Brian Richard Wright (Founding Libertarian) Dead at 73

By Scotty Boman, Editor of Michigan Libertarian

Kevin Kangas , Matt Karshis and Brian Wright at the Oakland County Libertarian’s Christmas Party in 12/2017. (Diane Szabla has her back to us. The Szablas were very gracious hosts). Photo by Claranna Gelineau.

Michigan – On February 1^st, the liberty movement lost a devoted writer, activist, philosopher and leader. Brian R. Wright

Brian Wright

succumbed to Kidney disease; a disease had previously claimed his mother. Also his brother and father had passed away in their early 50’s. He is survived by his former wife, and long-time friend Rose Wright. He is also survived by his close friends Randy and Diane Szabla along with many others.

Brian was a creative writer who authored dozens of books on philosophy and alternative political thought. He spent several years as a Webmaster and Newsletter Editor with the Libertarian Party of Michigan. Long-time member Jerry Bloom commented, “He was a good guy and will be missed” He has been a liberty activist most of his life and was a founding member of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. He is the author of several books. While his deteriorating health took a toll on his intrepid commentary, his blog and website are still up for now:

https://www.brianrwright.com/Coffee_Coaster/

Brian Wright’s Early Life

Born in Kalamazoo Michigan in 1949, he grew up near Kansas City, and later his family moved to Oklahoma City. He discovered seminal libertarian writings, in a bookmobile, which inspired him to join Barry Goldwater’s 1964 Presidential campaign. Around 1968 he moved to Detroit and earned his BSME from Wayne State University around 1971, at which point he became a passionate voice for Ayn Rand’s artistic vision of heroic individualism.

Brian Helping to Build a New Party

Brian was a founding member of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. As part of the “The Libertarian Party of Michigan Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Project,” He wrote about his involvement in the 1972, within a year of when the Libertarian Party of Michigan was formed. There were a couple different gatherings that year.  The most frequently referenced event was a party, that Summer, in Taylor Michigan at the home of Kathryn Augustin and Pete McAlpine. Brian was there, and he was also at Oak Park the home of Sam Harris. Randy Szabla recalls seeing him there along with Johnny and Diane Garner. He recalls that, “there were very few people at the Oak Park meeting where people were excited about starting the party.”
Kathryn Augustin described him as a

… lifelong advocate for freedom–political, economic and personal.  Supporter of like-minded persons ( both in and outside the party).  Searching for answers to liberate everyone from the elite, and power control freaks.  A tireless writer and communicator.

His friend and former wife Rose Wright noted,

I mourn and will miss him forever.  (besides my father)  Brian was the most honest man I’ve ever known, passionately dedicated to the cause of liberty above all else.

Early and Recent Newsletter Editor

He was Editor of the Michigan Libertarian from 1979 through 1981. Then he became state Chair from 1982 to 1984. Then he stepped up to Edit the Newsletter, again, in 2009 where he and out-going editor Greg

Brian R. Wright

Stempfle over-saw and facilitated the transition from a hard-copy to virtual Newsletter format. This work also ended the need for the separate publication of LPMOnline, which was created by the late Greg Dirasian. Brian continued producing, and often writing for, the virtual version of the Michigan Libertarian through 2013, when he stepped down from that roll.

Long-time Webmaster

Since 2004, Brian looked at other options for achieving liberty in our time, including participation in the Free State Project. In 2008 he returned to Michigan and stepped up to the task of further developing a new website.

Brian served as Webmaster before and during his service as Newsletter Editor.  After the departure of Greg Dirasian, who had designed the earlier lpmich.org website, the Party needed to develop an all new website in 2007.  Brian served as Webmaster for the Sharepoint based website, then in 2013 he and Scotty Boman transferred all of the legacy content into a WordPress site.  This was the last time such a large migration of content was initiated; the site created in 2013 now serves as the platform of the Libertarian Party of Michigan Historical Archives.

Political Campaigns

Brian ran for office at least 8 times under the Libertarian banner. In 1982 and 1986 he ran for Secretary of State. In 1980 and 1982 he was a United States House of Representatives candidate. He ran to serve in the Michigan House in 1984.

In 1994 and 2014 he was a candidate for the Board of governors at his Alma Mater, Wayne State University. Then he ran, again, to represent District 38 in the State House in 2018.

Planning for Life After Life

Brian made plans for the end of his life.  At one time he was a member of the Cryonics Institute, however he later decided to live on through others. He wanted for himself the same arrangement he made a decade earlier for his mom at Farmington Hills Generations, where following cremation he instead opted to hold a later private memorial service for her.

