Thursday, May 6, 2010

A Libertarian in a Room Full of Public School Teachers

Yeah.


Needless to say, I had far more to worry about before the start of the event than just the fact that this was my first ever public speaking engagement. Before the event, I took the time to introduce myself for the first time to my myriad opponents in this race (including the incumbent, Carlos Bilbao) collected my thoughts, laid out my business cards, and mingled with the early birds. Fortunately, I settled right in as soon as the forum began.

The forum was put on by the Democracy Circle of Emmett, Idaho. I was impressed by the turnout for this event. I'd put the total number of attendees at around 50. They gave me around a dozen or so sample questions ahead of time, of which they asked 5. They gave me 1 minute to answer each of the 5 questions. Trust me, 1 minute is a short amount of time to answer multi-faceted questions. I also took several questions from the crowd at the tail end of the evening. It seemed the crowd was obviously concerned about Idaho's recent budget cuts in education. I think the answers I provided (in the 45 second time limit) were effective in showcasing my ideas that taxpayer funding is rarely (if ever) the best solution to a problem.

Keeping in mind that the room was chalk full of public employees, I was pleasantly surprised by a few nodding heads in the crowd as I advocated phasing out public schools in favor of privately owned institutions and parental choice. The stack of business cards I laid out only had a handful left after the event was over. Also, while I didn't canvas the room and shake every one's hand like your typical politician, I was pleased to have several individuals approach me and shake my hand after it was over.

It's apparent to me that people are ready to listen when you are talking about individual liberty. The people at the event were super friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed my first real foray into meeting and communicating with potential voters. I can't wait for the next event.