04 July 2008

Independence Day 2008

Since LB and I are ruefully commemorating our sixteenth annual missing of OCON (we are determined to go next year in Boston - then again, we say that every year), I thought I would link to an old video of John Ridpath defending capitalism.  During the one and only time I attended OCON, in 1992, Professor Ridpath made perhaps the most moving speech I’ve ever heard, on the topic of the Founding Fathers and the principles of America.


I wish there were a YouTube video of this particular speech, but the one below aptly demonstrates John Ridpath’s amazingly sonorous voice, eloquence, and the workings of his great mind.




Below is a recent release of the Ayn Rand Institute.  In it, Michael Berliner makes a wonderfully cogent statement for Independence Day.  We should recognize and celebrate the fact that reason and individual rights are the founding principles of this nation.


1 comment:

Lynne said...

John Ridpath is an excellent speaker. It's too bad we just don't hear much from him anymore.