I have always felt there was a certain amount of honor in fighting for Liberty, in fighting for people to be more free. As someone who has experienced living in Totalitarianism, that was sponsored by our own government, with other children who were being brainwashed, and could not fight back, I felt that the most honorable thing to do with my life is fight back against that, not just for me but for others. For those that do not know, I am a survivor of one of the biggest crimes of the Drug War, a place called Straight Inc (I was really in a spinoff, KIDS). It was a cult. Everything was designed to weaken us to be brainwashed, and yes, this was started using research the US had on how Koreans treated POWs. Starvation, Sleep Deprivation, Physical and Sexual Abuse, Humiliation. It was, without question, a method without honor.
That experience has always driven me. It made me appreciate Liberty, to elevate it up, to give it my highest honor.
I have always since even before that experience, been a libertarian, and I have always had an overdeveloped sense of justice. Both of those were always tempered by the fact that I acted by a code of honor. There was recently a soliloquy in one of my favorite TV shows, and it illustrated some of the things I want to say here. Some of you may recognize it, it's a popular TV show.
"Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything because it's always funny. Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends."
Yes, those words are from the 12th Doctor in Doctor Who, which is my favorite show since I was about 8 years old. One of the reasons it always appealed to me, was while The Doctor was not perfect, and made mistakes, he had a code of honor.
I always romanticized the Libertarian Party, from the time I was exposed to Harry Browne in 1996, to when I served as a Community Board member in the Bronx. Yes, even during Bob Barr and Wayne Allen Root, even when all the Ron Paul fans came in during 2008 (Yes, you re-arranged our living rooms, but ultimately, you became good roommates), and when I petitioned for Gary Johnson, and convinced many of my non-Libertarian friends to vote for him.
But lately, I look around me, and maybe it's social media, as because I run Policy for a campaign remotely (I gotta give props to my boss, Larry, he's definitely got a sense of honor), I tend to be online a lot. Which means that when I don't have my head in writing a policy paper, or I'm not researching, or coordinating with my team of 20 people, all of whom are amazing, and some of the smartest people in the LP, I don't see the honor I once romanticized we had.
In an off year, in a run for Chair, we're not talking about President, a Chairperson runs meetings and sets tone for a board, and an organization, sometimes acts as a spokesperson, people are throwing away any sense of honor. Since I came back to be "active" again in this party, I have seen some of our members do immensely dishonorable things. Some of those members were our so-called leaders. Many of them are people who seek or sought positions of leadership. They ran Candidate Support Organizations, some ran for our Vice Presidential nomination. Another was chair of a Caucus I have an affinity with, and is huge for our representation to other GSRM (Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minorities, aka "LGBTQAlphabetSoup"), others I know have honor, but it seemed to go out the window recently when people disagreed. Some of us associated with people without honor, and it brought dishonor upon ourselves.
Look, I'm not perfect, and I'm not standing before you saying I haven;t ever let anyone, or even myself down a few times in my life. Or even some of you. What I am saying is that we are Liberty Warriors. We are Samurai. We are not Thieves or Assassins.
In other words "The Doctor" spoke, he said "No More!"
We need to start practicing a code. Our own code of political Bushido. Never be Cruel, Never be Cowardly.
As Libertarians people's personal lives are their own. Many people have reasons for wanting to fix our country. Some of those are how we have been treated by the State and it's rules that are unfair towards fathers and trans mothers, like myself. Yet we have a whole group right here, right now, in this room, that would use a father's struggles against state oppression against him.
Last year, a friend of mine lost her job, because people used her past against her, because she dared make a call that may have saved someone's life to the police.
We have people that would call people Nazis, Alt-Right, and Racists, simply because they disagree with a philosophy shoehorned into a group historically which it did not fit into. They expect everyone to sing Kumbaya while they go out of their way to offend, troll, and piss off everyone around them, including their friends, and people who would be allies.
We fight, and it's not like fighting among family. It's become dirty, we're tainted by this, Liberty, our highest calling, marred by the lack of honor I have seen.
This isn't honor. It's hypocrisy, and it stops here, and it stops now, in this room.
We need to show the world, that unlike the duopoly, we have Honor.
We need to show them that honor. It colors everything we do.
So let's show them the color of honor. Be Samurai.
Let's honor our own brand of Liberty Bushido.