Russ Feingold: “we Americans take pride in our freedom and independence. Central to our sense of who we are is our firm belief that we…”

“we Americans take pride in our freedom and independence. Central to our sense of who we are is our firm belief that we are free to walk the paths of our own choosing, free to move about as we please, free from the intrusion of the government in that movement. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Draft of Instructions to the Virginia Delegates in the Continental Congress, ``The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.'' From the start, immigrants came to these shores to escape the state's intrusion into their lives. When in the early 1600's, the English government began arresting Separatists for their religious practices, about a hundred of them became the Pilgrims and sailed to Plymouth. When in 1620 the Parliament enacted a law requiring all to worship according to the laws of the Church of England, the Puritans came to Massachusetts, the Quakers came to New Jersey and then Pennsylvania, and Catholics came to Maryland. When, in 1636, Roger Williams sought freedom from the intrusions of the Massachusetts colony into religious practices, he founded Rhode Island. And two decades later, Jews fleeing the persecutions of numerous states settled there in Newport. Even separated by the Atlantic Ocean, however, the American colonists continued to chafe at the intrusion of the British government into their lives.”