A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)

by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

AFTER A STINT in Vermont, the Babiarzes quickly realized that New Hampshire was a better bet for those who wanted to “Live Free or Die”—a state motto so beloved that, in the 1970s, when a Jehovah’s Witness covered up the words “or Die” on his license plate because they offended his religious sensibilities, the state jailed him.

Together, the colonists and their hosts strategized a naked power grab of the town government. Grafton had fewer than eight hundred registered voters, most of whom didn’t show up on election days. They figured that just a couple of dozen new voters could join an existing base of like-minded people to tip the scales in favor of a new order. Might it be possible, Condon asked, to defund the local public school district? There’s already talk about that, said Rosalie, who was a payroll clerk with the local regional school district.

Like many Free Towners, Babiarz implied that it was grossly unfair for people to judge the Free Town Project by the views expressed on the Free Town Project website.

Now out of options, the desperate bear turned and launched itself at Hurricane with deadly intent. The fight was an absolute bloodbath, so brief that Burrington could only watch, helplessly. “That’s when,” she would later say, “I got to see everything I had read about llamas.” Hurricane exploded at the bear, a spinning, category 5 blur of lashing hooves and biting teeth. The llama’s blows mostly landed on the bear’s throat, chest, and head. Meanwhile, the bear snarled and snapped ineffectively, seemingly unable to lay a claw on Hurricane. Bruised and bleeding, the bear mustered

Public spending is associated with happiness, but it might not actually cause happiness, said the study authors. It’s also plausible that happy people of all income levels are simply more willing to spend tax money. If that’s true, it would suggest that Grafton’s miserly approach to public spending didn’t necessarily cause unhappiness among its residents. Rather, the low tax rate may have been a predictable outcome for a town that had, over the years, become a haven for miserable people.

the early 1990s (another bad year for members of the Barney family, who lost a farmhouse and attached horse barn to fire), voters rejected, for three consecutive years, proposals to pay for a modern fire station before finally approving $25,000 in 1993. As part of that deal, the volunteer emergency responders were required to “donate” $15,000 to the project. The station was the last major capital program approved by town voters, and it would become the place where things happen in Grafton—not only for emergency responders, but for the entire town, which uses it as an official meeting space.

The contrast with bear management in Grafton could not be more stark. A bear’s life in Hanover is threatened, and the state moves heaven and earth to find it and treat it in accordance with the wishes of the public. A bear threatens a woman’s life in Grafton, and the state makes a half-hearted effort to capture it before the incident quickly fades from the public imagination.