LSOCK NEWS  November 12,  2013

Libertarians Of South Central Kansas (LSOCK) meet for Supper and discussion every Tuesday at Cathy’s Westway Cafe located at 1215 W. Pawnee in Wichita, Kansas at 5:30 PM. If we have official business to conduct or a featured guest speaker, that will begin at 6:00 PM. All who support personal responsibility and individual liberty are invited to attend.

To receive the LSOCK NEWS and LSOCK NEWS Alerts! via email please contact Steven Rosile at sarasile@att.net or 316 618-1339.

Contact the Libertarian Party of Kansas or LSOCK at:

LPKS / LSOCK
P.O. Box 2456
Wichita, Kansas 67201

Ph. (800) 335-1776

On the Web please go to LPKS.org  or to the LSOCK Blog at:

www.libertariansofsouthcentralkansas.blogspot.com

Also see: Sedgwick County Libertarians on Facebook for their meeting time and location.

LSOCK NEWS

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. From The Editor
2. Campaign For Liberty Meeting Thursday
3. Libertarian Party Featured Weekly on Internet Radio
4. Doug Merritt, First Libertarian Elected in Kansas, Passes

1.    From The Editor

Hello everyone,

There is a great wailing and gnashing of teeth by the liberal/democrat supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as ObamaCare. The failure of the website to function properly and the disclosure that no testing was done before its launch as well as the many outright lies about the ACA told by Obama and others in his administration seem to have finally opened their eyes to the fact that it is indeed the train wreck predicted by many.

The fact is that liberals/ democrats are finally beginning to understand that the congress and government can not deliver on its promises on health care will hopefully open their eyes to the fact that government intervention and control of education, pensions, agriculture, trade and a host of other items that should be left to private enterprise also result in inefficiencies of production, lower quality of goods and services and higher rather than lower prices than could and would be attained by the free market.

One size does not fit all, but one (or a very few) size is all that government provides.

I am glad to see that this is taking place and hope that it will lead to the public questioning just what it is that we should expect the government to do. I hope they get out a copy of the US Constitution and see for themselves what the federal government is supposed to do and that is not supposed to do anything else.

Idiots like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi seem to believe that if congress passes a law and the president signs it that it will be so. She and her ilk seem to think that if a “Sun Rises In The West” law were passed that California would have morning before New York!

Don’t Trust Government for things as important as agriculture, healthcare, education, pensions, or anything other than those few enumerated items in the Constitution assigned to the federal government. And for the things they are empowered to do under the Constitution, better keep a watchful eye on them for those things too.

Don’t Trust Government!

The above slogan was recently suggested to me by a good friend who is not a libertarian (but is getting closer all the time) after we had discussed a number of issues. Don’t Trust Government to do the right thing. Leave it up to individuals to decide what is right for themselves and their families. Some will make wrong decisions and have to deal with the consequences but when we allow the government to make decisions for all of us, when they make mistakes we all have to deal with the consequences.

For Liberty,

Steven A. Rosile

Editor, LSOCK NEWS

2.   Campaign For Liberty Meeting Thursday

Dear Kansas Liberty Activist,

Wichita Mayor Brewer is one of only two Kansas mayors who belong to Mayor Bloomberg's gun-grabbing group MAIG (Mayors Against Illegal Guns).  We are mistaken if we think our Second Amendment rights are safe in Wichita.

Sound money is the foundation of a free market and a prosperous society.  A Federal Reserve audit is the first step in restoring sound money.

Please join us at our November 14 meeting (see below), to protect our Second Amendment freedoms and to restore sound money!

In Liberty,

John Axtell

Kansas Coordinator

Campaign for Liberty

Campaign for Liberty November Meeting
Thursday, November 14, 2013, at 7p.m.
Wichita Marriott Hotel, 9100 East Corporate Hills Drive

3.   Libertarian Party Featured Weekly on Internet Radio

The Libertarian Party of Kansas is now being featured weekly on internet radio. The Jiggy Jaguar Show (podcast at www.jiggyjaguar.com) created and hosted by James Lowe, has allotted time every Wednesday afternoon at 3:45 PM to feature Kansas Libertarians on a wide variety of topics.

LPKS Chair Al Terwelp and several other Kansas Libertarians have been featured already with more LP activists and libertarian topics to come.

Your Editor was featured last Wednesday on the topic of Jury Rights and Nullification, a topic that readers of this publication know is very dear to me as it is one of the few (and most direct) ways the people have to protect each other from bad law/bad government, without resorting to violence.

I am scheduled to be on again December 18^th on the topic of Constitutional Money (I.e., Gold and Silver Coin) but Mr. Lowe was so intrigued by the power of the jury that we will probably postpone that topic and continue with more on Jury Rights and Nullification on my December show.