Rose Wright said,

In terms of an ‘afterlife’ he always admired his dad for donating his body to the Michigan State University  Medical School. So he too offered whatever organs might benefit future users, in his case The Gift of Life asked only for his eyes.  He’d have loved the symbolism. More sentimentally, he got surprising comfort from my oft repeated metaphor “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

Those who wish to honor Brian can donate to Gift of Life here:  https://giftoflifemichigan.org/become-a-donor

Copyright 2023 Permission granted to reproduce with attribution to Scotty Boman.

NEWSPEAK BULLIES LIBERTY

[Authors note:  This column was originally published in the Michigan Libertarian.  Several readers have commented that I needed to share these thoughts with a larger readership.  Recent inappropriate reactions to the events in Arizona (which attempt to link a killers tragic behavior to non-violent expression) highlight the need for more people to read this.]

 

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. – George Orwell –

 

There is a stealth attack on our liberties and most people don’t even recognize it.  Before people are conquered by coercion and force, they must be disarmed philosophically.  Once people accept a false premise, exalted opinion makers can use that premise to promote their agenda. 

A consistent philosophy is like a sophisticated piece of architecture or a machine; without structural integrity it will collapse or fail.  Sometimes there are specific elements of a structure that are needed to support the rest.  In a building it may be a cornerstone, keystone or column.  In a machine it may be a simple pin, filter, or chip.

The distinction between violence and communication is critical to liberty and civil society.  Without it there can be no principled defense of free speech, nor can there be principled objection to violence being used in response to speech.  The statist agenda has been well served by the recent MSM fixation on so-called “cyber-bullying.”  The phrase is such a clear example of Orwellian newspeak that I would expect this to be nothing more than hyperbolae or a metaphor.  “Bullying” is a phrase that has been associated with violence.  The use of “Cyber” as a prefix is consistent with the use of certain technology.  If the terminator starts making threats and beating people up, that’s cyber-bullying, but that is not how the phrase is being used.

People are being called cyber-bullies for making unwelcome remarks about peers and colleagues on the Internet.  This wouldn’t be a matter of concern, if the word-use were understood to be metaphorical.  For example, politicians will refer to “attack ads,” with full understanding that they need not draw a gun to defend themselves.  But talk show hosts, law enforcement officials, and politicians actually believe that verbal and electronic taunting is an act of violence.

The lack of publicized dissension to this doublethink is mind numbing.  Most pre-schoolers of the prior generation had superior intellectual integrity to the opinion leaders of today.  They had a simple, though accurate phrase, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”  The degree to which a person believed the phrase was the degree to which the outcome would support it; the words may be harmless, but the response one has to them may not be.

It has now become politically correct to disarm those who are most vulnerable, and convince them that they are emotionally defenseless, against criticism.  As a teacher, I have seen the so-called “anti-bullying” hype that gives the impression that the way to address criticism is to silence the critic.  Rather than learning that ideas are to be fought with better ideas, youth are learning that unwelcome criticism must be fought by silencing the critic.  Civil liberty considerations not withstanding, this is a terrible disservice to young people.  So long as someone takes ownership of his or her responses, he or she has a way to preserve his or her self-esteem amidst a surge of insults.  Without these coping tools, the object of the taunts is helplessly waiting for help from others.

This leads me to the next critical piece of the philosophy that is in danger.  The distinction between one person’s actions and those of another.  Once again, the intellectual integrity of most pre-millennial preschoolers towers above the philosophical cesspit of contemporary pundits.  The childhood wisdom would be encapsulated in a rhetorical question: “If someone dared you to jump off the bridge would you do that too?”  Back in the day this would prompt a person to reflect on the stupidity of blaming his or her actions on the fact that someone else dared him or her to do it.  These days it could be cause for prosecution. 

Nowadays, pundits will say that unwelcome words or online postings “cause” a suicide.  Remarkably, this double-think goes unchallenged.  This is one of those cases where the truth is so self-evident that explaining it becomes difficult.  The word “suicide” is reserved for killing one’s self.  By definition the killer and the victim are the same person.  To say someone else caused a suicide is to say that the act is not what it is.  This is not just a matter of minutia.  People are often put in prison or executed for killing other people.  By definition the victim causes the suicide.

