by Stacy Litz

"I freed a thousand slaves . . . I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."
Harriet Tubman

Black History Month, for me, is usually spent reflecting on the legacies of many influential people in the civil rights movement for their bravery when combating such horrible injustice. However, it is interesting to see the many methods that were taken to reach a level of equality, and it hurts to see many fall into a trap of a collectivist mindset while fighting for freedom.

Just recently, I saw the first chairwoman of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown, speak at my university. After reading her book, Taste of Power, I knew what to expect -- a socialist mindset with hatred towards free markets, laws for affirmative action, "free" housing, health care, and food. All of this came out in her speech, which ended with a Che Guevara quote and a thunderous applause from the audience. I felt incredibly out of place and the anger that had built up throughout the speech put me at a tipping point.

After cooling off, I realized that instead of being angry towards this woman, I should feel sympathy, if anything. She spent her entire life fighting and fighting and fighting -- and her method of choice? Politics. She had run for office several times, even running for president in 2008 with the Green Party. While she tirelessly battled for equality using the same very governmental system that enforced inequality and that continues doing so to this very day, she has not had any of her goals reached.

I feel sympathy towards Elaine Brown for another reason, too, and this is the fact that she had become a complete martyr for the black man, and in her book, she mentions how many times she neglected fighting for women's rights and simply sacrificed herself for men, with no value for herself as an individual. The Black Panther Party represents the anti-thesis of LOLA, that's for sure.

Sadly, this is not the first time that I have heard minorities beg for a socialist government to force equality, and I have heard it many times in other regards. The problem with this argument is that it fails to strike the root of the issue of inequality. Many fail to note that it is only government that forces inequality to exist -- and while we are all different, in freedom, we would not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of their character (thanks, MLK).

While I am not a huge fan of Glenn Beck, I heard that he had a special called the "Revolutionary Holocaust" on why minorities, the poor, and the oppressed should not believe that socialism and communism will solve all their problems.  I have yet to see the special, but I hope it does the topic justice!  I feel as if many fall into the trap of  socialism because offers a sense of equality through a system of each receiving a measured collective share, but it has been tried and tested to have failed in several countries. Freedom, however, is restrained as much as possible, and has never gotten a chance to show off its possibilities for equality.

As I've said, striking the root of the inequality problems is the best method to finding the solution. And the root is big government. The war on drugs, prohibition, lack of self ownership, not teaching personal responsibility in public schools, victimless crimes, subsidizing poverty . . . all of these things hurt minorities in their current state and all are based on government. Instead of lobbying for more laws and more regulations for equality, let us try a new approach -- removing these laws and regulations that only make sure inequality exists!

We can all be equally free, but not equally enslaved.

An example of when individuals make decisions in the name of "government," rather than thinking with their own rationality.

By Brittany Cloud

If there is one organization that eludes me in its relevance, it’s the TSA. What purpose does it really serve? The pattern repeats itself in circular fashion: The government sees a threat, then security tightens. It’s never the other way around. This is all for our protection as U.S. Citizens, they say. Terrorism is rampant, and we are vulnerable.

The problem with the TSA is that it creates even more problems that it fails to recognize. The problem is, I don’t feel protected just because the TSA exists to protect me from terrorism. In fact, I feel exploited. I feel targeted based on parameters put in place to merely give me a false “peace of mind.” As someone that loves travel, the recent tightening of TSA regulations has me doubting whether I will fly again while it remains in existence.

As a woman, I especially value the choice to do with my body what I wish. As a libertarian, I respect every other woman’s right to peacefully do whatever she wishes with her body. What I will not accept, however, is the government’s forceful search, or even the threat of forceful search of my body, against my will. As an individualist feminist, the TSA's recent mandate to force full body searches randomly is an insult to females in a most catastrophic form.

It’s not only the increase of full-body scans that presents a problem. The TSA has been problematic for a long time. If you want another person’s account, see here.

By Brittany Cloud

I’ve long been interested in the process of sorting through complex ideas, critically examining them, and presenting a position on them clearly. Wendy McElroy’s book, The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival is arguably a definitive treatise on how to do just that. I first stumbled on the book while doing a self-study on libertarian feminism, specifically individualist feminism.

As a side note, I already respected McElroy, because I knew of her as an accomplished research fellow at The Independent Institute, founder of iFeminists.com, and manager of website, WendyMcElroy.com.

Even in the preface I was taken aback by how clearly McElroy lays out her ideas and examples. She is spot on regarding many differences in the way the female mind approaches ideas and how women are stereotypically misunderstood. She opens with an example of how women, more often than men, will burst into tears during a frustrating conversation. Men, in contrast, are more likely to get into bar fights. She asserts the destructiveness of these conditioned behaviors and suggests how we can unlearn them.

