately stopped tuition payments to the private school, effectively forcing the Croydon students back into a district that does not fit their educational needs. This is the hearing that will address the legal standing of Croydon’s school choice program. The outcome will have a major impact on alternatives other towns with small and declining enrollment could offer to their residents. Please come out to support school choice and parents—not the state—choosing what is best for their kids’ education.
Please also consider signing School Choice of New Hampshire‘s email petition telling the NH Department of Education and the NH Attorney General’s office that they should stop wasting taxpayers’ money to continue their harassment of the Croydon school choice program.
“If you really want kids to get an adequate education, the schools have to suit them. […] One girl, who was not doing well in Newport schools at all, is thriving at the Montessori school. It’s not a one size fits all. Every kid learns differently.” —Jody Underwood, Ph.D
Jury Nullification Outreach: Phat Stuff Trial
Tuesday, March 15 at 8am
US Federal Courthouse, Concord, NH
[RSVP on Facebook]
On May 8, 2014, thieves from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided Phat Stuff, a head shop on Main St. in Keene run by Panos and Katie Eliopoulos. An estimated $100,000 worth of pipes were stolen by the federal thugs with badges, who then went to the the owners’ private home and arrested them in front of their children, just before seizing a Ford F-250 truck and $15,000 from the family’s personal bank account.
The DEA’s ludicrous case surrounding this victimless “crime” is finally going to a federal jury trial, nearly two years later. These entrepreneurs may be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in extorted fines, and could face up to 23 years of being locked in a cage, ripped away from their children and having their lives ruined… all for selling glass pipes to consenting adults within their community. Protect and serve, eh?
Activists are encouraged to distribute jury nullification pamphlets to potential jurors arriving for jury selection at the US Federal Courthouse in Concord, in the hopes of having this tortious breach of justice thrown out of court as quickly as possible. Do you really want YOUR hard-earned money getting stolen via taxation to keep these peaceful people incarcerated?
“Jury Nullification is the term given to the process where the jury of a criminal case acquits the defendant regardless if he has broken the law in question. The jury would do this in a case where they judge the law to be unjust, therefore the jury can vote to find the defendant innocent since the jury found the law itself to be immoral, unfair, unjustly applied, or unconstitutional.”
Strange that in the United States—the “land of the free”—we have less than 5% of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25% of the world’s total prison population. And nearly 86% of those people who are behind bars are there for victimless “crimes.” While activists in other states are getting charged with felonies for distributing jury nullification information, in New Hampshire—thanks to FSP mover efforts—defendants are allowed to ask the judge in a case to deliver these instructions to a jury: “Even if you find that the State has proven each and every element of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt, you may still find the defendant not guilty if you have a conscientious feeling that a not guilty verdict would be a fair result in this case.” And we’ve in fact seen Jury Nullification in action here in NH, freeing Keene activist James Cleaveland from the threat of unjust incarceration for videotaping police. (When will these police thugs learn that we CAN legally film them?!? Yeesh!)
NH Liberty Central Google Calendar
While we aim to feature just a few of the incredible pro-liberty events happening here in New Hampshire, the NH Liberty Central Google Calendar is definitely a great resource for meeting other FSP movers and learning about ALL of the activism opportunities, family gatherings, educational events, social meet-ups, volunteering, etc. taking place here in the Free State!
