By Kat Kanning

Dave Ridley

Dave Ridley of Manchester has now performed three illegal puppet shows. Ridley calls himself the “outlaw puppeteer” to highlight the fact that his performances are done without a license. State law requires that puppet shows for profit be licensed. Dave informed us that the state legislature had the opportunity earlier this year to remove outdated, useless laws, but did not do so.

He has performed two different plays, his version of "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" and his new play, "The Night Mike Fisher Spent in Jail". The Thoreau play was charming, the subject matter very appropriate for today's problems. In the story, Henry David Thoreau refuses to pay the poll tax, which funds the Mexican/American war. The part of the government is appropriately played by a vulture. Thoreau is thrown in jail for his disobedience. Dave's rendition of the story was particularly entertaining – with the government urging Thoreau outright to help “kill Mexicans”. In real life they're not that honest.

"The Night Mike Fisher Spent in Jail" was along similar lines – telling the story of Freestater activist Mike Fisher who went to jail for one day to protest licensing requirements for starting a business. In the play, the Mike Fisher character points out that people should be free to earn a livelihood without government restriction, “You don't need the government's permission to start a business.”

Ridley has expanded his civil disobedience, again on the subject of people being free to earn a livelihood. He hired Larry, a homeless man, for $6/hour to collect admissions to the play. This is lower than the legal minimum wage, which is $6.50/hour in NH, but Larry said he was happy to work for that amount. The minimum wage laws are devastating to workers at the lower end of pay scales. When times are hard, businesses must eliminate these low pay jobs because the minimum wage sets the cost of hiring higher than the actual value of the work. According to Dave, “You can violate a law, even a well-intentioned law, without hurting anybody. In fact, you could be helping somebody.”

Dave Ridley and Larry

D.W. Mackenzie wrote: “Real statistics indicate that the critics of minimum wage laws were right all along. While it is true that minimum wages do not drive the national unemployment rate up to astronomical levels, it does adversely affect teenagers and ethnic minorities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate for everyone over the age of 16 was 5.6% in 2005. Yet unemployment was 17.3% for those aged 16-19 years. For those aged 16-17 unemployment was 19.7%. In the 18-19 age group unemployment was 15.8%. Minimum wage laws do affect ethnic minorities more so than others. The unemployment rate for white teens in the 16-17 age group was 17.3% in 2005. The same figures for Hispanic and black teens were 25% and 40.9% respectively. Of course, these figures decrease for older minorities. Blacks aged 18-19 and 20-24 had 25.7% and 19.9% unemployment in 2005. For Hispanics unemployment was slightly lower — 17.8% at age 18-19 and 9.6% at age 20-24.”

Larry said he was happy to discover that, “there are other people out there that think a little bit like I do. Sometimes the laws don't make no sense. There are some things that are above the law in this world.” When asked about the Free State Project, Larry replied, “I definitely believe in having a Free State. I believe in freedom. I believe in liberty above anything else."

Dave protested another stupid NH law, which makes it illegal to put anything but dairy products in a milk bottle. He cleaned and bleached a milk bottle and filled it with drinking water, which was consumed during his play.

Unlike Thoreau and Mike Fisher, no one came to throw Dave Ridley in jail. Dave says that he will continue to do his illegal shows until he is arrested, or until he earns $1000 from his shows. So far, he's earned $85 out of the $1000 goal. He has been charging $2 for admission to his shows.

Dave Ridley is a videographer and Free State Project member. His website is http://ridleyreport.com.

John Connell's video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hdXY2MQJ2Q

Russell Kanning doing some signholding

More Photos

Bill Alleman's Video

Dave Ridley's Video