[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 176 (Wednesday, November 19, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING MARSHALL FRITZ

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 19, 2008

  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my friend Marshall 
Fritz who passed away on Tuesday, November 4, after a long battle with 
pancreatic cancer. Marshall was a true champion of freedom whose impact 
on the cause of liberty will be felt for years to come.
  Marshall, with his booming voice and good humor, was the happy 
warrior of the freedom movement, as well as the movement's Will Rogers. 
Marshall never met a fellow fighter for liberty, a single-issue ally, 
or a potential convert he did not like--and to Marshall anyone who did 
not already share his love of liberty was a potential convert.
  Marshall was a model of an ideological/political entrepreneur. In 
1984, Marshall saw that the growth of the freedom movement was 
handicapped by the lack of an organization to help activists better 
communicate the freedom philosophy to the general public. While 
Marshall was not the first person to have this realization, he was the 
first person to attempt to remedy the situation by founding Advocates 
for Self-Government, an organization designed to teach activists how to 
effectively communicate their principles.
  In the years since Marshall founded the Advocates for Self-
Government, the organization has helped countless libertarians by 
providing them with the intellectual resources necessary to effectively 
battle for a free society.
  While serving as president of the Advocates, Marshall created the 
World's Smallest Political Quiz. The quiz graphs an individual's 
political philosophy based on responses to a series of 10 questions 
that measure one's commitment to economic and personal liberty.
  Under Marshall's leadership, the Advocates undertook an aggressive 
program of distributing the quiz. There is no doubt that this has been 
the Advocate's most successful and popular program. The quiz is 
responsible for many Americans' first contact with libertarian ideas. 
While traveling around the country, I have often heard people say, ``I 
never knew I was a libertarian until I took the quiz!''
  In 1990, Marshall stepped down as president of the Advocates to found 
the Alliance for the Separation of School and State, an organization 
focusing on the vital issue of parental control of education. Thanks in 
large part to Marshall's work, the idea that parents, not the 
government, should control education is no longer excluded from public 
debate as a ``fringe'' notion. One of the features that most impresses 
me about the Alliance is the way that Marshall brought libertarians, 
conservatives, liberals together to work for education freedom.
  Anyone who knew Marshall and worked with him would not be surprised 
that he was able to forge a coalition of people of diverse views. 
Marshall's focus was always on building alliances and trying to 
persuade those with whom he disagreed, rather than on scoring debating 
points. While he never compromised his principles and never hesitated 
to criticize even his closet allies if they took what he considered an 
anti-liberty position, Marshall never personalized disagreements and 
always treated his opponents with courtesy and respect. I believe the 
freedom movement would be more successful if more libertarians followed 
Marshall's example of never turning policy disagreements into personal 
attacks.
  All of us who care about building an effective freedom movement owe a 
debt of gratitude to Marshall Fritz. I join Marshall's family in 
mourning his loss and I urge all of us who work for liberty to honor 
Marshall's memory by following the example he set.

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