Constitution Day Success!

09/17/13 YAL's Free Speech Wall at Vanderbilt University

This Constitution Day, in celebration of our First Amendment rights to freedom of expression, Young Americans for Liberty @VU erected a Free Speech Wall outside Rand and hosted David Hudson, a scholar with the First Amendment Center.

Our free speech wall received such a great response, we decided to leave it up for the week.  The positivity and lack of hate speech expressed on our wall reflects well on Vanderbilt students.  Thanks to everyone who participated.

Find more, higher definition pictures on our Facebook page!

Mr. Hudson was excellent in his discussion of modern threats to our First Amendment rights.  He focused on four topics:

1. Free speech in public schools
2. Free speech for public employees
3. Freedom of sexual expression, barring child pornography
4. Excessive enforcement of intellectual property rights

Hudson concluded by stressing that protecting freedom of speech is not a partisan issue, and that there have been infringements from all parts of the political spectrum.  He emphasized the need for a robust interpretation of the First Amendment, as free expression leads to a better society.

Vandy Law Professor and First Amendment Law Scholar, David Hudson Jr.

What did you think of our Constitution Day events?  Love them?  Hate them?  Please take a minute to fill out this quick survey.  We want to take your opinions into account.  That's kind of the idea.

Speaking of ideas...

Tuesday, September 24th (tomorrow!) at 7:00pm in Buttrick 212, we are having our first general body meeting and brainstorming session!  We'll be covering logistics/plans for October.  We also want your feedback, ideas, and the topics you'd like to cover. Feel free to bring dinner, along with all your great ideas!

RSVP here on AnchorLink.

Thanks for reading!

Fall 2013 Interest Meeting: Kicking Off the New Semester!

What a great turnout!  After a successful Student Organization Fair on August 23rd, twenty-five potential new members attended our Fall 2013 interest meeting the evening of Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013.

The magnitude of interest in YAL@VU this year has been staggering and inspiring, but comes as no surprise, considering our mission as an organization, our impact on campus, and our dedication to issues and principles that resonate especially well with young people. 

After the interest meeting, old and new members enjoyed smoothies, coffee, and good conversation at Au Bon Pain. 

Check out more photos of the meeting on our Facebook page!

If you were unable to make it to our interest meeting, worry not!  Here's a short recap of what was covered:

1. We welcome libertarians, classical liberals, and small-government conservatives, and those who want to learn more.  You don't have to agree with us on everything.  Diversity of opinion is a beautiful thing!  As YAL@VU, let's work together on issues upon which we do agree.
   
   Our key issues include...
• protecting civil liberties, 
• increasing personal freedom, 
• ending corporate welfare, 
• increasing government transparency, 
• reducing government waste and abuse, 
• lowering taxes, 
• promoting a peaceful and diplomatic foreign policy, 
• and promoting private charity.
  
2. General body meetings will be Tuesdays at 7:00pm.  Meetings will range from socials to discussions to planning to speaker events.  We also go to regional, national, and international conferences, and this year, we are hosting a conference here at Vandy! Check out the schedule below for details.
3. Schedule of events for Fall 2013
4. Subscribe to our email list, join on AnchorLink, and like us on Facebook!  To take it even a step further, become a dues-paying member at yaliberty.org and get a free t-shirt!  Drop in on any of our meetings or events -- we are delighted to have you.  

If you have any questions feel free to contact Emily Crowe, or anyone else on the executive board!

2nd Annual "End the Drug War" Bake Sale

On April 19, YAL@VU held our 2nd annual "End the Drug War" Bake Sale to show support for an end to the war on drugs! We tabling on Rand Wall and gave out delicious brownies along with free swag from the Marijuana Policy Project, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Foundation for Economic Education, and Students For Liberty. We signed up over 20 new members while tabling that day. To follow-up, the next week we hosted a screening of Breaking the Taboo, a 2011 documentary about the global war on drugs.

Thomas Schwartz: A Historical Look at America’s Position in the World

Thomas Schwartz, Professor of History, Political Science and European Studies at Vanderbilt, addressed a special meeting of Vanderbilt Young Americans for Liberty on April 9th as part of YAL's national Generation of War event series.  Speaking on the history of the military involvement of the United States, Professor Schwartz outlined the increasing role for our armed forces in world affairs since the nation's founding.  Dr. Schwartz described the changing foreign policy doctrines of the executive branch and their lasting effects, specifically linking US action in the Caribbean during the the late nineteenth century to the much earlier Monroe Doctrine and our current commitments in Western Europe and South Korea to the Cold War doctrine of containment.  After concluding his remarks with a list of potential issues and questions for the future of US foreign policy, Professor Schwartz opened the floor to a lively Q&A and discussion session.

