Our Saturday conference in Austin turned out to be an absolutely awesome event. An audience consisting of about 700 attendees listened to three fantastic talks — by Radley Balko, Glenn Greenwald, and Ron Paul. In fact, Ron’s talk was the best speech I have ever seen him deliver.
The theme of the event was “End the Wars on Drugs and Terrorism” and was co-sponsored by The Future of Freedom Foundation and the Young Americans for Liberty. It was held in an auditorium at the Lyndon Johnson Library at the University of Texas in Austin.
It was a special treat for me personally to be back in Austin. I spent three years of my life there while attending law school at the University of Texas. As I told someone on the flight down there, Austin is without doubt the greatest city in the country. Well, okay, at least in the top ten!
I kicked off the event with a welcome to the audience and a synopsis of the drug war and war on terrorism and the horrible effects they have had on American society and other parts of the world.
Jeff Frazee, president of YAL, then took the stage, welcomed everyone, and gave a great presentation about YAL and all that it has accomplished on college campuses across the country.
Radley then delivered a fantastic talk that focused on the militarization of the police, especially within the context of the war on drugs.
Glenn talked about civil liberties, privacy, surveillance, Edward Snowden, and how the war on drugs and war on terrorism intersect.
Ron delivered a no-holds barred, passionate case for liberty that had the audience clapping about every 5 seconds.
We then had a conversational panel discussion, which I moderated, in which the three speakers answered questions that had been submitted in advance by attendees.
At the conclusion of the panel, we adjourned for book-signing.
You do not want to miss watching the presentations at this conference! We videotaped the entire event and we’ll be posting it before too long on our website.
