I was unable to write a Memorial Day Capitol Report last week, but although Memorial Day is past, it is always appropriate to honor America’s fallen heroes — those who’ve given their lives for your liberty and mine. By honoring the American servicemen and women who never made it home, we acknowledge the value of freedom and the exceptionalism of the United States of America — the country that both embodies and defends freedom. America and the individual liberty and economic freedom we represent are priceless. Patrick Henry said it well, “Give me liberty or give me death.” With those words, he inspired the Virginia House of Burgesses to deliver Virginia troops to the War for Independence. The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause that would be called “a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

As we honor freedom’s value, we also remember her cost. Liberty comes at a price, and the balance is never paid-in-full; freedom must be ever defended from enemies foreign and domestic. Whether it is those who died in service to their country, those who suffer from the lasting effects of injuries, or those with memories that cannot be forgotten, freedom exacts a cost. As we remember those whom we cannot comfort, may we comfort those we can — our veterans.

I’d like now to change the subject to an emerging issue — bullying. I have not been a fan of “bullying bills” because of questions about their effectiveness and their unintended consequences. Nevertheless, in the last weeks of this year’s session, the Senate Education Committee considered two such bills. Afterward, a certain individual approached me and suggested that my questions during the hearings revealed some skepticism. He explained that his wife is a high school counselor and “hates” bullying bills. She told him that such legislation made the problem worse and her job harder. This person offered to have his wife suggest some language and later provided it to me. Instead of focusing on defining and eliminating bullying, the language required counseling for victims on how to respond and overcome the character flaws in others. The counselor’s approach, instead of trying to “protect” the students from life was to strengthen the student’s character by the trials of life. The first approach treats the students like children; the second prepares them to be adults. This new language was amended to some of the bullying bills, but none made it to the governor’s desk.

The bullying I am most concerned with is the bullying of states and taxpayers that is coming out of Washington, D.C. Most recently, we’ve begun to learn about the IRS bullying. We are in the midst of bullying initiated from the federal health care act and are continually subjected to threats of losing federal tax dollars if we don’t succumb to Washington, D.C., bullying in the areas of education curriculum or how we run our highways, and so on. The unending stream of top-down central planning and threats to the First and Second amendments to the U.S. Constitution incite visions of a Chicago-mafia protection racket with rewards for friends and punishment for enemies. My prayer is that those of us in state government will have the vision and resolve to stand up to irrational and unconstitutional federal mandates. There will be a cost, but the alternative is continuing to “buy” protection with our taxes and our liberty; that should be unacceptable to us all.

Finally, I would like to discuss the matter of unclaimed property. The state currently has hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed property that belongs to its citizens. Often, this property is an old bank account that was forgotten or unknown to heirs or even a deposit that a utility company tried to return, but could not find a forwarding address.  Visit www.treasurer.mo.gov/content/find-your-property to see if you have property waiting to be claimed.