2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty

I greet you as my wife and I have just returned from experiencing the Beaches of Normandy, which witnessed the largest and most complicated military landing in history.  On that day, June 6, 1944, about 4400 Allied troops were confirmed to have been killed.  (At our ceremony, which was led by Dwight David Eisenhower, II, the grandson of the Allied commanding officer, I literally got tears in my eyes, and believe that you would have too.)  So why did this landing take place?  Because the Allies believed in the triumph of Liberty over tyranny.   We all owe a major and lasting debt to those troops and their families!  And their efforts have helped to preserve Liberty for almost 73 years!

But now we all must truly ask ourselves: do we deserve this gift of Liberty?  Do we take it seriously?  Even, are we worthy?  If so, what are we doing to preserve the Liberty that those soldiers bequeathed to us?  Particularly today when we have discovered that our government has been surveilling us and monitoring our emails and telephone calls for years, where in some states criminal defendants, mentally fragile people and parents are not provided with skilled attorneys to represent them in often life-changing judicial proceedings?  Yes, this is a complicated world, but the hallmark of Liberty must be to protect each one of us from the wrongful and arbitrary intrusions of government.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that if the Liberty of any one of us is reduced, it is reduced for us all.  But he was the one who ordered thousands of Japanese Americans to be placed in internment camps.  So no, do not solely look to those in government for the protection of Liberty, because fundamentally it is the responsibility of “We the People!”  And if we fail, those lives lost on the beaches of Normandy will have seriously reduced meaning.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.), was the 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

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