By John McClaughry
One of the few organizations I’m a life member of is Liberty International, a group that organizes summer camps and study groups around the world for young people interested in the theory and practice of liberty. Last week news came from LI that they’re relocating from San Francisco to Texas.
Executive Director Jim Ellwood says that “the draconian Covid lockdowns have destroyed many of the businesses, as well as much of the social life. It’s difficult to work and operate under such conditions. Even the local media admits that 43% of the small businesses in the city have closed. The financial district remains a ghost town. Crime has jumped, and parts of the city are overrun with street people, who are coddled by the city government.”
“The political and intellectual climate is dominated by the Green Religion. Authorities think that they can run a state of 40 million people on wind and solar, and they are even hostile to natural gas. … California government employees get gold-plated salaries and pensions, which are ratcheted up annually. The education system is a disaster. The regulatory and legal climate is stifling.”
“What a shame! California still has much to offer, but the government has gotten so bad that thousands of the best people are fleeing the state every month. That now also includes me.”
Too bad, Jim, and I sympathize. The beautiful San Francisco I loved five decades ago has been ruined by rampant progressivism.
John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.
And here, right at home, John, the Vermont you and I grew up in… is being replaced by shallow, Mammon scripted nightmare NONE of us voted on, signed up, or even…can manage to adhere to.
I for one, am an endangered species. Everything I depend on to live – as in wake up, breathe, and go into action with a brain intact every day – is being destroyed wholesale.
Here in Vermont.
As we speak.
Say good by to freedom to choose in Vermont.
Going, going, gone.
Thanks Karl baby.
Thanks John for this short but enlightening expose on how one of the US’s most beautiful, prosperous and culturally significant states and cities can be utterly destroyed by progressive policies. This should be an omen to what is currently happening in Vermont/Burlington and what we have to look forward to. It must also be realized that this is the result of our own actions at the polls and that it is completely reversible with a good dose of economic reality and re-acceptance of the concept of personal responsibility.