The reader may choose to respond with anger and disbelief, but the fact of the matter is that suicide victims cause their own deaths.  Putting the truth plainly is not the most sensitive thing to do, but often it is the kindest thing to do.  Tragically, statists exploit the grief of suicide victims families.  Rather than guiding them to acceptance and helping them move on, suicide victims are used as poster children for laws that squelch discourse, and empower bureaucrats.  Personal tragedies, childhood crushes, and teachable moments become part of a media circus, with children playing the Orwellian character, “Boxer” in the center ring.

The immediate outcomes are personal, but the paradigm shift this facilitates is even more abominable.  If a writer is responsible for the way readers respond, then all writers are potential unwitting murderers.  This not only has the effect of incriminating the innocent, but also absolving the guilty; if the author of an email or posting can “cause” a person to kill him or her self, the author could also “cause” a person to kill someone else.  Thus a killer could use the “somebody dared me to do it” defense!

Some readers may think I am being alarmist, and that these semantic sins won’t have legal consequences.  Unfortunately, the tree of irrationality is already bearing tyrannical fruits:

• I attended a school assembly where an FBI agent told children that he has had to arrest kids for sending unwelcome emails, and they have been taken from their parents and put in juvenile detention. Missouri has made “cyber-harassment” a Class D felony.
• State Representative Lisa Brown supports similar legislation in the Michigan Legislature.  She supports fines for adults who make unwelcome remarks about other adults in blogs.

I have made a distinction here between words and violence, but I don’t wish to say words are of no consequence…. Just the opposite.  Words communicate ideas.  Belief in certain ideas can be lethal.  The philosophy we have, guides our response to the words we hear.

When one’s philosophy equates words with violence, one is inclined to respond with violence.  Not only does this bring greater tragedy, but it does nothing to defeat the depraved ideas.  Brute force is impotent against flawed beliefs.  The best way to defeat false beliefs is with the truth.  This is much easier said than done, but that doesn’t make it less true.  The ultimate alternative is the draconian approach of criminalizing ideas and executing heretics.  In the battle of ideas there is no substitute for philosophy.

[Republication of the unabridged article with credit to Scotty Boman is welcome]

Tenth Amendment: Key to Drug Policy Reform

The Libertarian Party supported Proposal 1 in the last election.
The Democrats and Republicans would not touch it.

The Libertarian Party is the ONLY political party that has consistently called for the re-legalization of Drugs as a matter of principal.

Democrats & Republicans have been equally antagonistic to your right to control your own body chemistry.

• Presidents can pardon all federal prisoners. 
• Governors can pardon all state prisoners.
• They have not used this power as they should…
  This so-called “Land of the Free” has a larger portion of it’s citizens in prison, than any other country on Earth.  With a half million people being in jail for violating drug laws.

Nonetheless I applaud those who have worked to reform the major parties.  Regardless of partisan affiliation, we must make the right to control ones own bodies a hot-button issue.  We must make it clear to the politicians that we will not vote for any candidate who supports the continuation of prohibition.

Politicians who have been enacting federal drug laws (that do not address border crossings, or trade across state lines) are themselves criminals.

The Constitution only permits the federal government to regulate trade between states, not trade within states.  The Federal Government has no authority to trump state medical marijuana laws. 

As long as you don’t take drugs across state lines, sell drugs on Federal property, or use federal services to deliver drugs, they have no authority over this trade.

What about our current leaders?

• Candidate Barack Obama said he would not enforce federal Marijuana prohibition in states where it was legal.  Yet President Obama has failed to stop raids on dispensaries, and has not pardoned federal prisoners who were openly providing Marijuana in compliance with state laws.
• Secretary of state Clinton has blamed the second amendment for drug related violence at the Mexican border, when we all know drug prohibition is the root problem.
• Our Senators fall back on a Supreme Court ruling that medical marijuana violates federal law.  Yet they completely ignore the tenth amendment that states,

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

But even if the Federal government begins to respect its Constitution, action at the state level is essential.

In Lansing, State Senator Patterson, submitted SCR004.  The goal of the resolution is to “affirm Michigan’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not enumerated and granted to the federal government.” 

Everyone here needs to call and write their State rep and urge him or her to support HCR0004.  Also contact your state Senators and urge them to support SCR004.

Finally, the initiative process is under fire.  Many of the politicians in Lansing are unhappy with the way we the people have changed state law without their permission.  They want a Constitutional convention in 2010 so they can take that right away from you. 

Please vote NO on the Constitutional Convention in 2010.

I will be sharing this message with people at Detroit Liberation Day 2009.  I hope to see you there. 

Come to Detroit Liberation Day 2009

Meanwhile, enjoy this video from the 2009 Ann Arbor Hash Bash.

