Never Forget Kent State

History & more.

Hey look, I actually got this out on Tuesday! As you may know by now, my non-Thursday post (which is supposed to come out on Tuesdays but I have unfortunately been a day late on each week except this one) is a mix of “wish I wrote it”, articles or threads I think people should check out, in case you missed it, links and promotions, all of which I think are worth checking out, between my weekly essays.

This week we have a number of worthwhile things.

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Four Dead in Ohio

It’s May 4th, which means it’s the 51st anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. I posted an album of photos from that day a few years ago, and I repost it each year. It’s available to look at on my Facebook. My mother was an anti-war protestor at the time, and went down to DC (from NH) at the time, and wrote an article of the events for the local paper, the Keene Sentinel, which was apparently published on the front page. It is a goal of mine to try to track down an archived copy of that paper from that week (anyone in NH want to go comb through microfilm for me?).

Kent State is an historical event I was not alive for, yet my mother’s stories of the era, her reflections as a college student at the time, and the way she made the whole thing so vivid and real to me instilled a deep distrust of government and a strong sense of moral compass. Anti-war activism was my first personal foray into libertarian politics, after the events of September 11th.

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How Government Codified Patriarchy

This great piece in America’s Future by Feminists for Liberty co-founder Kat Murti discusses the ways in which sexism has been encoded into American law historically, and how there are still laws and policy that disproportionately harm women, including tax policy and social security. I highly recommend checking it out!

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Freedom Fest 2021!

I’m confirmed as a speaker at Freedom Fest 2021! I’ve been attending Freedom Fest since 2012 (it’s actually where I first met Judd in person - he was speaking and I was an attendee). It’s usually in Las Vegas, but this year they moved it to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota (not my ideal situation but I’m open to new experiences). I’m speaking, taking photos, am on a few panels AND I’m hosting Friday night karaoke. We’ve got a great Feminists for Liberty panel as well! It’s all happening on July 21-24th in Rapid City. Tickets are available here and for $50 off, use the code Avens50. :)

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Feminists for Liberty Video Contest

As you may know, I’m on the Board of Feminists for Liberty, and we’re having our second annual Video Contest. 2-7 minute video, 1st prize is $500 worth of video equipment, Winners are screened at FreedomFest and the deadline HAS BEEN EXTENDED to May 8th! Not limited by age, sex, gender or location. I was a judge last year, and it was wonderful, we had so many creative entries! If this is of interest to you, click here to learn more!

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In Case You Missed It

Each week I get a handful of new signups for this newsletter, and I’m tremendously grateful for them (you!). I often do not know if they went through the archives to check out my previous essays, and I’d rather not bother them (and some of you since the beginning might miss an essay here or there!), so this subsection each week will be at the end of my non-Thursday post, so you can skip it if you’ve already seen it or read them all, but will present the long-form essays with a single sentence description in case you missed something and wanted to check it out.

Lead With Gratitude - I explain the game plan with this blog, and thank you for your support.

Choose The Better Story - My life philosophy about building your personal story and making choices.

Judge & Prepare To Be Judged - How “Judgement” does not equal condemnation, and being a discerning person isn’t actually a bad thing, but you should also know who you’re judging for.

Look Beyond Representation - Talking about “representation” as a woman - how its purpose is to eventually render itself irrelevant - let there be so much representation that nobody represents us, because we’re individuals.

Count It All Joy - Remembering a long lost friend, and how she taught me to love by letting go.

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I’ve been reading A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin, and re-kindling my love of Christina Aguilera’s album Stripped, which even Judd found impressive. Finally, everything bagels smothered in melted butter are freakin’ HEAVEN right now.

Also please don’t forget Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday, if you have a mother in your life you feel inspired to do something nice for. If you don’t, just avoid restaurants on Sunday, they’ll be packed.

Have a lovely day!