We’re in the final stretches of Reason’s 2014 Webathon,
in which we’re looking to raise $200,000 from loyal readers of our
print, online, and video journalism. The effort ends at midnight
tonight and we’re within $50,000 of our goal. Go here now to see giving levels
and associated swag!
A few years ago, while seeing one of my sons off on a flight out
of D.C.’s Reagan National Airport’s threadbare old, original
terminal, a man with a baby strapped to his chest ran over
excitedly to me. “Hey! Can I talk to you?” he asked in a way that
was agitated and slightly unhinged-enough to make me reflexively
think: “OK, this is how it ends—getting blown up by a suicide
bomber. And not even in one of the newer, nicer parts of the
airport.”
But it turned out that the would-be jihadist with the baby
strapped to his chest like a dynamite belt was actually a fellow
named Scott Ewine. Originaly from North Dakota but now based in the
greater Washington, D.C. area, Scott was an avid reader of the
print and online editions of Reason, had recognized me
from old issues of the mag and some TV
appearances, and simply wanted to say hello and
thanks for doing what we do here at the planet’s leading source of
libertarian news, opinion, and commentary.
That sort of interaction is one of the great perks of working at
Reason. Since our founding in 1968, Reason has not only changed the
world we live in (starting with Reason Foundation founder Robert W.
Poole’s seminal work on deregulating airline ticket pricing) and
helped big names such as Drew Carey and John Stossel channel their
inner libertarians. Reason has also provided a source of
intellectual stimulation, ideological nourishment, and welcoming
community in a world that has often cast a withering eye on “Free
Minds and Free Markets.”
Scott’s experience actually parallels my own: My older brother
had discovered the magazine while at college in the late 1970s and
started sharing it with me while I was in high school. I loved the
way the magazine debunked moral panics and constantly undercut
scare stories by using facts and clear logic. It introduced me to a
whole alternative way of thinking about how people and societies
flourish and self-organize. Soon enough, I was calling myself a
libertarian and became a subscriber myself.
Reason is more than just a magazine (or a website or a video
platform). It’s a virtual conversation pit where
libertarians can gather to hash out their ideas about the world,
discover the best arguments for increasing freedom in every area of
human activity, read up on new and interesting “experiments in
living,” and know that we’re part of a growing movement that not
only excites us all with the potential of a limitless future but
scares the bejeezus out of liberals and conservatives. They had
their shot, they blew it, and they know they blew it.
Reason’s audience and reach is growing expontentially—our
web traffic alone has more than doubled over the past few years and
we now pull over 4 million visits to Reason.com a month. Our
staffers and writers appear in print all over the place and haunt
cable news and radio with our upbeat message of freedom and
liberty. In the wake of the absolute failure of conventional
politics and ideology so far in the 21st century, we’re bring a new
way of thinking to people at exactly the right moment.
We’re able to do all of this because of your
essential help. Your tax-deductible donations make it possible for
us to keep bringing the best libertarian journalism and thought to
you—and to the wider world. As
we enter the final hours of our 2014 Webathon, please give what you
can and help us reach our goal of $200,000. Help us make the
world a freer, fairer, more interesting place as we make the moral
and pragmatic case for giving us all more say in how we live our
own lives.
Back to Scott: After that initial run-in at the airport,
Scott attended several D.C.-area Reason events, became a supporter,
and even sailed on our initial Reason cruise (where he and his
friends engaged, if memory serves, in a grand xperiment to see
whether they could drive down the effective price-per-drink of the
cruise’s booze package to zero through heavy consumption.) He sends
me occasional updates about the globe-trotting that he does for his
work. Among his recent trips was one to Russia, where he placed a
Reason tote bag at the feet of a statue of Lenin (see above) and
had a cautionary adventure that is worth relating to all world
travelers. Plus, he wrote “If you want to get the backing of all of
the the North Dakota libertarians (~9) you have to eventually do
something with my little story!”
His tale involves Russian cops, suprised pedestrians,
international rental-car agreements, and a comparative analysis of
justice here and in the land of autocrats. Read on after the
break:
Here are a couple pictures I got on the last trip to Russia.
Life is all about experiences and learning, and occasionally
taking the time to pass that knowledge onto others. It is in
that spirit I will try to enlighten you with a few things I have
learned in the last day or so in the hope that you may someday find
it useful.1. In Russia, what appears to be a small winding road
through a park may actually be a wide, paved pedestrian
path.2. Due to changes in elevation, the continuity of a
pedestrian path through a Russian park may be interrupted on
occasion by a flight of stairs.
3. When driving on an overcast day in the late
afternoon along a pedestrian path through a Russian park, it is
nearly impossible to detect an approaching flight of
stairs.4. When driving through a Russian park, the interpreter in
the passenger seat may become immobilized with fear and unable to
render guidance, even though he is intimately familiar with the
customs and traditions of driving in Russia.5. A Volkswagen Polo makes a hell of a lot of noise when
you drive it down a flight of stairs.
6. If you drive a car down flight of stairs in a
Russian park with your interpreter in the passenger seat, it may
take several minutes for him to speak to you again, and then he may
only be able to repeatedly mutter “Cowboy!”
7. When visiting parks,
Russians, by their nature, tend to congregate in areas where
someone recently drove a car down a flight of stairs.8. Upon learning the nationality of the person that
drove a car down a flight of stairs in their park, Russians may
respond by slowly shaking their heads back and forth saying
“Americanski”.9. Police that arrive on the scene will respond in the
same manner.10. It takes approximately four hours at the station for
Russian police to complete the paperwork required to give you a
2000 ruble (56$) “administrative fine” for driving a car through a
park and down a flight of stairs.
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