Festival salutes 4 heroes

PROVO — Heroes can come from small beginnings. They can soar thousands of miles above the earth. They can fight for values. Or they can learn to forgive.

Officials of America's Freedom Festival at Provo honored four individuals with 2008 Freedom Awards Wednesday night at the 2008 Freedom Festival Awards Gala held at Brigham Young University's Wilkinson Center ballroom. The honorees, each in his or her own way, personified some or all of the festival's four traditional values of family, freedom, God and country.

From humble beginnings in Rhode Island, with a father who was a postal worker and a mother who worked in a factory, came Bill Farley, living evidence of the reality of the American dream.

Farley was honored by the festival for rising to his full potential, without ever forgetting where he came from or how he got there. Farley is a successful businessman and philanthropist whose charity includes donations to his high school, Bowdoin College in Maine and Boston College.

"I do, even today, practically pinch myself and say, "Wow, how did all this happen?"' Farley said when given a chance to respond to his award.

"I think you folks here in Utah really understand how it does happen. It happens when you start off with great parents who really believe in you, who talk to you about getting a good education, who talk to you about family values."

A lawyer dedicated to protecting children from violence, obscenity and pornography in the media, Jack Thompson was honored especially for his defense and support of families.

Thompson listed the top four moments of his life. No. 1 was when "God the father introduced me to Jesus Christ and said 'welcome home,"' second was meeting his wife and third was seeing his son for the first time.

"The fourth greatest moment in my life is this one," Thompson said. "For 21 years I have opposed the criminal distribution of adult entertainment to children because Jesus said if any of you should cause one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for you that a millstone be tied around your neck and you be cast into the uttermost depths of the sea."

He said that while his life has been filled with persecution and ridicule, he would go back and do it all over again, with even more fervor than before.

Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Brian Shul received the award for his longtime defense of the freedoms of American through his distinguished career as a military pilot. Shul was shot down over Vietnam and suffered severe burns, yet returned to the cockpit after a year of therapy.

Throughout his time in the hospital recovering, Shul said he asked God many times if he could die. Later, he realized that he was lucky and he could be a voice for those who had paid the ultimate price for freedom.

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