At 24, I'm one of the youngest on the LLI team, so when I visited Europe this summer to join the camps, I wasn't much older than many of the students.  As someone who will grow up in the same world as the campers, I feel responsible for explaining why I believe LLI's mission is necessary for my generation.

I once heard a story about a conversation between two of America's founding fathers, where Benjamin Franklin remarked to Thomas Paine "Where freedom is, there is my country."  Paine responded, "Where freedom is not, there is mine."  That's how I see the Language of Liberty Institute, as the partner abroad of the freedom movement here at home. 

People often ask me whether a week-long liberty camp really makes that much of a difference, and I can understand their skepticism.  Education can be a tough sell because its results aren't fully manifest for years, sometimes decades.  The truth is, however, that nearly all political change, for good and for ill, comes down to people in power making decisions, and the quality of those decisions depends on educators.  There's little more powerful in the long run than education, both to inform young people and to motivate them.

I speak from experience.  Several years ago, I attended an intensive week-long seminar in the philosophy of freedom in Washington D.C., and it's no exaggeration to say that experience changed the whole course of my life.  It's tough to visualize how powerful a full week of these kinds of lectures can be because ordinary life rarely provides that much education uninterrupted, but consider:  with at least 8 hours of programming a day, a week-long seminar conservatively provides a little over 50 hours of information.  That's 100 episodes of television, 25 documentary films or an entire semester-long college course in just one week!  I can attest that you walk out of an experience like that a different person than when you entered.

That difference is sorely needed.  The sad fact is, many of the most radical expansions of government power that we're fighting here at home were instituted abroad a long time ago.  The average Londoner is filmed by hundreds of security cameras each day.  Portugal has such an expansive welfare state that some estimate the country will be bankrupt in three years.  Poland is drowning in bureaucracy and regulation.  Other continents are much worse.  South America has a thriving socialist movement, and the body count to prove it.  In places like the Middle East and Africa, dictatorships often alter economic policy radically and expect the state to manage economic affairs, with disastrous results.  Zimbabwe's dictator printed so much money, the country's inflation jumped from an annual rate of 32 percent to over 10 million percent!  When government officials don't understand economics, their people suffer. 

Even personal freedoms and human rights we take for granted aren't considered normal in some places.  A Russian student I met in Warsaw told me how a friend in Moscow had angered someone with powerful government connections.  One day, uniformed police came to his house and shot him and his family in broad daylight.  That night, the news reported they'd been killed by robbers.  When I asked why no one tried to do anything, tell anyone, he shrugged, "That's the way things are; that's how they'll always be."

It may be how things are some places, but it doesn't have to stay that way.  Young people are the future of these countries, and the citizens of these nations deserve access to the same ideas that have helped America become the world's largest economy even as it remains one of the freest.  One could make all sorts of arguments about what America could gain from a freer world, but the truth is that freedom, anyone's freedom, is a human right; and one disturbing implication of living in one of the world's freest countries is that almost everyone else is less free than we are.  People all over the world need the intellectual tools to combat statism, socialism and tyranny, and if Americans and our fellow freedom fighters in other countries don't step up, who will? I believe LLI is an important part of that mission.  That's why I'm here, and why I hope you'll give us your support.

As the elevator doors clicked shut, it finally hit me.  Since arriving in Warsaw a week earlier, something had been nagging at the edge of my thoughts, something different about the city I couldn't put my finger on, and as the elevator lurched upward, I realized what it was:  noone smiles here.

I was in a building called the Palace of Culture and Science in the center of Warsaw.  A large central tower flanked by two smaller buildings, at 757 feet it remains the city's tallest structure, as its creator likely intended.  The building was a "gift" from the mass-murderer Joseph Stalin to the Polish people during the mid-1950s, and I struggled to believe that the structure being shaped like a giant middle finger was a coincidence.  Literally dwelling in the shadow of a symbol of Soviet-era oppression was characteristic of the mood I'd found in many parts of Poland, a country that had been invaded so many times it was difficult to keep track of the wars its people had endured.  When I asked students at our camp whether they believed Poland would be invaded again in their lifetime, I always received one of two replies: "Yes," or "I don't like to think about such things."

When I later asked why so many people in the city frowned or remained tight-lipped, my hosts would explain that it was customary in central Europe to be more reserved in one's facial expressions, yet I couldn't help but feel it symbolized a melancholy I sensed in the city's architecture.  Having worked briefly in U.S. politics, I was accustomed to dealing with groups who framed their objectives in apocalyptic, life or death terms.  Now, after walking the grounds of Auschwitz and the other Nazi death camps in Poland, it is difficult to summon the same intense anger at unfair zoning regulations and inefficient health policy I'd once felt.  Politics seems more real here, more serious, and I feel ashamed to have ever used words like "inhumanity" or "evil" thinking I knew their meaning.  Promoting freedom abroad feels different, like I am playing for keeps in a much larger and more dangerous game, and I worry about how few people seem to be on the side of freedom.

Still, there is cause for hope.  I was deeply impressed with the knowledge and enthusiasm of the attendees at our recent camp, the local Poles and other young people who'd journeyed from Albania, Belarus, southern Russia, and Italy.  Our local partners, the Polish American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE), were incredible, and we anticipate further ventures together.  My musing was interrupted by the ding of the elevator, and I stepped out into the observation floor of the Palace, far above the streets of Warsaw.  The view was quite impressive.

"Would you like to buy something?"  Startled, I turned from the window to see a young Polish woman surrounded by statuettes of the Palace and other tourist trinkets.  "Wait a minute," I said "you mean to tell me that the former symbol of communist domination in Warsaw, built on the orders of Stalin himself, has a gift shop??"  "Pretty much," she said, and for the first time in a long while, I saw a smile.  The statuettes were overpriced, but I have to say I've never been a prouder participant in capitalism.

The Language of Liberty Institute is proud to announce that it has received its official tax-exempt status from
the US government under section 501(c)(3) of the
IRS code!  (We are considered a charitable organization.)

Glenn is in Krak�w, Poland, attending the PAFERE 2d annual Liberty Weekend, October 23 - 24.  He will get a chance to reunite with some of our Polish camp friends and continue to work for free markets in Poland.
 
From there, Glenn will go to London to attend the Libertarian Alliance conference Oct 30 - 31, where he will have more opportunities to meet former and future camp students and staff.

Then Glenn is off to Washington, DC to attend the Atlas Network Think Tank 101  program, a 3-day intensive program on NGO organization and development. This is very good timing, as LLI is planning for significant growth in 2011.  This type of skill building will help us achieve our goals.

Astrid will join Glenn in DC   to attend the Atlas Network Liberty Forum and Freedom Dinner on Nov 9 & 10.  The Atlas Economic Research Foundation is a non-profit organization connecting free-market organizations and individuals to the ideas and resources they need

If your plans have you in these areas, please let us know; we'd love to see you!

We have already started planning our 2011 camp season.  Discussions are already underway to expand our program with potential new local partners in Albania, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria.  Watch this space for regular updates to our camp schedule.