NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its Officers, or its Participants.

Making a difference in a free state

by Sean Scallon • 11/15/04

There's a natural feeling in anyone's soul wanting to know if they've made a difference. Maybe it's making a difference in one's own life or maybe their family or a friend. Maybe its making a difference for stranger when they volunteer their time for a charitable cause or maybe they want to make a difference for their country by enlisting in the military. Whatever it is, nobody wants to go through life feeling like they're just passing through.

The Free State Project is looking for those very souls. With the FSP one can not only make an impact, but put down stakes and make a home for themselves in one of the most beautiful places in all the world. The FSP is looking for 20,000 souls to be exact, souls not only looking to make a difference but wanting to be free as well. Its wanting to be in a place where you're not somebody's else number; where you're not a puppet on string to some big shot or government bureaucrat; where you keep what you've sweat to earn for your family instead of putting it in someone else's pocket; where your able make something of yourself with your own talents and intellect and not have it chopped up by excessive taxes, rules or regulations or the someone else's beliefs from far away from where you live.

New Hampshire offers any number of reasons to make a home, whether its natural beauty, its low crime, low taxes and regulations, good schools and friendly people, its small towns and its prosperity. But just as much as all these features, is its love for freedom. Live Free or Die isn't just a slogan, it's a way of life for the people of this great state. Here, you can be who you want to be, live with like-minded neighbors in like-minded communities across the state or on your own across the widespread countryside. You can choose big city like Manchester or Nashua or small country cottage; shop in a big department store or the mom and pop grocery across the street; go to church on Sunday or worship in the quiet of your home in your own way. No one here from our state capital in Concord will tell you "be like us or else!" That's not how we do things around here. Here we respect all kinds of communities, families and lifestyles. Different all these may very well be, but they share a common home and common love for a place that celebrates true and real diversity and protects the freedoms that allows for such. It's the same spirit that brought forth the pilgrims and others from the old world to the new. It is the same spirit that New Hamspiremen went off to fight at Concord, at Boston, Mommouth, Valley Forge, Trenton and Yorktown: the right to control one's destiny and the right of a people to govern and live as they choose.

By joining with us, you will make a difference in preserving this special place, this cradle of the Revolution, in a world that seems to want to centralize itself more and more. It may very well be that no one man can change the world but by joining the FSP and its political wing, the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, you can make difference just the same in this place. A little place yes, but one well worth being a part of.

Written by an FSP enthusiast, wanting to make a difference.

Back to Essays