Editorial: Patrick Joseph Leahy is a Man for All Seasons of America, and his Departure Leaves a Void in Our Sacred Honor

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Senator Pat Leahy has been a Lion of the Senate since 1975, where he often quietly roared by example, and earned consensus by following the advice given to him by Leader Mike Mansfield. He is a man of conscience and followed my hero, Sir Edmund Burke’s (“all that’s necessary for evil to triumph, is for some good men to do nothing“) recipe for a representative to honor his fiduciary duties to both the Republic and constituents.

Sacred Honor – From Our Birth to Reveille
Thomas Jefferson caused our Nation’s birth by collateralizing our sacred honor on July 4, 1776. Perhaps, the last of American giants who single-handedly corrected the course of our ship of state, many times lost or buffeted by choppy waters, Senator Pat Leahy has earned the undying love and respect of a grateful nation. His simple: “keep your word” is the core ingredient of Honor, and his Honor has shielded our nation’s, especially, when we didn’t keep our Word. Unfortunately, too many times to list here – when the Standard is: one, is one too many. But one that stands out due to recent events is: we didn’t honor our sacred commitment in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum to keep Ukraine (along with Belarus and Kazakhstan) safe and unmolested; based on nothing more than our Word, Ukraine stripped herself of over 1600 Nuclear Weapons and became naked and defenseless. Then, a stark disagreement over motives and our word-given, Russia found itself in what I’ve called, a reverse Cuban Missile Crisis, and after waiting nearly 20 years invaded Ukraine on February 24th of 2022. A proxy war, if ever there was one. Had we kept America’s word as firmly as Pat has kept his in the U.S. Senate, there would be no war in Ukraine, no dead, no war crimes, no one cold and frozen on Christmas.

Pat Leahy Kept His Word; America Must Too

America’s Reveille – as Sen. John Glenn had play at his funeral by interrupting Taps, requires more than a bugle wake up call; it requires that we keep our word to all, friend and foe alike. Then, and only then, can America, the cherished Idea and Ideal every patriot holds so dear in our soul, be great and stay great. Even our “Red Lines” in the sand must be as if in rock, then, and only then, do we have Honor worthy of being collateralized. Pat Leahy is that great American, whose word is kept, always.

American Greatness and Exceptionalism Must Survive the Suicidal Cancel & Woke Cultures Engulfing Our Citizenry With Arrogance of Certainty

Todays Americans lack the knowledge, forget judgment, to understand, let alone marvel, at the genius of our Founding Fathers. George Washington famously said: Deeds, not words. Pat Leahy has a lifetime of Deeds that ennoble America and every American. And, as a true Irishman (albeit, one-half), he has honored the core: No Irishman will serve on bent knee. Thanks to the distinguished Gentleman from Vermont, his deeds in the United States Senate, America knows and lives Freedom standing taller – Pat Leahy tall!

We will all miss him more, as his kind are all slowing leaving center stage to folks who seek hollow glory while Rome burns.

To Senator Pat Leahy, a grateful nation thanks you for your principled service. If we could clone you, we would.

May the road rise up to meet you Pat. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, And may the land of a friend always be near.

Being Jesuit-trained at Fordham Law, I effortlessly sign off today as if it was Saint Patty’s Day…to honor dear Patrick Joseph Leahy.

Dated: December 22, 2022

Ravi O’Batra, Co-Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

 

Farewell Senator Patrick Leahy, You Kept Your Word, So America has Reveille!

Ravi Batra, Esq.
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Ravi Batra, starting September 11, 2021, is a publisher of The America Times Company Ltd., and since January 2022, is the Editor-in-Chief. He is a member of the National Press Club, in Washington D.C., and a member of its "Freedom of the Press" and "International Correspondents" Teams/Committees.

A member of the bar since 1981, he is the head of a boutique law firm in Manhattan, The Law Firm of Ravi Batra, P.C., that handles complex constitutional, sovereignty, torture, civil and criminal cases, representing governments, corporates and individuals, with landmark legal victories, including, libel in fiction, in “Batra v. Dick Wolf.” He is Chairman & CEO, Greenstar Global Energy Corp., King Danylo of Galicia International Ltd., Mars & Pax Advisors, Ltd., Chairman of National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, and since September 2021, Advisor for Legal and Humanitarian Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He is invited by various governments to address High Level Ministerial events, including, on Counter-Terrorism, including, Astana (Nur-Sultan), Dushanbe, Minsk and Delhi. He has testified in Congress as an invitee of the Chair, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and interacted with U.S. Department of State from 1984 -1990, and then again, from 2006, during the tenures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Antony Blinken.

He has served as Commissioner of New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), Trustee on New York State IOLA Board, New York State Judicial Screening Committee for the Second Judicial Department, City Bar’s Judicial Committee, Vice-Chair of Kings County Democratic County Committee’s Independent Judicial Screening Committee for the then-2nd Judicial Department of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Chair of NYSTLA’ Judicial Independence Committee, with many more bar leadership roles, including, NYSBA’s House of Delegates for four years. He has served as Advisor for Legal & Human Rights Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine post-annexation of Crimea till 2021, and Legal Advisor to numerous nations’ permanent missions to the U. N. since 2009, including, India, Pakistan, Honduras and Malta. He has served: as Global Special Counsel to The Antonov Company in Ukraine, a state-owned company, and was registered with the Justice Dept pursuant to FARA; and as Special Global Advisor to Rector/President of both - National Aviation University of Ukraine and National Technical University of Ukraine/KPI. He remains involved in geopolitics and public policy since the mid-1980's, starting with being on House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Speaker’s Club and appointed member of NACSAA during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. In 1988, he was part of U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese’s Delegation to Japan to resolve bilateral trade imbalance. He regularly interacts with the multilateral diplomatic community, and during the High Level UNGA Debate, with heads of State/Government. He is sought for his views as a speaker and writer. 

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