Formerly LPQC News
No. 3
February 2002
|
QUEENS LIBERTY Formerly LPQC News |
Vol. 7 No. 3 February 2002 |
In This Issue:
LPNY Strikes Blow forMartial Arts Schools - Opposes Licensing Bill
Black Libertarians Draw Lessons for all Americans from Black History Month
Libertarians Pitch in for Toy Drive
"The Libertarian Party of New York will strike a blow for freedom by opposing the proposed martial arts licensing bill before the legislature," declares State Chair Richard Cooper, a Westbury executive." The Marchi-Straniere bill would give open-ended powers to the State Commissioner of Education to license martial arts instructors and any school or organization which offers martial arts instruction. We face a solution in search of a problem. We condemn this legislation as abridging our freedom to teach, freedom to learn, freedom to trade." The Libertarians will gather signatures on a petition to be presented to the Governor and Legislature.
Albert Dedicke, the Libertarian Party's Legislative Watch Coordinator and Livingston County Chair, initiated the martial arts fight. Dedicke, a day care teacher from Mount Morris and a brown belt student of Isshinryu at Champion Martial Arts in Avon, contends "Martial arts instructors know that they must provide a safe, quality service or be put out of business by the competition. This bill is an unnecessary intrusion into a relationship between teacher and student that has existed for thousands of years. As an unintended side effect, it would also prevent experienced students from helping new students, decreasing the quality of all martial arts instruction for all students." Jim Lesczynski, of the Manhattan LP, is a financial services marketer and a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. He strikes back too. "Given the state's decades of failure in education and the martial arts instructors' millennia of success, we should keep them as far apart as possible. In fact, rather than regulate the martial arts schools, the legislature should look to them as an example of the virtues of separating school and state. Attendance is not compulsory, no government curriculum is mandated, no taxes are levied to subsidize the schools. Yet somehow, students of every age and economic status are successfully educated by instructors who demand the highest standards of discipline and performance."
Black Libertarian leaders in New York challenge black Americans and all Americans to draw lessons from Black History Month and the Martin Luther King Birthday celebrations on the need for smaller government.
John Clifton of Jamaica, Queens, is a Navy submarine veteran, a former drug counselor and is now a case planner at a foster care prevention agency. Clifton was the Libertarian candidate for US Senate in 2000. He contends that "The Martin Luther King holiday and Black History Month hold a mixed and conflicting legacy for Americans who value liberty, be they black or white. The events honor the great contributions of black Americans, yet also celebrate what I call neo-slavery, dependency on expansive government. The progress of blacks depends on promoting individual liberty, and rejecting state-dependent neo-slavery so it can combat institutional racism (such as racial profiling, a by-product of the War on Drugs) that have naturally resulted from expansion of governmental force."
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Daniels is an ordained minister with M.D. and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She was called to a "health ministry," combatting dependencies of all kinds. In 2001, she was the Libertarian candidate for mayor of Syracuse, turning in the best third party show since 1913 in New York's fourth largest city. She preaches that "Our taxes are not being spent for our benefit but for our incarceration and harassment. We the people are working, yet the benefit of our labor is being transferred, at gunpoint, to others. We are taxed at high rates that leave the private citizen few resources. This is simply modern day slavery implemented by government through taxation policies, distribution of taxes for corporate welfare and enforced at gunpoint by seizing of property for unpaid taxes, profiling people, transferring that wealth to those who have not worked to earn the money. We as African-Americans must realize this and understand that our taxes are so high and services so minimal that we are indeed slaves."
She goes on: "All other Americans must realize that they are in the same boat or will soon be if action is not taken. The first step is to realize this, educate ourselves and be sure.
Queens Libertarians held a "Pot Luck Brunch" to support a toy drive for the families of the victims of the World Trade Center attack. Held on December 8 at Bohemian Hall in Astoria, the drive was a great way to show that Libertarians care about their communities, said LP Queens County Chair Bradford Arter.
"Many people see Libertarian opposition to government programs as 'selfish,' but nothing is further from the truth," he said. "We [were] pleased to be part of a huge non-governmental voluntary response to the children of victims of such heinous terrorism."
Arter, who delivered the toys to a police collection center after the brunch, said the event was devised as an opportunity for Libertarians to help victims of the tragedy without contributing to charities that lobby for government subsidies. "Our participation in the toy drive asserts our support for the profound spirit of volunteering that has so ennobled our great city since it was senselessly attacked," he said.
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