Freedom comes with a horrific price tag: blood, sweat, tears, and lives. What is it about Freedom that we’re willing to put our very lives on the line to fight for it? It is the essence of humanity and it is the only thing worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is the right to choose your destiny, it is the right to choose where you will work, how you will worship, and who you will love.
Freedom is the right to speak your mind. On July 4, 1776, fifty-six men committed treason by speaking their minds and declaring that all men were created equal and endowed with certain unalienable Rights. The signers of the Declaration of Independence could have hung for their words, but they were willing to take the risk because they knew that freedom was greater than any one human being.
On June 4, 1989, thousands of Chinese protesters peacefully gathered in Tienanmen Square to ask for the same rights our founding fathers had fought for centuries earlier: the right to self government, the right to a free market, and the right to speak their minds. Ordinary Chinese citizens knew that the government might–and did–take lives for the protest, but they knew freedom was worth dying for.
Time has given World Wars I and II a glossy patina and when we think of those “Wars to End All Wars,” we romanticize them and think about the flying aces, the cute songs, the dances at the USO, and the heroes. We don’t think about the blood, the death, the stench. We don’t think about what it must have been like for young men to step past the bodies of their best friends in a game of hide and seek with the enemy. We don’t think about the hunger, the pain, and the fear.
The heroes of WWII get saluted, get thanked, and get respected; but the heroes of our most recent wars are often forgotten and left to wonder if we do appreciate their sacrifices. Time has not given the wars in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan the glossy patina enjoyed by the great wars of the past and we often forget the sacrifices being made today by young men and women who believe that freedom for all mankind is worth fighting and dying for.
Next time you see someone in uniform, take the time to thank them for making the sacrifices that let us enjoy beer, barbeque, and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Cairn by Cairn 