Professor Schwartz's primary research interests are the foreign relations of the United States, modern European history, and international relations.  He recently received the 2013 Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Professor Schwartz has been teaching at Vanderbilt since 1990 and was previously on the faculty at Harvard University.  Vanderbilt YAL extends the greatest thanks to Professor Schwartz for sharing his time and his expertise with our organization.

Vanderbilt YAL promoted Professor Schwartz's lecture and participated in the national Generation of War campaign by tabling on the major Vanderbilt thoroughfare of Rand Wall.  YAL members engaged their fellow students in discussions of the impact and costs of the interventionist foreign policy of the United States.

John Lachs: Victims of Our Kindness and the Problems of the Welfare State

John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy and faculty adviser to Vanderbilt Young Americans for Liberty, addressed a general body meeting of our organization on March 13th.  The topic of his remarks was the intersection of human nature and systems of government care for those in need. With his characteristic wit and proclivity to illustrative anecdotes, Professor Lachs contrasted the human inclination to help others who are helpless with the less virtuous tendency to benefit oneself to the detriment of others.  A conflict arises in organized systems of aid as they create incentives for those who do not truly need help to demand it, victimizing both those in actual need and the greater population that financially supports the system.  Professor Lachs then opened the floor for a lively discussion of possible solutions, including the advantages and disadvantages inherent in private and government welfare systems.

Professor Lachs' research interests center on human nature with general work on American philosophy and German Idealism.  He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and has been on the Vanderbilt faculty since 1967.  Professor Lachs is well known on campus for his engaging lectures, particularly his introductory ethics course.  He is a past winner of the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Freshmen Award and the Graduate Teaching Award.

Luke Froeb: The Debt Crisis and the Long-Term Consequences of Short-Term Economic Policy

Luke Froeb, Associate Professor in Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt's Owen School of Management, spoke to our group at our first meeting of the spring semester on January 30. His talk focused on the debt crisis and the long-term consequences of short-term economic policy. Topics discussed included the fiscal stimulus after the recent financial crisis, the relationship between unemployment and automatic stabilizers such as unemployment insurance, the growing fiscal burden of Medicare on future generations, the difficulty in changing course because of low youth voter participation and special interest groups, and tough to swallow solutions that may have to be considered in the future.

Professor Froeb is an expert on anti-trust, and his research is focused on the economics of competition policy. After receiving his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, he taught at Tulane University, was a fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and worked as an economist at the U.S. Department of Justice before moving to Vanderbilt's Owen School of Management. Professor Froeb has also previously served as the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission where he managed over a hundred civil servants dedicated to tearing down barriers to competition (often erected by well-meaning bureaucrats), in addition to enforcing the antitrust and consumer protection laws of the United States.

Seasteading and The Seasteading Institute - A Q&A with Tony Dreher

In continuing our mission of hosting educational events on topics in libertarianism, we hosted this meeting on Sept. 26th to educate members on the concept of Seasteading and the work of The Seasteading Institute. We screened a TEDx presentation by Patri Friedman followed by a Q&A with Tony Dreher, an ambassador for The Seasteading Institute.

Patri's presentation can also be viewed on YouTube and is embedded below.

Patri Friedman is the founder and chairman of the Board of The Seasteading Institute and the CEO of Future Cities Development Inc. He earned a BS in math from Harvey Mudd College, an MS in computer science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Cardean University. While in school he experimented with technology startups, ran a small consulting business, and co-founded two intentional communities. In 2004 he joined Google to work as a software engineer.

In 2008 he left Google and co-founded The Seasteading Institute with seed funding from entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Peter Thiel. He is also a prolific writer on political theory and philosophy, and has appeared in hundreds of media stories worldwide, including NPR, BBC, and The Economist. Patri comes from a line of great revolutionary thinkers, his grandfather Milton Friedman was the 1976 Nobel Laureate in economics, and his father David Friedman is a well-known political theorist and festival founder.

Learn more about The Seasteading Institute and its ambassador program:

http://www.seasteading.org/ambassadors/

What Ever Happened to the Constitution?

In continuation of our celebration of Constitution Week, on Sept. 19th, we held a screening of a lecture by Andrew Napolitano, titled “What Ever Happened to the Constitution?” In this lecture, Judge Napolitano explores the historical experience of the colonists under English rule that influenced the limitations on government power present in the Constitution, the nature of the rights ensured in the Bill of Rights, and how these governing documents have been compromised and violated outright from the early days of our republic.

