By Nathan Barton

A few readers may, like me, recall the Knights of Non-Aggression, members of the Liberty Round Table, a very informal organization of anarchists and liberty-loving and -keeping people back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

We were as loosely organized as a herd of house cats, but we learned a lot from each other and supported various causes.  And brought a lot of people into the liberty movement. Fruit that continues to be harvested today, around the world.

It was through the KNA/LRT that I met Mama Liberty, and the reason my family call her Lady Susan.  The LRT held conclaves each year centered around Independence Day (the actual anniversary day, 2nd of July, when the Continental Congress voted to accept the Declaration of Independence).

Lovers of liberty would enjoy the outdoors, companionship, long hours of discussions on virtually any subject (but especially liberty), enjoy a “formal” banquet (that was always pretty laid back), lots of opportunity to shoot guns, get trained on self-defense, teach and learn, and just have fun with like-minded people. We would be refreshed and invigorated by the experience, no matter where the gathering took place.

My family and I were blessed (truly, the word is important) to host two of those Conclaves, one in the Black Hills of South Dakota, at a ranch near America’s Center and a second one across the highway from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park in the Four Corners.  It was not just learning more about liberty (and our sons being taught more about that and other essential life skills), but about making lifelong friends and people willing to share insight and encouragement.

There were always many things that we found to disagree about, with different people.  But that was an important part of the experience.  Because we all believed in liberty. We came from many different backgrounds, and learned from one another.  Not because we were forced to, but because we wanted to.

That was, as time flies, a long time ago.

Today, though there are several websites with the name, the old organization and its presence on-line is long gone.  At least some which claim the name today have little in common with the ideas of self-government and personal and national liberty, responsibility, and freedom which the KNA advocated (and as individuals, still does today).

Feel free to share some of your own memories of the Liberty Round Table with us all.

Nathan