On February 24, a bomb threat was received at Rocklin High School which made national news. Nearby, Granite Bay High School had also received such threats in recent years.
Ironically, both high schools have high grade point averages and are hotbeds for Libertarian registrations despite the fact they exist in the most Republican county in California. Here you are in an affluent area where the per capita income in Granite Bay has been as high or higher than Beverly Hills. Despite the Republican Drug War, the rate of drug usage in the region is extremely high. Is there a connection?
When Americans gave into a corrupt federal government controlled by corrupt Republicans and Democrats, they also gave into what I call the youth prisons of public education and public indoctrination. Public education has failed miserably in Placer County despite all the extra Republican money thrown at it. In this regard, it is obvious why some informed students might rebel against "the system." I fully understand this. When I was in high school, I too rebelled against what I considered to be a type of jail or prison in predominately Republican Orange County California. How do you teach kids to be free and democratic by throwing them in jail? To me high school was a place of lower learning and corruption. It was a place of injustice, crime and indoctrination into socialism and acceptance of the corrupt corporate marriage to government and the resultant totalitarian state. As I planned it, I barely graduated. I only applied enough effort to do so and almost missed graduation by one "F" on a science exam. However, despite my graduating, I wouldn't allow my picture in the yearbook and refused to stand with my fellow graduates in the ceremony. In no way would I endorse America's supplement to its prison system.
There is a larger point than my personal issues for those teachers and principals working within the public school system that would like to draw a link to Libertarianism. They need to fully understand that the Libertarian Party exists to save America from a violent physical revolution that is inevitable if America continues down the path of sin, imprisonment and deception. Bombings and bomb threats are an example of what Libertarians are trying to prevent. Based upon actual constitutional ideals, the Party attempts to change the system from within despite the roadblocks the system intentionally throws in front of it. It plays by the rules, no matter how corrupt and unfair the system gets. That's the Libertarian Party. I like to think of it as America's last chance to save itself from hell short of a violent revolution. Other articles in this column describe my thoughts in greater detail.
Though the Party advocates non-violence, i.e. "no bombs," it's success does represent the focal point of a pendulum. As more folks join the Party, there is also a greater enlistment in the "overthrow the government by force group." Some people don't have the patience to wait for Libertarian successes that may or may not ever occur. They saw the destruction of the Reform Party and the government and media dismissal of the Greens and Nader in that they wouldn't even allow them in the National debates. The third and fourth largest parties were not represented and yet these folks have to pay taxes too. More and more folks feel disenfranchised and locked out of "The System." Important issues are seldom allowed to surface. Discussion of the National Debt (500,000 per American family) and alternatives to the War in Iraq were also shut out of the debates. No one talked about the Skull and Bones Society at Yale where the real conspiratorial links between George Bush and John Kerry would have been drawn. Some kids are beginning to realize that America is less tolerant than other democracies in the world and that America never really had an ethical lead over all other nations since the days of George Washington. Many realize that "The System" is rigged against them. Get a grip America. You will have more of the same until you wake up and fix your country. Because most Americans are politically lazy and dishonest, things will probably get far worse before they get better. It seems that Americans only act when something like 911 wakes them up. And then it is only to vent and thrash about the world like a wounded great white shark. Libertarians are no longer wearing the rose colored glasses that Republicans and Democrats have been wearing for over 150 years and they are actively trying to make things better without blowing things up. While most Americans stand by their elephants and donkeys, I'll stand by the Statue of Liberty with my Libertarian friends. We are not your bomb throwers. We are your last hope against them.
Still, we may find the reality to be much simpler than all of this and in a sense more typically modern. Perhaps some youths simply wanted to piss us off or get out of school early. Maybe they wanted a little attention. In fact, the goals may not have been lofty ones at all. In keeping the objective so simple, the terrorists may have in fact succeeded as they did on 911. However, the long term repercussions of what the individual or individuals did may not have been worth the effort as the school reacts by becoming even more totalitarian and unforgiving to the rebellious nature of its inmates. America is in lock-down (and still owes me the nail file they confiscated at the airport.)
A few Rocklin High kids sitting next to me at Starbucks as I wrote this confirmed my point. They we're really ticked that they had to stand on the football field for hours while the faculty and police sorted things out. Simple actions and simple reactions. Is that what life is all about?
THIS MONTH'S FREE PROJECTS:
THIS MONTH'S "NOT SO FREE" PROJECTS:
March 1, 2005 by Michael Murphy, Chair Placer County Libertarian Party
Mike's views do not necessarily represent the views of the Placer County Libertarian
Party
Mike can be reached at mmurphy@americanliberty.org
He is the author of The Government, ISBN 0-595-30863-5