Back Home

Saturday evening I was scheduled to fly back to Greenville. As it turned out, my flight was delayed and then cancelled, but thankfully I was able to get on another flight out of Washington. Because of my changed itinerary I met my parents in Atlanta, where they had been for the weekend, rather than flying […]

Our Last Night

After our Friday afternoon activities wrapped up we had the night free. The students who didn’t have to leave town went out for supper. After being turned away by several classier restaurants because we didn’t have reservations, we settled down in one of my favorite Washington eateries, Five Guys Burgers.

Freedom Scholars #2 & #3

Friday we had our last two Freedom Scholar sessions. We dug into legal decisions dealing with civil liberties in time of war. We looked at several well known Supreme Court decisions as well as cases from the UK, Israel, and the UN’s International Court of Justice. Mrs. Hendrickson asked us to evaluate the legal basis […]

Interesting People

I enjoy meeting new people and hearing their unique stories. At a conference like this a lot of people come alone, so there a plenty of opportunities for interaction. For me, it has also been a chance to put faces with names I have seen elsewhere.

International Spy Museum

Friday we had a change of plans. We were scheduled to go for a White House briefing, but the trip was overbooked. Because all of the Freedom Scholars had just been at the White House for a briefing last summer, we were given free time for the second half of the morning. The International Spy […]

Special Report with Brit Hume

An observant reader asked how Brit Hume and company were able to be on Fox News on Wednesday night AND at our dinner. (We don’t have Fox in our hotel, so I didn’t see Special Report to know that Brit was on.) Brit said they did the show before they came over. He gave the […]

John Stossel

Last night John Stossel gave the keynote address, “Freedom and Its Enemies.” Stossel is a unique figure. He has won numerous honors for his investigative reporting, including 19 Emmy Awards. After years as a reporter Stossel’s political views began to shift. He became less and less convinced that big government and heavy regulation were the […]

Freedom Scholars #1

Today we had our first Freedom Scholars session with Kim Hendrickson. She teaches at George Washington University and is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. After a brief orientation to find out more about each other, we started discussing national security and civil liberties. She’s making us start at square one evaluating the premises […]

Capitol Tour

After breakfast we went on a tour of Capitol Hill. Although the tour was fairly standard we did come in a different door which allowed a better view than I have ever had of the Capitol and the Mall. Three Congressman spoke to our group about legislation they are working on right now. The best […]

Awards Luncheon

Today we had our awards luncheon. I won’t run through all of the awards, but just hit a highlight or two. During his acceptance speech one of the lifetime achievement recipients announced that one of the reasons he had come was to make a large six-digit contribution to TFAS. As someone pointed out, that was […]