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Show ppnall'''"81'8 & 1(lk u Let our children remember liberty rv E. MARK I5EZZANT "! aV nress time last week, what JL come to be called the Iran- v rSntra hearings had just gotten to hit I choose to call the lecture 'V !"ge That is the point when rongress was given time to Stion" Oliver North. Sub- $ sle"1 t0 that thefT was n , lohn Poindexter. At times the T tatements made by congressmen were moving. Sometimes what was i important was not what was said, but what was not said. One congressman spoke in a very moving fashion about his concern for the children of America. He worried about the message that voting people would take from il Qnver North's actions as he H violated the law. He reminded the ! nation that he had fought in a a segregated army during World War I He went on to talk about the rule I 0f' law and how it was that rule which finally led to minorities i, having equal status with others in America. ,ni ' it was these kinds of things which 1 in fact troubled me when I examined the substance. He first of i all ignored the fundamental tenant of law when he assumed that Oliver North had violated the law. Millions of school children have been taught I (t a person is innocent until proven, in a court of law, that one is guilty. Even then, as witnessed by . confessed killers, the process is a ! long one. Oliver North repeatedly stated that he did not violate the " law. Interestingly enough, it was one of the top candidates for the supreme court vacancy who reminded us that based on the rules of law Oliver North was innocent. The person who so reminded us was Orrin Hatch the junior senator from Utah and a clearly superior legal scholar. When the congressman referred to being in a segregated army, it reminded me of how far we have come on civil rights issues, not just since that war that was to end all wars, but more particularly in the past 25 years. Again, what wasn't said was more important. The congressman needs to remember what the alternative was should we have lost the Second World War. What role would Hitler have had for minorities and particularly blacks. Ask any white supremist. The congressman ought to thank God we did not do to him and Senator Inouye what we did to Oliver North and other troops in Vietnam. For that matter the whole free world ought to be grateful. Had we not been willing to use the rule of force all of this talk about the rule of law would be just that, talk. If history serves us right, the civil rights movement in this country was anything short of a model for the school children about obeying law. I believe it was called civil disobedience. Time after time the law was intentionally broken to make a demonstrated point. At the time there were some who advocated ad-vocated burning America to the ground. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who advocated peaceful disobedience. How, congressman, did that set on the school children of America? Thank God that we are in a more enlightened era when the dream our founding fathers had is more of a reality! During the last three wars we have fought on other soil. The prospect that the next war could be fought on our own soil is a sobering thought. It is a thought that causes me to think that we are better off to stop communism in South America, not Florida. The prospect of a nuclear holocaust causes me to think that we ought to do all in our power to promote peace and one day eliminate these weapons from the face of the earth. Most disturbing distur-bing of all, is the thought that not a single shot will be fired according to the Soviets, for America will fall like a rotten fruit. Is life so dear and peace so sweet to be purchased at the price of chains? Soon these hearings will end. Some will make from them, as they already have, political mileage. The press will have sold millions of papers. Others will have profited greatly by Ollie fever. What will still remain are people all over this world who look to us as their last hope. For the love of such people everywhere, and for the cause of liberty here I hope we do not turn our back while the bear consumes them. For the school children, congressman, lets tell the whole story, tell them what Disneyland would be like under communist rule. |