Liberty Essay Contest?

[Jacobus]

I've been trying to think of something I can do to help promote liberty in NH while I am in my current situation of not quite living there yet.

One idea I thought of is setting up a liberty essay contest for teens and pre-teens.  Some potential benefits of this would be:

* Encourage students to discover libertarian ideas
* Reward good writing on liberty
* "Belly smiles": winners feeling good about their work, us feeling good about making them feel good
* Potentially expose pre-disposed young people to groups promoting liberty in NH

I did a quick Google search and did not see anyone doing this in NH.  Does anyone know if this is already being done or if anyone seriously considered this before?

One hour after thinking of this, I've thought of the following issues:

* Set up website

My web programming has not evolved beyond using Notebook as an HTML editor.  My wife can put up a decent website though, and there would not need to be very much content.  Basically just the rules for submission.

* Having a NH address to send submissions to

It would look silly to have it open to NH residents only but have people send submissions out of state.  However, I have a brother who lives in Merrimack (he's a libertarian, moved there a couple of years ago, but has not yet "gotten involved"), and I could always use his address.

* Finance awards

I was thinking there could be three age brackets (if we anticipate little response, maybe just one age bracket).  If I had no financial contributions from anyone else, I'd be willing to put up something like:

(age 16-18): $50 1st prize, $40 2nd prize, $30 3rd prize
(age 13-15): $40 1st prize, $30 2nd prize, $20 3rd prize
(age 12 and under): $30 1st prize, $20 2nd prize, $10 3rd prize

I'd probably throw in some Liberty Dollars too.  I'd also potentially solicit for donations too.  Once everything is set up, I'd accept donations for a month and then put all of those toward the awards, then announce the contest.

I also think it would be neat if the winning entries could be published as well (would Keene Free Press consider this?).

* Essay topic

I haven't thought too much about what a good topic would be or how vague it should be.  I do like the idea of putting out a topic and background reading that would support it.

* Promoting the contest

I'm not sure how this would best be promoted.  It would not be good to put out the contest and subsequently get no submissions. 

I'd like to hear feedback and thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Jacob

[Kat Kanning]

I like the idea.  I'm sure we could help out with a NH address and I'd love to publish the winners 

[Jacobus]

I'm going to move forward with this.

After thinking on it some more, I think it will be best to drop the age brackets.  However, I'll state that if there are enough entries from people of various ages, we may give prizes according to age groups.  This also allows me to announce a larger first prize.

As for promoting the event, I'll rely mostly upon forums and asking people to send it out to e-mail groups they are on.  I'll try to contact homeschool groups to let them know of it.  I'll also look into buying classified ads in newspapers to point to our website.

I like the idea of having a general, open-ended theme supported by a quote, and then some guiding questions and recommended reading.  Here is what I've come up with so far:

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The theme of our first contest is "Human Energy and Individual Freedom."  This theme is inspired by the following quote:

"The true revolutionary course which must be followed toward a free world is a cautious, experimental process of further descreasing the uses of force which individuals permit to Government; of increasing the prohibitions of Government's actions, and thus decreasing the use of brute force in human affairs.

"This is the only course toward a richer world.  For the only energy creating wealth is human energy.  A man is able to use his self-controlling energy effectively toward its natural aim of improving living conditions, precisely to the extent that no use of force restrains him."

- Rose Wilder Lane, The Discovery of Freedom

Feel free to use the following questions to guide you in your essay:

Why does individual freedom work? 
How does the "self-controlling energy" of peaceful people enhance everyone's well-being?
What happens when government coercion is used in place of individual freedom?
What areas today do you think it is important to heed Rose Wilder Lane's advice and replace government control with individual liberty? 

The following works are recommended reading in support of this year's contest:

* The Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane
* "I, Pencil", essay by Leonard E. Read
**************************

I'll be targeting getting a website up and ready for review within the next couple of months, and if that goes well maybe a submission deadline of March or April of 2008.

[dawn]

Excellent idea! I would suggest keeping the age groups though. How can you compare a 17 year olds writing to a 10 year olds? They're in different worlds of maturity and ability, generally speaking.