Freedom

Freedom, in a nutshell, simply means that we can do whatever we want to without fear of recrimination. We’ve gone so far in America as to enshrine those most basic freedoms into our Constitution, with freedom of speech being at the very top of the list.

But freedom goes back much farther into the mists of time than most of us ever bother to think about. Those of us who believe in a God, Creator, Supreme Being or whatever, know that we were created with free will. As a result, all of us have the freedom to believe or not believe as we choose. However, with that freedom comes responsibility. For example, if you don’t believe in God and you discover when you die that you’re wrong, there’ll be a penalty to pay. Does that mean you shouldn’t have had the freedom to choose not to believe? Not at all. But it does mean that you have to be willing to pay the cost that may be attached to it.

It’s been that way throughout history. Oppressed people refused to submit to their oppressors and paid with their lives. During the siege of Masada, an entire garrison of men, women and children freely chose mass suicide rather than wear the yokes of their Roman enemy.

Hundreds of years later, America was born as a result of that same yearning for freedom that has been part of the human spirit since the dawn of creation. Was it easy? It wasn’t, isn’t and never will be. Many hundreds of thousands of gallant fighting men and women have died willingly in order to preserve that freedom we cherish.

From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, Vicksburg to the Battle of the Wilderness, the Alamo, San Jacinto, the Ardennes Forest, Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq and on and on, soldiers have put themselves in harm’s way for that one word that means so much. Freedom.

America values freedom so highly that we’ve created Memorial Day as a way to honor those who have given their all for freedom. There’s the Wall in Washington, D.C. that lists the names of all those (some 58,000) who died in Viet Nam. At long last there is a memorial to veterans of WW-II and, I suspect, eventually you’ll see one..or more..honoring those who are fighting and dying in our war on terrorism.

Sometimes we’ve fallen, overun by the dark forces that want nothing more than to extinguish that flickering candle of freedom that offers so much hope for those who seek it. But no matter how dim that light becomes, it’s never gone out, has always returned, burning brighter than ever before.

Incidentally, if you think that freedom doesn’t exist on every level, think again. It’s in all of us. You have the freedom to strive for the kind of work that you enjoy. The freedom to move from a neighborhood you don’t like to one that you do. Many people would gladly die for that right alone.

You have the freedom to follow your dream, even if you never attain it. But no one says you can’t try.

Of course, some would have you believe that freedom is defined by material successâÂ?¦but they’d be wrong. By that definition, I’m not free because I’ve never obtained the success that they measure things by. I don’t live in the ‘right’ area, drive a new car or have the kind of house so many define success by. There are times when I wonder how the next bill is going to be paid. But you know what? I love what I do and I’m using the talent God gave me in the process. Will I ever be successful in the way that so many people use the term? I can’t say. However, I do have one thing that hundreds of millions of people on this overcrowded planet will never have and would give their lives in the blink of an eye for a chance at it.

What is it that I have? The same thing you do if you stop to think about it. And it’s all wrapped up in that one small, precious, magical word: Freedom.