Takes time to build liberty cathedral

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 15, 2026)

There are times you’ll begin, or join already-in-progress, a project and discover it’s bigger, more difficult, and is going to take longer than you expected. Often, much longer. Sometimes you’ll realize it won’t be completed in your lifetime- if ever.

And it's still worth it.

Your part is to be a vital link in a long chain of people down through the years, working toward something you’ll never see the benefit of. Think of all those nameless laborers who helped build awe-inspiring Medieval cathedrals.

Such is the case with spreading liberty.

It turns out, spreading a love for liberty is a bigger job than I'd thought. A lot harder, too. As many before me had also discovered.

When I understood what liberty was and it clicked within me, I was sure it would click with anyone who wasn't brain-damaged, a criminal, or a politician. All it would take is exposing them to the knowledge and the self-evident concepts.

I may have been wrong.

Unlike many, I had no inborn bias toward being kept safe, being provided for, or needing decisions to be made for me. I had no compulsion to feel like I am part of a cruel gang which crushes anyone who stands in its way. I'm different.

Many people are too afraid to consider liberty. Too many are dependent on the state. Most believe the lies they were told in government schools-- and by people brainwashed by those government schools. It's not surprising that a group motivated by power would lie to protect the power it has gained. To sell itself as essential and good.

Some people fear that without Big Brother watching everyone all the time, others will be irresponsible, without realizing that responsibility is, along with freedom, half of liberty. Responsibility means defending yourself and your property from those who refuse to be responsible, while not being the one anyone else needs to worry about. It's liberating.

For whatever reason, liberty isn't a short-term project. It can't be advanced by violating its principles for transient success. You either get in for the long haul, play a small part and then step aside, watch from the sidelines, or you become a roadblock to liberty, helping governments turn humanity into cattle to be herded, corralled, branded, and sold for slaughter.

It turns out, being a nameless laborer working to build a love of liberty isn't as bad as the alternative.

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A lesson in government's "economics"

A while back, my dad said that I should tell my daughter to be thankful for how much money she's making at her job, because his first job was driving a tractor around a field for 11 hours per day, for 50¢ per hour.

This was in the early to mid-1950s.

Once I pointed out how much the silver in two quarters would be worth today, he changed his tune a little. That would be equal to about $23.40 per hour. Much more than my daughter is earning.

If you're only adjusting for inflation- like if the guy gave him FRNs instead of hard money- that's only about $6.23 per hour. Not as good. In that case, my daughter is coming out ahead.

Anyone should still be grateful for their job, whatever it pays. No one is obligated to hire you. It is nice, though, if you make enough money to make the job worth the effort. It's sad how much of that pay gets stolen by the state, just because the state exists and feels entitled to your property.

Government sure likes to steal our money, one way or the other.

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