Liberty Valance

January 27, 2026

The Equity

Dear Editor,

I grew up in Kentucky, where the gun culture is thick as molasses. I learned how to shoot a gun before I learned to play a musical instrument. As a child, I thought the power to kill animals was a birthright of freedom-loving Americans. I don’t remember exactly when I decided that I would rather use the power of musical persuasion than the power to take a person’s life.

There was a movie of the day, starring Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, an uncultured bully whose rule was supported by his eagerness to shoot and kill anyone who resisted his wishes. Enter Jimmy Stewart, as the educated lawyer from the east, who inadvertently became a target of Liberty’s selfish rage. A shootout was arranged, and Stewart’s hapless hero appeared to be doomed. Instead, the shootout resulted in the death of Liberty Valance, and Jimmy Stewart’s character was hailed as a hero, entering politics and coming to be elected senator on his reputation as the town’s liberator. As it turns out, later in the movie (spoiler alert) it was John Wayne’s character, observing from the sidelines, who had actually shot Liberty. That’s the essence of the “good guy with a gun” meme, which is repeated each time there is a school shooting.

We are now watching the drama of lowbrow vengeful thugs roaming the streets, kidnapping and killing people with neither justification nor accountability. So, where is the good guy with a gun? Well, he’s the latest victim of the rampaging ICE agents. The United States no longer has any claim to having “God on our side”. A senile sociopath – a vulgar selfish blob of bad taste, has been elected president, and has recruited the lowest of the low to advise his reign of terror against the people of the United States. His adviser, Stephen Miller is a seething pile of viper poop. Who’s going to stand up to the bully regime?

I’m ever so glad to be living in Canada. Imperfect though it is and has been, we have an adult as prime minister, and a tradition of, as Tod Maffin says, relentless decency.

Robert Wills, Shawville and Thorne

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