“Open Hearts, Open Markets” at Mizzou
On Saturday, October 14th, I took a day trip to The University of Missouri for the 2017 Students For Liberty Great Plains Regional Conference. The conference, entitled “Open Hearts, Open Markets”, was particularly special for me. Not only did I have the opportunity to help organize the conference, but the theme of the conference was something I’m very passionate about as a liberty activist.
What we meant by “Open Hearts, Open Markets” is that we wanted to address issues which are all too often ignored by the liberty movement. These issues include things like caring for the poor and improving our environment. We as libertarians often consider things like these to be secondary to our activism. We are proud to praise the free market and liberty for liberty’s sake, and rightfully so, but very little do we seem to address what can be done when some people may fall through the cracks of poverty or when environmental degradation is ignored. The purpose of this conference was to address those concerns many outside of the movement hold, and to inform those already in the movement of what they can do to shed light on these issues from the libertarian perspective.
Jim Lark delivers his speech to attendees at the Great Plains Regional Conference
My personal favorite speaker was Jim Lark, or as I like to call him, “the great” Jim Lark. It is always a great pleasure to hear from Lark. His speech was funny as always, and it had a powerful theme which stressed the importance of going beyond good intentions. His lecture was accurately named “Good Intentions Are Not Enough”. In his lecture, he discussed the ways in which well-intentioned people wrongfully use government coercion to achieve their desired ends, and how, in pursuit of those desired ends, government actually makes the problems worse. Another aspect of his lecture focused on how, as liberty activists, we need to be humble and respectful. As stated before, our intellectual adversaries are indeed well-intentioned. We need to approach these tough issues with a humility that we often overlook when we think we’re the smartest person in the room. That element of Lark’s speech truly rang with me, and Lark is a perfect display of what it means to be an effective and humble activist for liberty. My friend Adam, a leftist who attended the conference, enjoyed Lark’s speech the most as well, and I think that speaks volumes to Lark’s advice.
The attendees pose for a group photo
Some other highlights from the conference include Kayleigh Cunningham’s excellent presentation on how the government harms the environment, and how there are market-friendly approaches to cleaning our environment, and Gary Chartier’s lecture on how government perpetuates poverty and how in a free market we could address the issue of poverty.
Throughout the conference and after the conference at the social, it was amazing getting the chance to meet new people and catch up with my fellow SFLers who I’ve met in the past or through social media. Plus, getting liberty merch from the partner organizations is always a treat. This was an amazing conference, and SFL should expect to see more great things from the Great Plains in the future!