76Freedom, in Every Language

In April 1971, twelve people from Waco boarded a plane to Paris. The papers called them the Waco Dozen. They carried letters from families and petitions signed across Central Texas, and their errand was as direct as an errand can be: sit down opposite North Vietnam's negotiators and press for better treatment — and ultimately freedom — for Americans held as prisoners of war. A mayor, a newspaper editor, pastors, businesspeople; the plaque lists all twelve names, and none of them had any official standing to do it. They went anyway.

Two years later, on May 26, 1973, Waco dedicated this fountain — and two of the men whose freedom the Dozen had argued for, Colonel George Hall and Captain Ronald Bliss, stood here for it. The plaque says the sound of falling water serves as a perpetual reminder of the value of freedom. Set into the paving, a Ring of Freedom circles the whole pool: the same word, over and over, in the languages of the world, so the sentence never ends.