My wife hails from Oklahoma (not terrible on the liberty scale), but I’m from New York, the Empire State, and the empire kept striking back. We both found ourselves in Boston for school, and while a palpable improvement for me, it wasn’t the lamp of liberty I was seeking when I left my loving parents for a career in journalism – to bring truth to the people so they could choose the freedom they deserved.
Just days before I almost left New England, I met my wife via my Craigslist ad – “Are there any Attractive, Libertarian Christian Women in Boston?” – and marriage and children would not be far off. We couldn’t stay in Massachusetts, as the state’s restrictions on freedom were untenable for raising a Christian libertarian family.
My Web search for a liberty-loving state during our courtship led me to discover the Free State Project—yes, God answers prayers. We could pursue our dream and only have to move an hour north. We signed, we moved, and we planted. We bought our first home in June 2007 in Derry. Not much later, we found out that we were members of the First 1,000, and we quickly connected with some of our new friends.
I was not the type of person to sit back and relax now that I was part of a movement, so ahead of the actual move I did some research about the southern New Hampshire communities where I could run for office and win. Derry seemed to be the best bet within our price range. But I was a news editor at the time, so the timing had to play itself out.
First, I tried to move the newspaper toward libertarian topics, but the publisher would not have it. Our best-read editions featured libertarian headlines, such as “Breaking the Law,” about how hundreds of unenforceable laws remain on the books, and “Checkpoint Checkup,” about the injustice of roadside checkpoints as an effort to entrap people. The advertisers didn’t like the topics even though I told all sides of the story. It was a tipping point. I decided traditional journalism is a dead end for liberty. I left the field and ran for office. I won!
In the Legislature, getting acquainted with the process was easy thanks to veteran libertarians who volunteered to train me and the other several dozen Free Staters who got elected in 2010 for the 2011-2012 session. I introduced more than 50 bills and passed 11, including a bill that allows homeowners to stop assessors from coming into their home and still maintain their right to appeal, a bill to allow you to buy fewer than 12 chickens, a bill to allow homeowners to remove Smart Meters from their homes, and a bill that prevents the state from suspending your NH driver’s license for failing to pay out-of-state taxes, among other liberty protection measures.
With the second of three children on the way, my wife and I decided one term in the Legislature would do; it was time for more focus on family and finances. Not long after, I began working as a financial services professional, and I’m pleased that the career has allowed me to bring my libertarian Christian principles into the work I do on a daily basis. In this capacity, I’ve partnered with Ron Noyes, a Pre-Stater, and together we’ve sponsored Liberty Forum several times. Our business helps people build wealth and protect the good work they’ve already done all while creating legal tax shelters. We hope to teach as many families as we can how to build and grow an independent lifestyle and legacy of liberty for generations to come.
Lastly, my wife and children are all very cool people, too, but their story is theirs to tell, and as private people, that will just have to do.