Little Rock honors freedom of speech, press with Law Day

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Dana J. Cable
  • 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

The Little Rock Air Force Base legal office and Law Day committee hosted a Law Day presentation May 1, 2019 at LRAFB.

Held annually on May 1, Law Day is a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law and provides an opportunity to understand how law and the legal process protect our civil liberties and contribute to the freedoms that all Americans share.

U.S. Air Force Col. Gerald Donohue, 19th Airlift Wing commander and Lt. Col. Jacqueline Stingl, 19th AW staff judge advocate, were joined by the mayor Bob Johnson, of Jacksonville, and Stephanie Friedman, Jacksonville city attorney, to sign the Law Day Proclamation.

Every year the American Bar Association selects an annual theme for Law Day.

This year’s theme—Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society—focuses on the pilars of representative government and calls on people to understand and protect these rights to ensure, as the U.S. Constitution proposes, “the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.”

In the late 1950s, the American Bar Association and President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated Law Day with the idea of encouraging attorneys and paralegals nationwide to venture out into the community, particularly to local schools, to teach people about the law with the aim of inspiring those and helping them to appreciate the importance of the law in our society.

“Here at the legal office, our Law Day planning committee decided to host a writing competition in which students from elementary school, middle school, and high school could write an essay on freedom of speech and freedom of press and how it affects them,” said Capt. Tzivia Freeman-Dasent, 19th Airlift Wing chief of legal assistance and preventative law.

The writing competition winners, Kaitlyn Brooks and Peyton Reed, were on hand to read their essays during the Law Day presentation.

“Having our future leaders from middle school and high school reading their essays that they wrote made the day even more special,” Freeman-Dasent said.

The Law Day planning committee hosted a trivia night May 3 with questions related to free speech and free press as well as other events involving local students.

“We also hosted a painting event at the youth center,” Freeman-Dasent said. “We gave the children aged from 8-14 a lesson on freedom of speech and free press and listened to what it meant to them.”

Law Day is celebrated nationwide on various days throughout and around the month of May.

“Law day is important because it is an opportunity to teach others and help them gain appreciation for the liberties we are guaranteed here in the United States. Having these particular honored guests take time out of their schedules to sign a proclamation which says just that was awesome.” Freeman-Dasent said.