The lecture can also be viewed on YouTube and is embedded below.

Andrew Napolitano is a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge, the youngest at the time, and senior judicial analyst for Fox News. He has also worked as an adjunct professor of law and is perhaps best known for his television program Freedom Watch, which aired on Fox Business Channel. He is the author of six books on government and law with a particular focus on the Constitution.

Constitution Day 2012

Sept. 17th 2012 marks the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Young Americans for Liberty at Vanderbilt University celebrated Constitution Day 2012 by handing out over 500 free pocket constitutions to promote the principles of limited government embodied in the Constitution. Students also got the chance to sign a full-size replica of the Constitution and test their knowledge of the Constitution with our Constitution Quizzes. A wild gorilla also happened to be crossing campus when it discovered a passion for the Constitution ...

Welcome new students!

The new school year is about to begin and Young Americans for Liberty at Vanderbilt are excited to start our fall recruitment drive. We'll be at the student organization fair on Friday between 3pm to 6pm. We'll also be tabling inside the Commons Atrium and Rand Terrace from Aug. 27th thru. 31st. Our interest meeting will be on Monday, Sept. 3rd 8pm in Commons Center 235. See you then!

4/20 Bake Sale & Radley Balko on the War on Drugs

In a free society, individuals should be able to make their own choices about their own bodies. We believe that individuals have the right to consume, smoke or drink any substance as long as their resulting actions do not harm another individual who does not wish to be harmed. But regardless of their initial intentions or motives, those individuals who choose to exercise this right must also take full responsibility for the choices that they make while under the influence of any substances, including any actions that cause injury or death to another individual.

In direct contradiction to libertarian principles is the war on drugs that has been ongoing in America since alcohol prohibition, from 1920 to 1933. Since 1971, the war has been focused on the prohibition of a wide range of illegal substances including marijuana.
 
During these periods of prohibition, the statistics gathered clearly indicate that homicide rates and police enforcement costs have increased as a result of the drug war. A simple economic analysis shows that whenever a consumer good is prohibited, a black market will result in order to meet supply with demand. However, a black market lacks both a legal system and assurances of product quality, often becoming a dangerous trade.
 
This is exactly what has happened in the U.S. and in almost all countries in the world that have prohibitionist drug policies. Prohibition has made it extremely profitable for major drug cartels to traffic drugs into the U.S., while causing unnecessary violence and death to innocent bystanders and law enforcement officers.
 
To protest the drug war and raise awareness of its failures,  YAL@VU hosted our first annual 4/20 Bake Sale on Rand Wall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, April 20th.
 

 
On April 23^rd, we hosted guest speaker Radley Balko who discussed the collateral damage from America’s ongoing drug war.
 

 

America’s century long war on drugs has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and left a catastrophic trail of damage in its wake. There is no area of public policy — or even our public and private lives — that it hasn’t impacted. And yet, illicit drugs are as easy to obtain today as they were in the early 1900s, as they were in the 1960, and as they were in the 1980s. Radley Balko will survey the damage — from the tens of thousands of homicides in just a few years in Mexico and poisoning of the land in South America, to the damage wrought here at home, including the corruption and militarization of police; the erosion of the Fourth Amendment; and the destruction of the doctor-patient relationship and handicapping of palliative care.

 

We had another great turnout at this event and the video of the presentation can be watched below:

 

(As you can see, we were also competing with Vanderbilt's Habitat for Humanity that day.) 

 

 

 

 

 

2012-2013 YAL@VU Exec Board Annoucements!

Yesterday, after passing proposed constitutional amendments, YAL@VU elected next year's leadership team. The board members for the upcoming year are:








President: Kenny Tan
Vice President: Thomas Choate
Treasurer: Brian Rizzo
Secretary: Emily Crowe
Creative/Outreach Director: David Moore

Congratulations to everyone elected. If you didn't win a position or weren't able to make the meeting last night, but still want to get involved in the organization, we also have appointed positions that can be opened up.

In addition, keep an eye out for further information about our April activism event. Our plans include a 4/20 bake sale and a guest speaker on the War on Drugs. Please let us know if you'd like to help prepare the baked goods on Thursday night (4/19).

Dr. Ming Wang and Ralph Weber

 

On Monday, March 26th, YAL@VU hosted a healthcare panel featuring MediBid CEO Ralph Weber and ophthalmologist Dr. Ming Wang.

