January 16, 2008
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Notes from the Editor — January 2008
Notes from the Editor
by Mike Blessing [ kcufmedia@gmail.com ]
Otero County LP Forms The editor offers apologies to Gilberto Heredia and the others involved
in organizing the Otero County LP for not mentioning the events of
November in last month’s issue — see page 6 for the coverage from the
Alamogordo Daily News. Good job!Maurice McDonald Passes Away I received the bad news at the Albuquerque Liberty Forum on 20 December
from State Chairman Jay Vandersloot. Jay sent me the obituary listing
from the Albuquerque Journal –MCDONALD — MAURICE December 6, 1938 — December 15, 2007 Maurice
McDonald, age 69, died peacefully in his home on December 15,
surrounded by his loving family, after a long battle with cancer. He
was proceeded in death by son, Robert McDonald, and is survived by his
beloved wife, Paula Rhae McDonald; children, John McDonald, Heather
McDonald, Michelle Kimbrell, Chris Tarpley, and James Tarpley;
siblings, Richard McDonald and Diane McDonald; grandchildren, Samantha
Bruns, Kai Bruns, Shea Ward, and Violet Tarpley; nieces and nephews,
Kim McDonald, Randy McDonald. Heidii Vogue, and Shawn Vogue and his
faithful companion, Lucky. He was born Dec. 6, 1938 in Albuquerque New
Mexico to John and Helen McDonald. Maurice attended grade school and
high school in Albuquerque as well as UNM and the New Mexico Military
Institute in Roswell. After serving in the Coast Guard, he settled in
Santa Fe, in 1969 where he worked in real estate. Maurice founded the
Libertarian Party of New Mexico in which he was politically active his
entire adult life. He was staunch supporter of American Indian Art and
an avid collector. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him and
will remain in our hearts forever. His wishes were to be cremated and a
memorial will be held in his honor at a later date. In lieu of flowers
please make contributions to your favorite charity in his name.
It really sucks to have to report the death of one of our
comrades-in-arms. This is the third time during my tenure as editor of
New Mexico Liberty that I’ve had the duty to report the passing of a
fellow freedom fighter — the first was Dan Weiner, who was at our 2003
State Convention in Albuquerque and passed in October, 2003, followed a
month later by Norman Van Gorder, one of the LPNM’s activists from the
Ruidoso area.I first came to the LPNM in 1995, after arriving in the state in July,
1994. While I missed seeing Maurice’s term as State Chair, I’ve been
told that at first, no one wanted the job, and that Maruce ended up
with it when he stepped out to use the restroom, only to return and
find himself elected state chairman.In 1998, Maurice ran a credible campaign for the public office of
Commissioner of Public Lands, getting nine percent of the vote in a
three-way race — a record that yet to be broken, from what I’ve seen
while living in the state. That nine percent translated to 6.8% of the
votes cast in that year’s gubernatorial election, and earned the LPNM
“major-party” status for a short time.So I ask the membership — have Maurice’s contributions to the cause and
Party been wasted? What can we do to ensure that his time spent with us
was well-spent?2008 LPNM State Convention The 2008 LPNM State Convention will be held on the second weekend of
April (11-13 April 2008) at the Radisson Hotel Albuquerque (2500
Carlisle Boulevard NE, Albuquerque NM 87110). See page 4 for more
information.New Mexico Liberty on Google
New Mexico Liberty will now be available for
download as a PDF file from the Google group I’ve set up for it –
groups.google.com/group/nmliberty
– as well as the Yahoo!
Group. Google will let you read and/or download the document
without the sign-in requirement that Yahoo! has.== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse ( gifts ) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler (later Lord Alexander Fraser Woodhouslee),
in “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic,” published 1776.
