Remembering Liberty…

Posted by raquel on June 29th, 2007 filed in liberty

These stories and memories of Liberty are wonderful to read.  I don’t think anyone from UCSD has yet had a chance to write about Liberty there, so I thought I’d share a little. 

I don’t remember exactly how or when I met Liberty at UCSD.  I do remember, though, always being happy to see him on campus.  With a smile, and maybe with his StarWars lunch box in hand.  I think I first really got to know Liberty through the first get togethers of the ‘Vegetarian Chow Briggade’, a group of UCSD vegans and vegetarians that Liberty and a friend Rob organized to have dinner every few weeks.  I stopped going after a while, and I believe Liberty did as well, but he and I continued to talk and hang out.  It has been so difficult to accept that Liberty is gone from us.  But I am so thankful to have had him in my life, even if for a short while.  His impact on me is tremendous and as many of you have said, his spirit definitely lives through our memories of him and through the positive changes he has motivated in all of us.  I know I can at least say that about me.

The last time I got to hang out with Liberty was the Sunday before his passing.  We went to The Living Room in La Jolla, which was where Liberty went often to study.  I have to admit that I went there at times hoping I’d happen to see him there. :-)  That particular Sunday I had to finish grading final exams and Liberty was working on a philosophy paper.  Through our conversations that night (I’m not sure we got too much work done, but I didn’t mind), I learned a lot about Liberty.  I think I learned more about him that night than I had the entire time I knew him — he told me about his two months living in the trees, about his transition to an animal activist, etc.  I was always impressed by Liberty, and that night I became even more amazed.  I am so thankful for that night.  The incident I’ll write about here is relatively pretty small, but it stuck out in my mind even the next day.  As we were working Liberty and I decided to get something to drink and Liberty had a coupon — 2 drinks for the price of 1.  We both decided we wanted a Naked Juice, but when we ordered 2 and presented the coupon, the ‘manager’ of some sort said we could not use the coupon for Naked Juice; we could only use the coupon for the drinks they prepared there.  I accepted this but Liberty persisted a little, saying something to the effect of, “Huh, that’s strange. You should write down here on the bottom of the coupon that it’s limited only to certain drinks,” and the manager agreed but still refused to sell us the Naked Juices.  Liberty continued, giving suggestions on how to make the coupon more accurate and explaining that he had been able to use a similar coupon a time before to buy 2 Naked Juices for the price of 1.  Perhaps Liberty was trying to understand the inconsistency of this coupon.   I could tell the woman at the register was getting nervous.  She pulled back her hair.  I’ll admit I too got a little nervous, but didn’t want it to show.  I wanted Liberty to be Liberty and do what he does.  So I smiled.  The ‘manager’ finally relented and said, “alright but only this one last time” and we paid, and got our 2 Naked Juices for the price of 1.  Walking back to our table, I asked Liberty, smiling, “Did you insist on purpose just so we’d get a free drink?”  I asked this because I (all of us, no?) have had experiences with people just trying to get their freebies, whatever it takes.  But he responded, “No, I was just curious why the coupon didn’t say we couldn’t purchase Naked Juices with it.”  And that was that.  I smiled, thinking, “You really are a genuine and honest guy, aren’t you.”  He is deeply missed.

My heart goes out to Liberty’s family and close friends…

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