Thank you Mr. Lowe and Jiggy Jaguar.

4.   Doug Merritt, First Libertarian Elected in Kansas, Passes

Former LPKS Chair Doug Merritt passed away October 9^th at the age of 93, following a stroke he suffered two years ago. I have not been able to determine when he was LPKS chair, but it was in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. He served as vice chair in the early 1990’s when he was 70 + years old.

Doug was an early activist in the Kansas LP and was the first Libertarian Party member elected to serve in public office. Doug was elected as City Councilman and later became Mayor of Atchison, Kansas. He also ran for US Senate as the Libertarian Party candidate against Nancy Landon Kassebaum in 1984.

Doug was a veterinarian who then went to law school and became an attorney at the age of 51. Later in life he wrote editorials that appeared in a number of small town newspapers in Kansas and several neighboring states and won a journalism award for his efforts. Doug then compiled the best of them into a book, A Libertarian Viewpoint, that was published in 2009. The article I wrote for this publication, LSOCK NEWS, about his award and book are below, followed by a link to his obituary..

Doug was a great believer in the libertarian philosophy and party. I am glad that knew him. He will be missed by many.

God Bless and Thank You, Doug.

From LSOCK NEWS, November 24, 2009:   Former LPKS Chair Writes Book

Long time Kansan Libertarian activist Douglas Merritt has won awards for his journalism as a writer for the Atchinson Daily Globe and has compiled his best work into a book. The details of the release are below from Tessala Books’ website: http://tessellabooks.com/

Doug Merritt has been active in the Kansas Libertarian Party for several decades and, in addition to having served as LPKS Chair, was the first elected (to the Atchison City Council) Libertarian in Kansas.

Doug was a Veterinarian who got interested in government and law, went to law school, graduated at the age of 51 and became a lawyer. His knowledge and abilities sustained and advanced our party and were and are greatly appreciated.

I have known Doug for 20 years and can tell you he is a staunch defender of liberty and has contributed to bringing the Libertarian message to the people of Kansas and elsewhere. He reads this newsletter and occasionally emails me his comments and thoughts.

Thank you and good luck, Doug!

 

 Merritt shares ‘A Libertarian Viewpoint’

“I used to be a Republican. Then I learned to read.”
— Douglas N. Merritt

Douglas N. Merritt has long been a Libertarian. He has served two terms as chairman of the Kansas Libertarian Party and has been the Libertarian Party’s candidate for the United States Senate.
He also wrote many personal columns for the Atchison (Kan.) Daily Globe and letters to the editors of many other publications, promoting Libertarian ideals.
He has collected his best work, which Tessella Books is proud to publish: A LIBERTARIAN VIEWPOINT.
This is no mere booklet. Running more than 460 pages, Douglas Merritt both preaches to the choir and works, with his wonderful felicity of language, to impress the sense of Libertarianism on those who have not yet seen the light.
Read a PDF with sample chapters from A LIBERTARIAN VIEWPOINT. The first two essays won the Kansas Press Association’s top honors in different years. The third was a speech he gave to enlighten people about their rights as members of a jury. The fourth essay shows Mr. Merritt’s lighter side (“You have to make a personal connection to your readers”), and the final sample shows us the end of World War II for him as the submarine on which he served returned to port. Download the PDF
Libertarians will enjoy and use this book for years to come. It is the distillation of Mr. Merritt’s years of effort on behalf of the Party of Principle. Be sure to get your copy today.

Douglas Neal Merritt Obituary

http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/780519/Merritt-Douglas.php

Date of Birth:

Tuesday, August 31st, 1920

Date of Death:

Wednesday, October 9th, 2013

Funeral Home:

Becker - Dyer - Stanton Funeral Home

www.beckerdyer.com

800 Kansas Ave.

Atchison, Kansas, 66002

Obituary:

