I want to share a story that is quite unfortunate. The setting is a grade school class last fall and
the main character is young girl, I’ll call her Stacey. With the Presidential election approaching, the
teacher decided to do an exercise that demonstrated the democratic process. The teacher created a
mock election for President of the United States.
When it came time for Stacey to take part in this mock election, she ran into a little trouble. Her
candidate was not listed on the ballot. See, only Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were listed but
Stacey believed the best choice was Gary Johnson. Stacey raised her hand and asked her teacher,
“Where is Gary Johnson?” and the teacher replied “oh, well he’s not a real candidate. Just choose
between the two on the paper”. Stacey rightfully defended her position and asked that she be able to
vote for Gary Johnson, which the teacher denied. Stacey stated her position once more. In the end,
Stacey was sent to the Principal’s office for not participating in class events. I wish I could tell you that
this story was purely fiction, but I can’t.
In many ways, we have all experienced this sort of thing. Our Libertarian movement not being
taken seriously. She set an example that has inspired our own group and I hope it will do the same for
you. It will be examples like this that lead the future of the Libertarian movement.
Joseph Keel
Treasurer, Peoria County Libertarian Central Committee