Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

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A smith by any other name

Juan Herrero turned in his research paper to his American History teacher. It was a ten-page double spaced piece of type written genius, well backed with quotes from official biographies, Butler's War is a Racket, the Congressional Journal's transcript of his speech regarding the Wall Street Coup Plot, articles on the Plot, and other documentation. He had had to sweat it down from a 25-page document.

After he convinced her it was not plagiarized, his teacher awarded him an A. The Principal was less pleased, whether his issue was the militarism of Butler's career, the critique of corporate capitalism explicit in Butler's book, or simply how the paper did not fit into the then current narrative of history was unclear. In any case, Juan, and his teacher, were at new schools the following year, and both felt they were being scrutinized a little too closely for something or other.

Later Juan would submit the expanded version of his paper in a college history class. The professor approved of its anti-Wall Street message, but did not like its support of Patriotism. While Herrero got his A, there was a long critique of the ideological points made in the paper. Late, he felt it seemed he was being mildly harassed by members of more militant student groups on both ends of the political spectrum.

He walked away from his time in academia understanding people didn't want to know the truth about history, they wanted to know enough facts and interpretations to fit into their own ideologies. Unfortunately for him, he had become addicted to the truth.

Albert Perez
[email protected]

Burn it with fire...

Given the news emphasis on hating kitchen appliances, it might be a good time to pull out and update "Prometheus".

Because leftists hate fire.

Bryan Potratz
[email protected]