I had been “kinda sorta” planning on visiting New Hampshire for a while and had a train trip planned to L.A. in June for a friend’s wedding. Due to train schedules, I took almost two weeks off of work. My anarchist friend who lives in New Hampshire told me that the TSA had quit some of the more objectionable activities that were the reason why I refused to fly on planes. So I rescheduled my trip and flew to New Hampshire the morning after the wedding.
Back in Louisiana, I had begun to catch myself making concessions. After living in the Prison Capital of the country, New Hampshire was immeasurably better. Once, I was driving to the store at night, and saw some people walking down the sidewalk. The person in the car with me had to explain to me that walking after dark will NOT get you stopped by the police here.
It was really cool meeting some of the people “from the internet” whose videos I had watched on my way to anarchy. It felt better, and I would even say healthier, to be practically able to call things by their proper names–Federal Reserve Notes, people claiming to represent the state, etc.–because I was surrounded by people who both knew what I was talking about and agreed with my assessment of the situation.
While there are some cool people in Louisiana, ultimately I moved to New Hampshire to be around other anarchists–they don’t support committing acts of aggression; they tend to be willing to discuss philosophy; and there is no need to deny or ignore objective reality when I am around them.
Melanie Johnson
Moved Nov 2016