The Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho (RLC-ID) hosted their annual Liberty Expo in Coeur d’Alene on August 13 – 15th. This year was quite a spectacular event with 20 substantial conservative speakers, four feature films shown twice each and 3 lunch and dinner banquets and marqueeing the renowned writer G. Edward Griffin, author of the classics ‘The Science & Politics of Cancer’ and ‘The Creature from Jekyll Island.’ Opening night had George Washington coming alive for a wonderful appearance by actor and look alike Mark Collins who has several credits portraying our first president in film and documentaries. He opened with the humorous comment that most people don’t realize that his serial number was 1.
Idaho state chairwoman for RLC, Karen Calisterio reported that there were a few things about this year’s event that made her very happy. She states, “First of all there were a significant number of new people attending so we weren’t just preaching to the choir. We had some very complimentary comments about many of our speaker’s messages and the caliber of those speakers. I know that those that came were very moved and motivated to seek more information. Some people were actually blown away by a couple presentations. The movie ‘The Price of Honor,’ about honor killing and the presentation ‘The Truth About GMO’s’ by Dr. Don Huber had people leaving in tears. Both of those presentations jolted people.”
Calistereo also said that some attendees were amazed at the number and variety of choices offered. Other speakers included Jeff Wright, Greg Pruett, John Green, Conner Blaylock, Parrish Miller, Alex Barron, Elizabeth Allan Hodge, Wayne Hoffman, Dr. Brian Norce, Lee Arthur Rice, Phil Hart, Dan Roberts, Pamela Leslie, Matt Shea, Ruth Trottere, Iryna Ponomorenko, Xoel Pamos and Lanette Davis.
‘Keynote speaker G. Edward Griffin was preceded by a moving depiction by Dan Roberts as Patrick Henry giving his ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ speech. Mr. Griffin’s speech titled ‘Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve’ was on par with his earlier lunch banquet speech that drew a lot of interest about ‘The Science and Politics of Cancer.’ Both presentations were enthralling with both audiences spellbound by his knowledge and enthusiasm for his subjects.
The Spirit of ’76 Awards Banquet included awards presentations by the RLC honoring outstanding leaders in the state of Idaho. Recipients honored and their awards were: publisher Wayne Hoffman – ‘Champion of Liberty,’ state representative Heather Scott – ‘Legislator of the Year,’ co-founder NW Liberty Academy Elizabeth Allan Hodge –‘Betsy Ross Award,’ and Idaho state representative Ron Nate (not present) – ‘Paul Revere Award.’
Also, since movies were included in this year’s expo for the first time, the organization, for the purpose of encouraging producers to participate in future expos, decided to give an award for the best movie. The movies shown were ‘Life on Bitcoin,’ ‘The Price of Honor,’ ‘Behold a Pale Horse’ and ‘Pump: The Movie.’ ‘Pump: The Movie’ was chosen the winner of ‘The Film Award.‘
The entire expo was superbly run and many attendees expressed that they wished they had brought others to learn what they did during the many informative events.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho should be proud of this endeavor they worked hard to produce, and it really did deliver for its attendees much more than they anticipated.
