It’s Friday!
Quotes of Note
“I have a motto that if something isn’t blatantly impossible, there must be a way of doing it.” – Nicholas Winton, who died this week at age 106, and was responsible for an effort that saved the lives of 669 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia
“In a world wracked by violence and cruelty, Nicky Winton’s selfless actions nearly seven decades ago should give us all hope. Edmund Burke once said, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ It’s more than a little comfort to know that in our midst are men and women like Nicky Winton whose essential decency can, and did, triumph over evil.” – Benjamin Stafford, Lawrence Reed, “The Story of Nicholas Winton”
“We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.” – Robert J. McCracken
Events
July 29: The Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s annual Friedman Legacy for Freedom Day event begins at noon at Vic’s on the River in Savannah. This Policy Briefing Luncheon is keynoted by Dr. Ben Scafidi, Georgia’s foremost expert on education funding, and is sponsored by the Friedman Foundation and the Georgia Charter Schools Association. $30. Find out more and register here.
October 15: Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, who recently joined President Obama for a discussion on poverty, is the keynote speaker at the sixth annual Georgia Legislative Policy Forum. 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Thursday, October 15, at the Renaissance Waverly Atlanta. The theme is, “Wisdom, Justice and Opportunity.” Review the 2014 Forum here. Registration is $125 per person; an Early Bird rate ($100) applies until Friday, September 4. Register here. Sponsorships are available; contact Benita Dodd.
Thoughts on Independence Day
Our nation’s birthday offers a good time to reflect on the past and the future. It is an especially good time to talk to children and young people about the significance of the Declaration of Independence. (Chances are they haven’t spent much time on it in school!)
The Declaration ends with the phrase “… we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Think about that. The signers were providing direct evidence they were committing high treason against the most powerful nation in the world. Many of them were wealthy and could have easily justified a less risky action, but they didn’t.
Put yourself in their position and ask yourself what you would do.
Before the listing of grievances against England, the Declaration makes one of the most significant statements of all time: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It has taken us far too long to live up to this lofty goal, and we still have work to do. But it remains a goal worth risking your life for, as our Founders did, and as so many military men and women have done over the years.
It is a goal that is worth championing today. I know this is what inspires us to do the work we do at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
The political process is messy and frustrating. Even so, when a person comes up to us to share how criminal justice reform or school choice or another project we’ve worked on so diligently has changed their lives, it makes it all worthwhile.
It’s true: Our opponents are typically more numerous and better funded. But we have the facts and the power of ideas behind us, as well as your support.
Thank you for all you do for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and Georgia. This Fourth of July, have a wonderful Independence Day holiday celebrating Freedom!
Kelly McCutchen and Benita Dodd
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