TPM HAPPENINGS
by Valerie Sisneros
Stemming from a suggestion made by Rosemary Aldridge after she read about the monthly Kona Beer Party meetings on the Kona TEA Party website, TPM is gathering for a monthly social event of our own. The first meeting, unofficially named“ Preaching to the Choir” was held Friday, April 26th. More than a dozen folks made time after work to meet at a local restaurant to socialize, catch up on current events and come up with ideas for ongoing positive change. It was mentioned that some were appreciative of the less businesslike format in contrast to the
Joe Kent Speaks to TPM
New TPM Social Event!
monthly general meetings. We connected for a couple of hours and plan to make this a monthly gathering to be held on the last Friday of each month at 6:30 PM. We will be brainstorming to come up with the best ideas for future meetings. I know that while brainstorming with a couple of other active patriots, we were able to come up with multiple ideas for new media presentations in various formats. It is clear that everyone has a specific talent or resource that can be utilized on various projects in our continued quest to spread the word about smaller government, individual liberty,
Pono Press, May 2013, Page 10 by Rosemary Aldridge
Joe Kent, Secretary of the Libertarian Party of Maui was the guest speaker at TEA Party Maui’ s monthly meeting on Thursday, April 11th, 2013. Joe is an elementary school music teacher at King Kamehameha III and he was one of the Maui delegates for Ron Paul at the RNC. He is energetic, active, and committed to making a difference, and he is also a self-proclaimed recovered liberal. Joe’ s talk was titled“ What is a Libertarian?” He spoke about what it means to him to be a Libertarian. Joe stated the following;“ Many Democrats say;‘ I like liberty when it comes to personal habits, but I don’ t like freedom when it comes to greedy corporations.’ Republicans might say‘ I like freedom when it comes to business, but not when it comes to personal habits.’ The point is that some people say we need freedom here and some say we need freedom there. Libertarians say we need freedom everywhere!” The main thrust of his talk was that Libertarians want the maximum amount of freedom for individuals: freedom from government, freedom from taxes, freedom from restrictions, and freedom to live one’ s life in a peaceful and prosperous way. However, Joe went on to say that freedom cannot exist on its own. A strong theory of property rights is needed to ensure maximum freedom. What if you lived in a“ free” country, but the government could take your property away whenever it wanted? What if they could take your life? What if they could take the fruits of your labor? Would you really be free? Without a strong theory of property rights, no one can truly be free. The talk was followed by a lively Q & A session that lasted nearly an hour. To see the full text of Joe Kent’ s talk, go to the TEA Party Maui website at www. teapartymaui. com.
freedom, and the free market system. It seemed that everyone was having spirited conversations at the tables within earshot of each other and often one person would enlighten the whole group with new facts and figures on a variety of interesting topics. There were new people and new ideas bandied about. It is a nice way to end the work week and I believe there will be more productive networking going on in the meetings to come. It is always a pleasure to connect with intelligent, informed, proactive, and like-minded patriots. Consider making it part of your monthly schedule.