R.W. Bradford on McWilliams

This page includes an editorial cartoon, the thoughts of Bill Bradford of Liberty, and a transcript of McWilliams' speech to the 1998 Libertarian National Convention.

Bradford writes,

I must admit that when I learned the tragic news of Peter¹s death, my spirit was not so generous as his. I thought about the judge who had denied him his day in court and had ordered him to forgo the medication that kept him alive. I suppose he¹s happy, I said to myself, now that he¹s murdered Peter.

I¹m one of those libertarians who generally tries to look at government policies more as folly than as evil. But sometimes, the evil that government does transcends simple folly. Sometimes I have to be reminded that there is a real human cost of government. It happened when I learned of the government¹s killing of 86 people at Waco and its murder of Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge. And it happened with Peter, too.

Peter never wanted to be a martyr. But he wanted to live in a free country, where people respected each other¹s rights and choices, and he did what he thought was best to keep himself alive and to advance the cause of liberty. He was one of the most joyous people I¹ve ever known, a hero in every sense of the word.