Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 14:52:44 -0700 (PDT) From: "David J. Edmondson" THE QUILL Queer Individual Liberty Letter, Vol. 2, No. 2, April, 1994 A publication of Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty Remarks Delivered on the First Anniversary of the Raid on Mt. Carmel James A. Long My remarks are addressed to William Jefferson Clinton, the President of the United States. Mr. President, as you know, today is the first anniversary of the ATF's raid on the Branch Davidians at Mt. Carmel, near Waco, Texas. Ten people were killed, including four ATF agents. You knew some of them. As you also know, a jury in Texas refused to convict any of the Branch Davidians of murder. Why not? A year before that, the ATF raided Randy Weaver in Idaho. Agents were killed there, too. Again, the jury refused to convict anyone of murdering the agents. In fact, the grand jury is expected to indict the agents for murder. What is going on here? Why are the people of Idaho and Texas refusing to put "cop killers" away? Mr. President, you know the answer as well as any of us do: The ATF is breaking the law. Now this is not your doing. These actions were begun long before you were elected. You inherited a mess. But now you are President of the United States. Your job is to "see that the laws are faithfully executed." The First Amendment is the law. Was it being faithfully executed? The Second Amendment is the law. Was it being faithfully executed? Mr. President, I want order in our society; I want to be able to respect the rule of law. But this is a two-way street; the agents of our government must also respect the law. Only you can ensure this. Mr. President, you recently received a letter signed by the heads of prominent civil-rights organizations, including the Gun Owners of America, the Drug Policy Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union. They urged you to appoint a commission to investigate abuse of power by Federal law-enforcement agencies. Please, sir, do so! Instruct the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the events at Mt. Carmel and to see that justice is done. I'd like to end on a personal note. Over two hundred years ago, Jeremiah Moore was jailed in Alexandria, Virginia. His offense was "preaching without a license." Elder Moore was an early adherent of the Baptist faith. This incident, among others, moved Governor Thomas Jefferson to promulgate the Virginia statute guaranteeing religious freedom. He thought this was so important that it's the first thing he listed on his tombstone. I am a descendant of Elder Jeremiah Moore. You, Mr. President, are named after Thomas Jefferson. Mr. President, which heritage will you advance? The heritage of hate and repression of the British Redcoats, or the heritage of Thomas Jefferson and Jeremiah Moore, the heritage of liberty and toleration? Thank you. [Mr. Long delivered this speech at a vigil held on February 28 in remembrance of the Waco massacre. The next vigil will be on April 19, 6:00-7:30 p.m., in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. We urge our readers to attend.] National Everything Care Dave Edmondson By now most of us have seen the posters in college towns and trendy neighborhoods reading, "Health care is a right, not a business." As the reasoning goes, because health care is necessary for survival, everyone must have access to it, preferably courtesy of a vast bureaucracy that limits everyone's options in the name of egalitarian ism. For this enlightened reason, Clinton proposes that the govern ment seize control over one-seventh of the national economy. But why stop with health care? Surely the principles that inform Clintoncare have relevance to other human needs at least as compelling as health care, including such usual suspects as food, clothing, and shelter, as well as to such newly discovered basic necessities as Internet access. To this end, I propose an exciting new government program to supply such needs in a manner keeping with progressive notions of fairness--National Everything Care. For example, any unfortunates in our society have a hard time paying for food. Yet we cannot simply give these unfortunates food stamps (or, heaven forbid, private charity) for the same obvious reason for which we cannot simply help poor people pay for health care. Nor can we do away with the federal and state laws and regulations, many dating from the Depression, that drive up food costs. Instead, we must take control of the production, distribution, and preparation of food in America to give everyone a right to food that cannot be taken away. Regional food alliances should solicit bids from the companies that now provide food services to schools and airlines to run public-sponsored cafeterias where everyone, upon submission of a food security card, can receive the food that a government nutrition board deems appropriate. The same goes for clothing. Catholic schools have the right idea in making everyone wear uniforms; this wonderful concept of enforced uniformity--oops, I mean egalitarian empowerment--should also serve adults. Moreover, we have a crisis of affordable housing not because of strict property-use laws that take choice in the housing market from potential renters and confer it on zoning boards, but because of unmanaged competition, which, as we all know, drives up prices. Therefore, public housing authorities, which have done such an admirable job of providing the poor with safe, pleasant, and well maintained places to live, should become the sole providers of housing to all Americans. Finally, government should guarantee access to information. Many persons in both government and the media have called for federal guarantees of access to the Internet. These persons correctly perceive that Americans who neither know nor care how to set the clock on the VCR desperately need anonymous ftp, telnet, and the like. And now that I've mentioned VCR's, what shall we do with those [insert automotive cliche here] on the information highway? We must nationalize them, along with video stores and TV sets, to avoid dividing society into video haves and have-nots. Never mind that people who want these things manage to find ways to pay for them. When government assumes control over the flow of information, it will be in an ideal position to regulate the content of that informa tion in the public interest. After all, unnecessary information will drive up the costs for everybody and thus defeat the purpose of our noble venture. Therefore, local authorities such as the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors must regulate the distribution of information not only in public libraries, but also in every other forum. {Begin Advertisement} THE EXCHANGE: CULTURE REASON STYLE North America's Libertarian Culture Magazine $20/Four Issues (sample issue $5) Dept. C4, 711 15th St. SE, Cedar Rapids IA 52403, 319-365-2491 E-Mail: xchange@univscvm.csd.scarolina.edu {End Advertisement} GLIL to Hold April Business Meeting GLIL will hold a business meeting later this month, tentatively scheduled for Sunday evening, April 24. The location and exact time are TBA; if you are interested in participating, call Dave Edmondson at 703-519-0034. We presently have two agenda items for this meeting. First, we need to plan for Gay Pride Day and other upcoming events. Second, we need to find a new president, as Kelly Young has informed us at the most recent GLIL happy hour that he is stepping down. We need both input and volunteers to make GLIL effective in spreading the message of individual liberty. Also, please note that a vigil in remembrance of the Waco massacre will take place on Tuesday, April 19, at the time and place indicated at the end of the "Mt. Carmel" article above. What Is GLIL? _The Quill: Queer Individual Liberty Letter_ is the bimonthly newsletter of Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty (GLIL), an organization of classical liberals, market liberals, limited- government libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and objectivists. GLIL publishes _The Quill_ to promote the political philosophy of individual liberty, both generally and as it affects lesbians, gay men, and bisexual persons. In addition to this newsletter, GLIL sponsors a happy hour on the first Tuesday of every month at Trumpets, 17th and Q streets, N.W., from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. We also host speakers and debates on issues of concern to our community; as events are scheduled, they will be announced both in _The Quill_ and in _The Washington Blade_. For more information, please contact GLIL as follows: Mail: PO Box 65743, Washington Square Station, Washington DC 20035-5743 Telephone (voice/facsimile): 703-519-0034 Internet: ghoti@netcom.com We welcome articles and letters to the editor. You may send submissions for the next issue through May 15. We shall also be happy to add you to our mailing list; while we do not currently charge for _The Quill_, we should appreciate a contribution to help cover the costs of printing and mailing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dave Edmondson ghoti@netcom.com, 72020.600@compuserve.com, dave.edmondson@glib.org "Exalted Master, you told us that the world would end yesterday." "My child, it did end yesterday, but you're too sinful to notice."