October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid
October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid
October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid
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Continued from Page 4 - Compassion is in Our Future<br />
tant in the future. America has a federal government,<br />
and a federal debt, which is growing<br />
insurmountably. The current level <strong>of</strong> spending<br />
on government social programs like Medicare,<br />
Medicaid, and Social Security is nearly universally<br />
considered to be unsustainable into the future.<br />
At some point, these programs will not be<br />
there to provide people who rely on them with<br />
services. We don’t know exactly when that will<br />
be, but why not prepare for it now by helping to<br />
form our own social safety nets that are organized<br />
through voluntary means?<br />
So here’s my appeal to those who love liberty: I<br />
think the way that we can best chip away at the<br />
state is to create mutual aid organizations that<br />
help people, and to be vocal about why these voluntary<br />
alternatives show that it’s not necessary<br />
to have the state using coercion to fund its provision<br />
<strong>of</strong> these services. You can do this no matter<br />
what your skills are or where you are based.<br />
Give your time if you don’t have money; give<br />
your money if you don’t have time. Then, reap<br />
the psychological and tangible rewards. I think<br />
that if people were to spend some time thinking<br />
about what type <strong>of</strong> framework really needs<br />
to be in place first in order to have a voluntary<br />
society, a lot would come to the conclusion that<br />
these mutual aid organizations are paramount.<br />
I volunteer with an organization called Fr33<br />
Aid. We provide volunteer first aid and do educational<br />
outreach about CPR. For now, we<br />
have focused on providing our services at liberty<br />
oriented events like<br />
Libertopia festival. With<br />
approximately 30 team<br />
members, we are hardly<br />
equipped to meet the<br />
medical needs <strong>of</strong> 300<br />
million Americans. But<br />
we’re starting out on a<br />
smaller scale by working<br />
within the liberty community, and so far it’s<br />
been a very rewarding and positive experience.<br />
I see lots <strong>of</strong> exciting things happening in the fu-<br />
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ture for Fr33 Aid. I want to meet more medically<br />
skilled team members, to expand in order<br />
to be able to <strong>of</strong>fer mental health services,<br />
disaster relief, havens from domestic violence<br />
and homelessness, and dental care. I would like<br />
to see Fr33 Aid chapters all around the world.<br />
We are an organization in its infancy, but we are<br />
growing as awareness <strong>of</strong> the ideas <strong>of</strong> freedom<br />
grows and the message <strong>of</strong> liberty reaches more<br />
people.<br />
As long as we can educate people about the<br />
value <strong>of</strong> freedom, I am optimistic about the future<br />
<strong>of</strong> medicine. The cost <strong>of</strong> healthcare would<br />
drastically decrease in the absence <strong>of</strong> regulation,<br />
licensing, and patents. Generosity on the<br />
part <strong>of</strong> individuals would increase, because our<br />
standard <strong>of</strong> living would rise in the absence <strong>of</strong><br />
a government taking a cut <strong>of</strong> everything that individuals<br />
produce. We can make the future a<br />
good place where people care for one another<br />
with compassion, on a voluntary basis. The future<br />
starts now, with the growth <strong>of</strong> mutual aid<br />
networks which will show the state for what it<br />
is: obsolete.<br />
Stephanie Murphy is a pro-freedom activist in<br />
New Hampshire and is currently an MD-PhD<br />
student. She is a co-organizer, volunteer, and<br />
media liaison for Fr33 Aid. Fr33 Aid appreciates<br />
your donation or your willingness to volunteer<br />
if you enjoyed this article. Find out more<br />
about Fr33 Aid at Fr33Aid.com<br />
Left to right: Fr33 Aid co-organizers Garland<br />
West, Teresa Warmke, and Stephanie Murphy<br />
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