Dear folks at the Free Press:

Somewhere between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. on April 23, (Note: This event has been delayed to April 30th.) I intend to commit an illegal act in Concord. I will hold a puppet show, for profit, without government permission. The show will be wholesome and unobtrusive. But it will violate RSA 286:1.* Hopefully this will draw some small attention to the neglected importance of repealing unneeded laws.

Earlier this year, the State House overwhelmingly voted down HB1347, a bill aimed at removing obsolete statutes. There were problems with the bill's wording, but the fact remains Concord has declined to eliminate dozens, maybe thousands, of senseless laws which clutter our books at best...and endanger our freedoms at worst. It's illegal to pick up seaweed off the beach.** It's illegal to clean litter off the White Mountains without a permit.*** And, of course, it's illegal to grow hemp for even for the most constructive of purposes.

Some crazy state laws lie dormant and unenforced, others crowd our jails with victimless "criminals." More appear upon the scene each year to confuse or strangle individuals and businesses.

After 200+ years of adding state laws (8,200 Kilobytes worth), it's time to reverse the madness. It's time for Concord to start eliminating statutes instead of imposing them. A sunset provision on all new laws would be nice. A robust "repeal committee" might be an option. Some statutes I can't argue with, but others hemmorage tax dollars and prevent people from living their lives. So I beg lawmakers: Stop "protecting" us from commerce you don't approve of. Stop saving us from G-rated puppet shows, rope-making plants and clean mountains.

We who cherish our vanishing freedoms are often told we should work within the system to achieve these ends. But though the system sometimes works in New Hampshire it has refused to carry out this repair. Thoreau put it best: "As for the means the state has provided me for changing it....they take too long, and a man's life will be gone."

So I will do what Thoreau did, and openly violate the law rather than wait for a repeal that may never come. My intent is peaceable; I bear no grudge. But I won't not stop until I am arrested or have amassed a thousand dollars in illegal puppeteering profits. I will come back again and again until one of the above occurs. And I urge other New Hampshirites to do something similar. Don't mindlessly obey laws that harm the people, just because they are laws.

Depending on the exact location of boundaries, this event may violate not only RSA 286 but also the prohibition against demonstrating without a permit on state house grounds. I'm ready to be flexible on this issue if we're not forced to request a permit, to leave the state house area or to stand in anyone's way. But if need be I will face charges of violating the permit-to-demonstrate provision.

In any case, RSA 286 appears to ban all types of unlicensed shows not only on public property but everywhere in the state. So it apparently would still be illegal to do this, even your own home! Adding slavery to injury, this law deputizes the selectmen of every town and makes *them* prosecute. Hopefully that provision is not enforced, but if not enforced why does it need to be on the books?

Again, this is about more than the right to hold public performance. It's about the need to reduce the estimated 100,000+ pages worth of often-harmful New Hampshire law, something we will never accomplish through conventional means.

Dave Ridley
http://NHfree.com
Manchester