This is depressing. Cost of Government Day is now July 11, 2003. That is how long you have to work to pay your taxes and such, before you start earning money you can spend. Give me a break. We need a Republican president! Oh, yeah, well.

On this, the second anniversary of student uprisings in Iran, we hope and pray for freedom for that ancient country. In 1979, those deluded people traded the devil they knew for the devils they did not know. Since that time, the smallest of freedoms have been denied to the very people that brought the mullahs to power. Now, students again are rising in protest. Politicians have begun to question the repressiveness of the regime. Even some religious figures believe the anvil of oppression should be lifted.
But, such advocacy comes at a high price. Suppression is common. Arrest is no surprise. Death always lurks for those who oppose the religious leaders. Students were threatened with massacre if they protested today in honor of the anniversary. But, there is no other way. No country has ever been liberated without the loss of blood and life. Our own freedom was bought with blood. And not just that of famous patriots revered in history books. But by farmers and shopkeepers who took up rifles and threw themselves into the breach between the oppression of England and the compelling love of freedom that beat in the hearts of their friends and families.
One grand patriot recognized it. He had been a shopkeeper, then a farmer, then a lawyer. He said “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry thus launched himself into the fight. Will the desire for freedom burn this bright in the breast of the Iranians? Time will tell. But we wish them well.