Free Town Project

The Free Town Project is an unofficial splinter group of the Free State Project that was started in 2003 to encourage libertariansto move to Grafton, NewHampshire. At least one member of the group, Larry Pendarvis, advocatedending "enforcement of Laws prohibiting victimless crime acts among Consenting Adults, such as Dueling, Gambling, Incest, Cannibalism and Drug Handling." [ [http://freetownproject.com/ The Free Town Project ] ] However, other members ofthe group, including Robert Hull, Tim Condon, and Mike Lorrey, publiclydisavowed such positions (although Condon called it a "scandal" that cannabis has not been legalized, especially for medicinal purposes).

The project founders, who included Larry Pendarvis, Robert Hull, Tim Condon,and Mike Lorrey, studied 21 towns before deciding on Grafton. All of thecandidates were New Hampshire towns with small populations and no zoninglaws. The founders decided on Grafton as a result of many factors, includingavailable land, a generally low level of commercialism andindustrialization, and local support for libertarianism. [ [http://freetownproject.com/Finding_the_Free_Town.html Finding_the_Free_Town ] ]

Whereas the Free State Project has generally attracted positive or neutralpublic attention, Pendarvis's radical writings on a Free Town Projectproject email list attracted attention from a Grafton resident (who nolonger lives in the town) who publicized them through an anonymous lettersent to the town's residents.

The result was a meeting in Grafton ostensibly for residents to learn aboutthe project, but organized mainly by local Democrats hostile to libertariansand the Free State Project; that group, calling itself "The Grafton Focus,"organized the meeting for June 19th, 2004 and invited representatives fromthe Free State Project, Free Town Project, and the New Hampshire Libertarianparty to clarify their intentions to concerned citizens. Despite theapparent bias of the meeting organizers, the then-president of the FreeState Project, Amanda Phillips (now a Harvard Law School student) attended,as did John Babiarz, a Grafton resident and then-chairman of the LibertarianParty of New Hampshire. Tim Condon flew up from his residence in Tampa,Florida at his own expense to address the group on behalf of the Free TownProject, and Mike Lorrey, a native of New Hampshire, attended and spoke infavor of the project. Bob Hull, who had already moved to Grafton andpurchased several hundred acres of land, attended but did not speak. LarryPendarvis, who lived in Florida, did not attend.

The meeting attracted between 200 and 300 Grafton residents (out of thetown's approximately 1,000 population). However, two out of the three townselectmen did not attend; nor did the town clerk or other leading citizens,apparently because the meeting was organized by the Grafton Focus Group andwas seen to be "stacked" against the Free Towners. Several of the speakerswho attended the meeting were shocked to see that someone had brought acasket to the meeting and propped it up on the back of their car; inside theopen casket was a faux corpse and a sign that said "Free State Project."Despite the hostility that had been generated by the Grafton Focus group,Amanda Phillips, Tim Condon, and Mike Lorrey all explained that the extremeviews of Larry Pendarvis were not shared by any of them (Tim Condon drew alaugh when he was asked if he personally believed in polygamy, saying "Mywife would kill me if I publicly endorsed polygamy, so I say no!"). JohnBabiarz also spoke. Although the mood of the crowd was often hostile,several people spoke from the audience saying that an influx of people whobelieved in privacy, individual freedom, and property rights would be goodfor the community.

The Free Town Project is not very active at this time, due to lack of participation, funding and "bad publicity". But a handful of Free State Project/Free Town Project members have moved to the town of Grafton. Of those who attended the meeting, Robert Hull and Tim Condon are nowresidents and landowners in Grafton, while others have alsomigrated to the small town where they are making friends, showing themselvesto be good neighbors, and becoming politically active (including by helpinglocal activists fight against increased taxes, local government privacyintrusions, and property rights incursions).

ee also

* Free State Project

External links

* [http://freetownproject.com/ Free Town Project website by Larry Pendarvis]

References