I want everybody who reads this to take a quick minute to imagine your perception of East Texas. The area shares a part of the country known as the Piney Woods, home to four national parks and at least 17 state parks. Now, imagine Texas politics, especially in rural East Texas. Not only is our campus left-leaning (we are known for our education and forestry departments—need I say more?), but we often see staunch conservatives out debating our foreign policy, economics, and social issues as much as the other side.

I believe you have a nice taste of the life of many of our YAL-ers.

Now imagine trying to create an environment within this scenario in which people can freely come together to express the philosophy and interest in liberty.

This, I believe, was the ultimate goal of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas when we decided to pursue our own conference, Liberty in the Pines. For the first time, liberty would have a place for discussion within the dense expanse of East Texas.

For our Free Markets 101 event, the YAL/Libertarian Longhorns partnership chapter at the University of Texas at Austin chose YAL's Jenganomics kit.  using this fun and interactive ice-breaker, we were able to introduce participants from all areas of the spectrum in familiarity to economics and libertarianism in general.  Even the University Democrats entertained us for a bit, though they opted for a reverse Jenga approach wherein the top blocks were redistributed towards the bottom.  For the most part, however, participants were in tune with our message and were highly receptive to our main example of redistribution: the 2009 bailout. 

Our greater successes were with those who came in mostly politically apathetic and left with the "click." These kits are great tools for recruitment but even moreso, they're great for spreading the message that prosperity is the result of individual empowerment, of economic freedom and of disallowing government meddling in markets.  Once the seed was planted, we invited participants to attend one of our Mises Circles, a group devoted to analyzing the works of Austrian thinkers.

We're looking forward to our next event at our university's largest organization fest where we'll engage students in discussions of foreign policy and economics, and help them find their place on the political compass!

On Tuesday, March 21, nominations for College Republicans officer positions took place at ASU. The mood was shaken by the nomination of Students for Liberty Executive Board member Carlos Alfaro for president. Many had assumed that then-president Diego Moya would run unopposed. Nevertheless, a liberty ticket was introduced: Carlos Alfaro, Brian Speed, Jake Bobay, Charley Hernandez, David Schneider, and Corey Helsel.

The next Tuesday, March 28, the mood was frantic. Word got out that the opposition had called in non-regulars to make sure that Moya stayed in office. Young Americans for Liberty @ ASU and ASU Students for Liberty members showed up in force to support the liberty ticket. Once it was verified that all participants were dues-paying members, candidate speeches began.

Halfway through the speeches, Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Chad Heywood was called down by Moya to speak. Shouts of protest filled the room. Apparently, most of the officers hadn't been notified that there would be a guest, much less that he would take the floor in the middle of candidate speeches. Taken aback, Heywood (who last year made news by making an off-color joke about old ladies' undergarments while representing a congressional campaign), insinuated that some CR members were being immature.

Living in Wisconsin, we are always at the mercy of inclement weather. Snow is something that we have no shortage of. Originally we had planned to create a ground display outside of the school, but we YAL members are very adaptable to different climates.

We decided that in light of the snow covered ground that an up close display of the memorial would do the job just as well and man, were we ever right! Each and every single flag on that board represents one US Solders life lost as a result of the Iraq War, 4,488 to be exact!

After about 4 hours of tediously placing each and every flag we had very sore fingers—but to benefit the liberty movement, sore fingers are the least we can do!