R.W. Bradford, 58

Being assigned as a reporter to cover an appearance by Andre Marrou, the 1992 Libertarian Party candidate for president, was the first major milestone on my path searching for a better solution to what ails us. But I wandered aimlessly for another year or two before, in one of my first forays into a Barnes & Noble store, I was attracted to a modestly designed magazine called Liberty.

For a very long time until the Internet grew into its own, my monthly fix of Liberty was the only link I had to this alternative universe where people still understand the state is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem. When I heard recently that founder-editor R.W. Bradford was seriously ailing, I grew concerned. When I heard this morning that Bradford died Thursday night, I felt like I lost a friend.

Having never come remotely close to meeting him, I didn't realize he would be a hard friend to have. All I know is Liberty is a beautiful institution - not slick, not fancy, just the words and a few cartoons, a meat-and-potatoes meal in a world heavy laden with sugar and processed foods.

R.W. Bradford and Liberty magazine gave me hope for a better answer when everything else seemed to point to Orwellian madness. For that I will always owe him, and the magazine, a huge debt.

Places to read and find other links and discussion:

Liberty magazine (ironically enough, as of this morning there's no reference to Bradford's death there)
Claire Wolfe
Brian Doherty
R.J. Lehmann
Jesse Walker
Thomas Knapp