Senatoris est civitatis libertatem tueri

By Leland Thomas Faegre

Senatoris est civitatis libertatem tueri
--It is the duty of the senators to protect the liberty of the citizens

...it is inexplicable incompetence, to have never bothered to translate the Latin inscription emblazoned over the rostrum of the State Senate Chamber, into leadership," said Leland Faegre, Libertarian candidate for California State Senate District 29.

"It is the duty of the senators to protect the liberty of the citizens"

Opening Statement delivered Saturday, February 19, 2000, Whittier City Council Chambers

Candidates Forum Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Whittier

"While I do not fault the California Senate for not understanding Latin, it is inexplicable incompetence, to have never bothered to translate the Latin inscription emblazoned over the rostrum of the State Senate Chamber, into leadership

"If they had translated the Latin into leadership, they would have to conclude that, they are in violation of their oaths. Because so few of California's upper chamber understand that, "it is the duty of the senators to protect the liberty of the citizens," I have entered the State Senate race so that I might address the need for incontrovertible leadership; primarily by narrowing the discourse to three central themes:

Repeal of the State Income Tax Repeal of the State Monopoly on Education Repeal of the War on Drugs

I would agree with M. Stanton Evans when he wrote, "the plain reality is that the Constitution as originally adopted, and expounded in The Federalist, is no longer with us; the forms and titles remain, there are still entities called states, and there are divisions of administrative function. But the system of limited powers that was supposed to be the palladium of our freedoms has been consigned these fifty years and more to the dustbin of forgotten doctrines."

And with little debate, we can no longer assume that a consensus exists in support of the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, it is commonly held that government is not to protect our liberty, as the Founders understood, but rather to provide for our needs.

And worse, an ignorance and apathy now proliferates of the threat to sovereignty from such foreign entanglement as the Trojan Horse known as the United Nations; who promote World Government gradually through de facto legislative authorities such as the World Trade Organization, whose sole purpose is to arbitrate unilaterally over federal, state, and local laws and to establish itself as the architecture of a system of transnational corporate welfare that leeches off the U.S. taxpayer and enhances the infrastructure and industrial base of belligerent regimes.

Unlike the Republicans and Democrats, (the Republicrats), the Libertarian Party does not have myriad schemes to provide for your needs, spend your money, or make decisions about how you pursue your life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In fact, we have only one scheme: Sunset the Socialism of the State of California.

Immediately, upon receiving our oaths-of-office, the philosophically libertarian California legislature, will begin the process of dismantling the mechanisms of the state bureacracy by selling off government assets to the private sector.

We will send to the Governor legislation that will repeal the state income tax which funds the abusively monstrous and various monolithic apparatus of socialism. Most important of these is the one that has done the most damage. The dinosaur of all departments: Education. Parent-controlled education will bring about a renaissance in American Culture. When school size is determined by consumers instead of politicians, we'll move from politically sized schools of 600-4,000 students, to student-sized schools of 25-500. This means five times as many schools with most families having 10 or more school options within easy commute. Sunday school or Monday school, the State will no longer own and administer the means of production.

Next, we will send to the Governor for his signature, legislation repealing any and all laws which deny or otherwise make difficult, the law-abiding citizen the right to purchase a firearm for his own protection.

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Guns are five times as likely to prevent a crime than to be involved in the commission of a crime. Any so called citizen who can't appreciate the second amendment should consider a British domicile, where crime rates and aggravated assaults are higher including daytime burglaries. The reason? The Vandals and Visigoths of the United Kingdom know that the subjects of the Queen are not armed. If a predator were attacking you NOW, which of the over 20,000 gun control laws currently on the books would you depend upon to protect yourself?

Next, we will send to the states' chief executive legislation that will cease and desist cooperation with the Federal Government on their so-called war on drugs which has done nothing with $200 billion dollars of our money but reduce the government protected ghettos into militarized zones that not even Jack Kemp's enterprize zones can save. The very real possibility of a Vietnam-like quagmire of U.S. troops in South America now that $1.6 billion has been appropriated to the civil war in Colombia, suggests that nothing was learned from alcohol prohibition of the 20's and 30's.

The War on Drugs has turned street thugs into gun-wielding visigoths with hundred dollar bills stuffing their blood-stained pockets and half filled our prisons with largely black men who are needed in their homes in order that they might contribute to their family's well being

This legislation will be completed by noon of the first day of the philosophically libertarian California legislature. And then? We will break for lunch...