FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Noted Libertarian Economist Endorses Lee Wrights for President
BURNET, Texas (Feb. 9) – Ken Schoolland, a long-term board member of the International Society for Individual Liberty and associate professor at Hawaii Pacific University, has endorsed Lee Wrights for President and joined the campaign as economic advisor.
In libertarian circles Schoolland is best known as the author of the animated video “The Philosophy of Liberty” popular on the Internet. He wrote the illustrated libertarian primer “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A FreeMarket Odyssey,” which has been translated into more than 40 languages.
Schoolland, who was Hawaii LP chair for five years, is also the author of “Shogun’s Ghost,” an expose on education in Japan, where he taught before accepting his current position in Honolulu. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, an international organization of economists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favor classical liberalism.
ISIL is a non-profit, non-partisan libertarian educational organization encouraging activism in libertarian and individual rights.
Schoolland issued this statement:
“I like Ron Paul. I like Gary Johnson. I'd probably like all the libertarian candidates running for President. But liking someone isn't a reason to vote for them. When I became a member of the Libertarian Party back in 1976 I signed a non-aggression pledge. I take that pledge very seriously. That has been my guiding principle ever since.”
“I simply don't vote for anyone who compromises on that principle, as the Libertarian Party has too often been willing to do in recent years to broaden candidate popularity. I applaud Ron Paul and Gary Johnson for promoting the libertarian program, but if people don't grasp the underlying principle, then gains will turn to losses in an instant of mob passion. No compromise with principle.
“The libertarian message is rooted in an appreciation of individual rights … not state's rights, not practical moderation. That is why I enthusiastically join the Lee Wrights campaign and endorse him for the 2012 Libertarian Party Presidential nomination. When I listen to Lee Wrights speak, as he did at the Libertarian Party of Hawaii convention last May – traveling on his own dime – I was reminded of that great, successful libertarian abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, who said:
I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard.”
R. Lee Wrights, 53, a libertarian writer and political activist, is seeking the presidential nomination because he believes the Libertarian message in 2012 must be a loud, clear and unequivocal call to stop all war. To that end he has pledged that 10 percent of all donations to his campaign will be spent for ballot access so that the stop all war message can be heard in all 50 states. Wrights is a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party and co-founder and editor of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All. Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., he now lives and works in Texas.
Lee Wrights for President
Contact: Brian Irving, press secretary
press@wrights2012.com
919.538.4548