(no subject)
I wrote this tonight at work. I'm thinking of submitting it as a guest column to the Nevada Appeal.
Freedom isn't free.
I saw those words on a bumper sticker this July 4th and they struck me. Not in the physical sense, of course, but I pondered those words for quite a while.
When I see the words "Freedom isn't free," I do not think about the thousands of wonderful men and women who serve in our military. I think of our founding fathers.
Freedom is not free. True freedom means accepting personal responsibility for your actions. Freedom means being willing to lay your life on the line-personally, not leaving it up to the people serving in our military-for all the things this country stands for, and for your personal liberties.
Freedom means supporting your own weight in society. It means not taking advantage of well-meaning programs like welfare, unemployment, and disability. It means using them only if you have to, and contributing to society if you don't. Freedom can't afford laziness.
Freedom means being willing to stand up for what is right and just, regardless of whether you will be ridiculed, jailed, or killed. Apathy does not fit into a free society.
Freedom means true patriotism. Waving a flag, plastering patriotic stickers all over your car, and wearing red, white, and blue T-shirts is not enough. A true patriot values what our Founding Fathers established and speaks up when he or she sees that being violated. A true patriot knows that any government, including the government of this great nation, can become corrupt, because we are all human.
Freedom means choosing freedom over safety-for you cannot have both. Safety, from anything, means giving up freedom, essential liberties that our Founding Fathers promised us in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Safety is never once guaranteed in either of those documents. Possibly because our Founding Fathers were very much aware of the fate that might await them if they failed, or possibly because we are all mortal, and must perish at some point.
After thinking about those words, "Freedom isn't free," for a couple of hours, I have come to the conclusion that while we still have more rights and essential freedoms than any other country on the planet, this country is still not free. And we cannot blame our government; we cannot blame politics; we cannot blame the military. All we have to blame is ourselves.
Freedom isn't free.
I saw those words on a bumper sticker this July 4th and they struck me. Not in the physical sense, of course, but I pondered those words for quite a while.
When I see the words "Freedom isn't free," I do not think about the thousands of wonderful men and women who serve in our military. I think of our founding fathers.
Freedom is not free. True freedom means accepting personal responsibility for your actions. Freedom means being willing to lay your life on the line-personally, not leaving it up to the people serving in our military-for all the things this country stands for, and for your personal liberties.
Freedom means supporting your own weight in society. It means not taking advantage of well-meaning programs like welfare, unemployment, and disability. It means using them only if you have to, and contributing to society if you don't. Freedom can't afford laziness.
Freedom means being willing to stand up for what is right and just, regardless of whether you will be ridiculed, jailed, or killed. Apathy does not fit into a free society.
Freedom means true patriotism. Waving a flag, plastering patriotic stickers all over your car, and wearing red, white, and blue T-shirts is not enough. A true patriot values what our Founding Fathers established and speaks up when he or she sees that being violated. A true patriot knows that any government, including the government of this great nation, can become corrupt, because we are all human.
Freedom means choosing freedom over safety-for you cannot have both. Safety, from anything, means giving up freedom, essential liberties that our Founding Fathers promised us in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Safety is never once guaranteed in either of those documents. Possibly because our Founding Fathers were very much aware of the fate that might await them if they failed, or possibly because we are all mortal, and must perish at some point.
After thinking about those words, "Freedom isn't free," for a couple of hours, I have come to the conclusion that while we still have more rights and essential freedoms than any other country on the planet, this country is still not free. And we cannot blame our government; we cannot blame politics; we cannot blame the military. All we have to blame is ourselves.