Liberty or Death?

Richmonders have the opportunity to see re-enactments of the Second Virginia Convention of March 1775, including Patrick's Henry's famous speech, where he declared "Give me liberty or give me death." This moving production takes place Sunday afternoons during the summertime at the historic St. John's Church. (For more information, call 804-648-5015 e-mail programs@saintjohns.cc, or visit www.historicstjohnschurch.org.)

The performance is a reminder of how America came to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Our search for liberty did not end after we achieved our independence against Britain. Not all of those who deserved freedom in the 1700s and 1800s had their freedom. Less than 100 years later, Harriet Tubman said, "I had reasoned this out in my mind: There was two things I had a right to, liberty and death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive."

Thanks to the convictions of people like her, this freedom, too, became a reality.

Maintaining freedom and individual rights - both politically and personally - demands ongoing diligence.