Douglas Neal Merritt, 93, a WWII Navy veteran, veterinarian, aviator, USDA employee, criminal lawyer, longtime resident of, and once the Mayor of Atchison, Kansas, died Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at the Kansas City Hospice House, Kansas City, MO.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM Monday, October 14, 2013 at the Becker-Dyer-Stanton Funeral Home with Travis Smith McKee, First Christian Church, officiating. Burial will follow in the Alderson Cemetery, Good Intent, KS. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service on Monday at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorials in honor of Mr. Merritt are suggested to the Atchison YMCA Building What Matters Capital Campaign and may be sent in care of the funeral home. Words of comfort for the family may be left at www.beckerdyer.com.
From Atchison, KS, his parents, Charles and Helen, were in route to California, when Douglas was born in Ogden, Utah, on August 31, 1920. His sister, Geraldine, was two years old at that time. With his family moving about during much of his childhood, Douglas went to school and lived in cities like New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis and other towns along the way. His hometown was always Atchison, but during his youth he attended numerous elementary schools and enrolled in three different high schools throughout his young life’s travels. His last high school, and the one where he attained his diploma, was Atchison High School.
Douglas enrolled himself at Kansas State College to study civil engineering and found that his choice of higher education was a real challenge. With travelling virtually instilled in him, Douglas left Atchison once again and wandered the country and search for some of his ancestry in the Sacramento Valley in California. He never did meet his Great Uncle there, but he did meet his future wife, Marjorie, in Merced, CA, in 1939. They courted for a short time before marriage and then the call of the war came upon young men. Douglas took that call with much vigor and enlisted in the Navy branch of the Armed Forces. He was soon commissioned to submarines and served as an officer on several subs during the war in the Pacific theater.
He and Marjorie had two daughters and one son while the war was going on and when the war was over, they continued growing their family. Another son, a daughter and then two more sons would complete their brood and make up the nucleus of their lives. All the while, Douglas continued his education after his stint in the war, and remained in the Navy Reserves. Back in Atchison, he re-enrolled at Kansas State College and took up veterinary medicine. He found his first calling at K-State and became a large-animal veterinarian. Douglas, realizing that his degree was mostly for farm animals, moved his family to Dodge City, Kansas, for a short time. Not long after their stint in Dodge City, they found themselves back in Atchison and Douglas is working for the USDA as a meat inspector for a plant that was soon to be closed. Springfield, Missouri, had a meat packing plant that had job openings, so Douglas packed up his family again for another move to another town.
With all of this moving about it is interesting to note that all but one of Doug and Marge’s seven children were born in Atchison, Kansas. After a while in Springfield, Douglas had a gnawing that was eating at his conscience probably since he was a child. He wanted to get into law. So, many long commutes during the weekends to engage himself at the University of Missouri Law School in Kansas City, Missouri, would soon take up much of his time for a couple of years. Eventually, he would move what was left of his family (by this time four of their seven children were living on their own) to Kansas City, MO, and became a Public Defender in Jackson County, Missouri. After getting his feet wet as a public defender, Douglas opened up his own one-man law firm as a criminal lawyer in downtown Kansas City. Marjorie, being a Para-legal, became his secretary. They were quite a team for a few years.
When their last child graduated from high school in 1977, Doug and Marge finished out his office lease, sold his law practice, sold their house and bought a Chevy Blazer, an Airstream trailer and traveled the country for the following three years. Long before the age of the internet, they corresponded with family and friends via mail about their whereabouts and what they experienced and have seen during this time. The travel-bug was always in Douglas, from the beginning, it seems, and most thought that they would find someplace that they liked along their travels and settle in at a town that they both agreed upon. Well, they did find a place that they both liked and agreed upon, and that town was Atchison, Kansas!
While living in their Airstream, they bought and worked on a house on U Street in Atchison until they made it inhabitable and soon moved in there and eventually sold the Blazer as well as the Airstream. Douglas’ political pull came back to him and he soon became an Atchison City Councilman. Not long after, Douglas became the Mayor of Atchison and became known for many things. Some should not be mentioned here. But one of his reigning tributes as Mayor was the unveiling of the Amelia Earhart statue in downtown Atchison. Also, he had a running article in the Atchison Globe named “A Libertarian Viewpoint” that ran for many years during and after his mayoral duties. Never one to shy away from a debate, Douglas seemed to always have that lawyer-in-the-courtroom appeal even at cocktail parties or summer functions, long after his lawyer days. Good or bad, once a person met Doug Merritt, they never forgot him.
Always having an interest in aviation, Douglas learned how to fly single engine aircraft when he was still a young man. Oftentimes throughout his life, Doug would rent a twin seat airplane and he and Marge would take a vacation within a destination of their choice. For a short time in the 1970’s, Doug was part owner of a Piper Tri-pacer which could seat three passengers and a pilot, so he could take more people up for a flight of their choice. He kept his pilot’s license and the accompanying physical card up until the time he could not pass the physical test in his late 60’s.
Doug and Marge’s final personal residence was on Riverview Drive in Atchison, Kansas and they lived there for over twenty-five years. After all of their travels and all that they saw, they had a lot of favorite places. And the one place that they would come back to time and time again—and the one place that they ended up—was Atchison, Kansas.
Douglas is predeceased by a daughter, Diane Decker (Larry); and sons, Morgan (Annie); and Martin. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie Mae Merritt; two daughters, Renee’ Corbett (Lee); Rebecca Heermann (Kenneth); and two sons, Marcus (Jeannie); and Jonathan. Also surviving Douglas are his grandchildren, Kirk, Lora Lee, Raquel, Derrick, Stephanie, Jason, Adrienne, Shannon, Kirsten, Erica, Zachary, Ashley, Jennifer, Miles, Monet, and 22 great-grandchildren.