A Canadian philanthropic entrepreneur, writer, Certified Financial Planner, Registered Employee Benefits Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter, and Chartered Financial Consultant, Weber endorsed a free-market health care system to help patients save money.  He discussed problems with "Obamacare," especially pertaining to how the new healthcare policies will affect students.

Surviving China's Cultural Revolution and appreciating freedom and choice in America - Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics) spoke about his childhood and teenage years in China and how he came to be a doctor in America. To expound upon Weber's points, Wang spoke about how he, as a physician, viewed healthcare and the recently passed healthcare bill.  Ultimately, Wang supports a mostly free market in healthcare, but believes, due to social responsibility and human dignity, there should be at least some regulation in place to help those without access to healthcare.
 

YAL@VU Spring 2012 Recruitment Report

YAL@VU had an extensive spring recruitment drive this year, hosting four events to garner interest in the organization, and signing up over fifty new members.
 
In January, we held a Teach-In on the National Defense Authorization Act, along with a Presidential Debate Watching Party. We also hosted a dinner discussion with Libertarian Vanderbilt Sociology Professor Richard Pitt. In February, we hosted a lecture by libertarian Radley Balko on The Militarization of Main Street. We also participated in the national activism event, Crony Capitalism = Phony Capitalism.
 
Here are some pictures of our events along with mentions in the press.

Radley Balko: The Militarization of Main Street

Radley Balko is a senior writer and investigative journalist for Huffington Post, where he writes about criminal justice and civil liberties, and also writes about Nashville music and culture. He was previously a senior editor at Reason magazine, and he has been published in a variety of media outlets from Playboy to the Wall Street Journal.

On February 13th, YAL@VU hosted Radley Balko for a dinner discussion on The Militarization of Main Street. About 60 students, faculty, staff, and local community members attended the event. Comments about the presentation were very positive.

 

The video of the event can be watched below.

 
Examining the rise of SWAT teams and America’s increasingly reactionary, militaristic approach to policing, Balko mentioned the gradual decline of the Law of Posse Comitatus – the principle that there should be a total separation of the military from civil law enforcement. He went on to discuss botched raids and the terror and intimidation, and sometimes death, suffered by civilians as a result. Balko ended the discussion by emphasizing the importance of holding our politicians accountable for these issues and that real change can only be brought about by a mentality change over time.

An Open Letter to Our Friends and Alumni

An Evening with Vanderbilt Sociology Professor Richard Pitt

 
On January 23rd, YAL@VU held the first dinner discussion of the semester, "Living in Liberty: Possible in a 21st Century America?" 

The speaker of the event was Dr. Richard Pitt, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, who discussed how his characteristics and beliefs, many of which may seem conflicting when viewing politics simply as "blue" versus "red," led him to classical liberalism and libertarianism. Pitt also focused on how his views affect him as a professor of sociology and his teaching method of wrestling with different sides of a topic rather than presenting it as black and white.
 
Pitt was an engaging speaker and left the audience enthusiastic and charged with questions in the aftermath of his lively presentation.

Spring Kick-off Event Report

On January 16th, YAL@VU held its first event of the semester, a teach-in focusing on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its provisions for indefinite military detention of terrorist suspects, combined with a presidential debate watching party. We had one of our largest ever turn-outs, with close to 50 people in attendance during the 3 hours. As part of our spring recruitment drive, we also added 16 new emails to our mailing list. Two local TV stations, WSMV and WKRN, came to report on the event.

Our teach-in was led by John M. Drake.

John Drake was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1968. He earned his baccalaureate degree in computer science from UAB in 1991. He then completed a Masters in computer science. In 1998, Drake relocated with his wife to Nashville so that she could pursue research at Vanderbilt. A friend whom he was helping prepare for the LSAT suggested that he sit for the exam as well. He attended Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated in 2011. He currently works in the Nashville area, where he lives with his wife, Dr. Wonder Drake, and their twin sons, Cameron and Miles.

NDAA Teach-In & Debate Watching Party

On the holiday commemorating the birthday of a great civil rights advocate, Martin Luther King, Jr., YAL@VU will be hosting a teach-in on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a critical threat to civil rights in the modern era.

After the teach-in, we will also be hosting a presidential debate watching party starting at 8PM.

Also come to learn more about Vanderbilt's libertarian student organization and get a preview of our plans for the semester!

Celebrating the 220th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights

On November 28th, YAL@VU co-sponsored the Celebration of the 220th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights with the Office of Active Citizenship and Service. The event was a special dinner featuring table discussions on the Bill of Rights along with a lecture by and Q&A with guest speaker John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center. We distributed YAL Pocket Constitutions along with the programs at the event. See more pictures and video below.