Vultures Hatched by Conservative Inconsistency Have Come Home to Roost

 

While I have frequently identified with conservatives and conservative causes, I am not a conservative.  I am a libertarian.  I use the small case “l” to distinguish my party from my philosophy.  There are many libertarian-Republicans, for instance, who have no affiliation with the Libertarian Party.  True conservatives are much more libertarian than what is commonly referred to as neo-conservatives, but there are still some critical differences.

 

Ideological conservatives place a great deal of emphasis on principals such as individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property, and limited government.  These are also libertarian principals.  The difference involves the scope of application.  Libertarians are inclined to apply this to as many issues as possible; conservatives apply theses ideas to a limited range of issues.  This has been a source of confusion for people who have been programmed to think in terms of a one-dimensional left-right spectrum.  If you are among them, I suggest looking over a Nolan chart or taking the smallest political quiz.

 

Libertarians have frequently come under fire for supporting peoples right to act offensively or amorally so long as the behavior did not violate the natural rights of others. This recognition of a person’s rights has often been misconstrued to be acceptance or approval.  This is not the case.  Libertarians have long argued that we must tolerate individual differences, if we expect to be tolerated.  Stated another way, a threat to one person’s rights is a threat to all rights.  The reason for this linkage is the power of philosophical consistency.

 

Giving in to the idea that the government could censor radio content was like letting the camel’s nose in the tent.  The right of broadcasters to control the content of their programming is thereby forfeited. What remains is an illusion of liberty granted at the whims of those in control.  So it is with all sacrifices of principal.  The specifics that were derived from the forfeited principal are only vestigial remnants.  Bending to whims may be expedient and gain one favor in the short run, but consistency wins in the long run.  No social movement has been able to grow and prevail, if it discarded its integrity for short-term gain.  Conversely, worldviews that offer clear-cut answers and absolute principals survive.

 

The human mind requires some semblance of consistency to work, so it is that luke-warm conservatism is on the decline, but even conservatism is luke warm when it comes to liberty.  Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand saw this in April of 1964 when she wrote:

 

It was the so-called “conservatives” — including some of the pioneers, some of the broadcasting industry’s executives who, today, are complaining and protesting — who ran to the government for regulations and controls, who cheered the notion of “public property” and service to the “public interest,” and thus planted the seeds of which Mr. Minow and Mr. Henry are merely the logical, consistent flowers. The broadcasting industry was enslaved with the sanction of the victims — but they were not fully innocent victims.

 

So it is that today’s conservative radio pundits are not fully innocent either.  They have conceded the need to have government control over the content of radio broadcasts, by either approving censorship, or mocking liberals who disapproved.  The fact of the matter is that Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer made an insightful point when he told a Fox news reporter:

 

The very same people who don’t want the fairness doctrine, want the FCC to limit pornography on the air.  I am for that; I think pornography should be limited.  But you can’t say ‘Government hands off!’ in one commercial enterprise but the government intervenes in another.  That’s not consistent.

 

He’s right:  It isn’t consistent. 

 

Ironically, his so-called “Fairness Doctrine” would only call for fairness between inconsistent “liberal” and “conservative” speech.  Even if it included equal time for libertarians, it would still be just as wrong, and I would oppose it.  The first amendment made no exceptions.

 

For those who fear hard-core porn on prime-time TV, consider the content of basic cable programming.  It is immune to the restrictions placed on broadcast TV.  Sure “adult programming” is there for those who subscribe to it, but commercial standards for family viewing exceed the standards set by the FCC.  If this isn’t good enough, parents can fire the TV from baby-sitting duty (mine did).  The market works if we let it.*  This is another mantra recited by self-described conservatives.  The difference is that libertarians actually believe it.

 

When a person goes against one’s principal, he or she gets a funny feeling.  It’s called “guilt.”  Those who fail to form principals are confused.  People who look to government or the collective to solve their problems are called “statists” those who trust individuals over governments are libertarians.

 

I’m not guilty, statist, or confused; I trust you to run your life.

 

 

 

 

* Here I am referring to a free market in which peoples rights are protected.  Marketing in abuse is not a free market principal.  That would be a contradiction.  Individual rights cannot include the right to enslave.

Jack Hoogendyk in his own words

From his “national security” plank:

I strongly oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to grant terrorists the same rights as American citizens. Carl Levin praised this decision as “an important victory.” I believe it was a victory for terrorists.

FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is one of America’s most important tools in the war against terror. I support strengthening it. Carl Levin does not.