Joe Drennan

Staff Writer

Students at Forest Lake Elementary School celebrated Liberty Day last Wednesday when members of the Forest Lake Lions stopped by.

Liberty Day began as an idea in Colorado back in 1996 when a Lions member who noticed education in regards to the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution became an option in the school system.

When deciding what day would be nominated as Liberty Day the first obvious choice was July 4, but school is not in session at that time. The first year Liberty Day was celebrated, it was celebrated on Sept. 17, but it was determined that was too close to the start of school. After some tinkering with, Liberty Day was pushed back to the second semester, closer to James Madison's birthday on March 16.

"Liberty Day can be celebrated on any day though," Forest Lake Lion Howard Lestrud said.

The fifth grade students of Georgia Heisserer and Jeannette Maxfield's entertained the rest of the school with their Bill of Rights rap which was followed up by a game show where all fifth grade students were asked different questions related to the Bill of Rights with questions like, "Who is the commander in chief of the Army and Navy?"

Guest Speaker

Southwest Junior High School teacher and retired U.S. Army Col. Jim Noll was a guest speaker at Liberty Day. Noll was drafted to fight in Vietnam and fought in Operation Desert Storm with the 13th Psychological Operation Unit. Noll received two purple hearts and one silver star during his time of service.

When asked what happened for him to receive two purple hearts Noll said, "My wife (Rose) says I'm a slow learner and I didn't learn to duck quick enough."

Noll talked to the kids about being drafted for Vietnam and how it felt to have his rights taken away from him.

"At times our country has its citizens do things they may not want to do," Noll said. "It is to ensure our rights though."

Noll explained that in the U.S. we're free to do just about anything we choose as long as it is not bad, but explained to the students that there are some liberties that are restricted for the "common good" of all of us.

The example Noll used to explain how good things are in the U.S. was explaining to the students that a woman in Kuwait cannot drive a car and if she chooses to go shopping she needs an adult male to accompany her.

"It is important to see what we have in this country that other people don't have," Noll said.

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