McElroy’s use of the terms “intellectual survival” and “reasonable” in the book’s title immediately intrigued me.  Why should women need a compelling reason to “survive intellectually”?  And aren’t we already “reasonable?” McElroy doesn’t use the term “intellectual” in the elite ivory tower sense. By “intellectual” she means to express that every woman is not only fully capable, but has a profound duty to maintain reasonableness in all aspects of life. While she indeed gives an interesting critique of the relationship of emotion to reason, her underlying defense for emphasizing the value of reason is simple -- so simple it shattered many of my previous perspectives on female reasonableness.

“Reason” is the tool we use in seeking the truth of things. “Truth” is merely what’s left after careful examination of evidence, and after thoughtfully, and civilly entertaining certain arguments on a subject. We care about being “reasonable” because we care about how ideas are justified. Adequate justification requires careful analysis of the logical connections between the ideas we are thinking about. Caring about reason is so self-evident, that to question it, in McElroy’s words, is like asking, “Why should I value my right arm?” Reason should be valued “because you should value being as alive and aware as possible. (Ch 1, p. 29, emphasis mine).”

Through vivid examples and rigorous psychological analysis, Reasonable Woman strikes at the core of what barriers we face today, especially the uniquely female ones, and how to respond successfully to those barriers.  She examines common ideas such as:

-          Women should not compete with men

-          Women become irrational when menstruating

-          Women do not argue fairly

-          Women – not men – must balance career and family

-          A wife should accommodate her husband’s job transfer

-          Women are bad at math

-          Women gossip; men discuss

-          A clean house is the woman’s responsibility: a good living is the man’s

While she provides effective solutions to combating these barriers through the application of reason and logic, Reasonable Woman is not limited to practical advice for women only.  Many of the book’s practical tenets are applicable to men as well. After all, individualist feminism is not about stereotypical feminist victimization and male marginalization. Notable writer, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical positively reviewed McElroy’s book, stating:

Though McElroy’s book is a benevolent declaration of intellectual independence for women, it is chock-full of humane strategies and useful techniques for everyone. A manual and resource guide for the critical mind, it stands as a deeply personal and practical testament to efficient thinking.

Reasonable Woman provides an excellent starting ground for the analysis of ideas and understanding the female mind. The ladies at LOLA and anyone interested in liberty can greatly benefit from her ideas.  Whether gaining the confidence to apply these ideas effectively in public, creating an organization from your own unique ideas to help the cause of liberty, building courage to stand up to authorities through activism, becoming a better writer, or merely learning how to assess the multitude of information out there more effectively, McElroy offers insight and support for the individual-minded.

As a fellow LOLA member, I have no doubt about the relevance of Reasonable Woman to my place in the liberty movement. I’d highly recommend it to all those interested in the value of ideas, specifically for its application to liberty-minded women. What's more, her book offers insight for everyone, not just scholars -- activists, writers, public leaders, homemakers, and careerists alike can draw valuable insights from within its pages.

I am Allison Gibbs and IamLOLA(.org).

I spent my time from '98-08 fighting antibiotic resistant bacteria, researching AIDS/HIV, and working in the microbiological field.  I never thought I would be here but all of that changed in 2007, and by mid-2008 I was on the ground pushing for Dr. Paul while working in the lab. The moment had come where I had to make a decision. Conviction in Liberty or getting Gov't grants. I chose liberty- uprooted my life- and here I am. Fighting for a voluntary society.

I am a southern girl, a microbiologist, an idealist, and a devotee to Freedom and Liberty. I am a member of the Free State Project, work for a very large grassroots organization, and am a proud member of LOLA.

I believe in giving your entire self to conviction based ideals and have devoted my life to helping facilitate the need of this movement and those within it.

I was raised by an amazing family that taught me to be impeccible with your word, and a strong mother that showed me what being a true woman is. That we can love, nuture, and comfort those in need, but still attain an autonomy that allows us to move mountains. That is what LOLA is to me.

Why do we allow ourselves to be held by law based constraints? With laws enacted like the Patriot Act, our foreign policy of entangling alliances, and the dominance of a drugged up society imposed by the FDA and pharmaceutical industry- how do we attain true freedom? How do we see the true essences of ourselves or the liberty in which we can attain through voluntary interactions?

How do we break these chains?

We have to come together. We have to become a family in this movement. Watch our for one another- fulfill needs and niches, both political and activist based. We have to stand together in our autonomy.

And LOLA is fighting to educate and empower those in the movement to build leaders.  Join us in this fight. Spread the word- become involved- and lets enact liberty already!