Defending My Individual Rights

First Place, Child Category

By Rylla Cathryn Smith (age 8)
[email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

         I belong to myself. I was born with that right. I own myself. My life belongs to me.
         Everybody has the same right -- the right not to be bothered by other people.
         Because I belong to myself, I can wear anything I want. If I own my own life, I could wear no clothes, even. It might be silly, it might be cold, but it's my own life.
         If I belong to myself, nobody should be able to decide for me what I want to do. You have actually given up some of your life by feeding old people or picking up cans from the highway. I should decide for myself. Or else why is it called "volunteerism"?
         Because I own myself, if I want to I can sign up for the military, but if I don't want to I shouldn't have to.
         If I own my own life then other people own their own lives. Some people don't even know it -- most people don't even know it. They should know that they have the right not to be interfered with -- that everybody has the right not to be interfered with.
         If other people learned to respect their own rights, then they might start respecting mine.

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