The article linked below - in Portable Document Format - was published in the Novemvber 1993 issue of the Libertarian journal Free Life. At the time I was thirty-seven years old; fifteen years down the line I look back and wonder what if anything I have achieved in my life. The answer, sadly, is not a lot. If there is one word that best defines my time on this Earth, it is pain. I had an unhappy childhood, which was none the less unhappy for being partly of my own making; I was bullied incessantly at school; when I was nineteen I became gripped by an addiction that sent me to gaol, but could well have sent me to the bottom of the river - literally. On top of those and a myriad other problems I have lived in near constant physical pain since October 1988. Not to mention being unlucky in love in extremis. Many people would say I deserve all this and a lot worse, and I would find it hard to disagree. But all this personal suffering I would endure a dozen, a hundred times over, for during the course of my life I have at times been blessed with friends whom I do not deserve, who no man deserves. And Chris Tame and Sean Gabb have been the finest of a magnificent bunch.
Love on yer, guys.
Sydenham,
London.
October 4, 2008
Al Baron and Freedom of Speech... by Chris R. Tame and Sean Gabb