 |
| Illustration depicting the Continental Army during the American Revolution. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
As we all pause to honor those who have paid the
ultimate price in defense of freedoms that we often take for granted, it’s
worthwhile to remember the oft-used cliché ‘Freedom is not free.’ There are those who roll their eyes when they
hear this, but before you join that group, think about it. How did we get to where we are today; a
country that, notwithstanding its faults, is the symbol of freedom on this
planet?
It started with a dream. A group of diverse men gathered together and
came up with a document that proposed a form of government that was for its
time radical – a government that operated according to the will of the people
rather than the dictates of a king. A
system that honored the will of the majority while protecting the rights of the
minority.
The system they envisioned wasn’t perfect. It talked of freedom, but many of them were
slave owners, treating other human beings as mere property. It posited that all men are created equal,
and at the time that was what it meant, for women were considered children who
needed the protection of a father, brother, or son.
But, they created an institutional framework that
enabled each of these failings to be addressed in time. Slavery was ended – although, it took another
hundred years of struggle to achieve something approaching true equality for
the freed slaves and their descendants.
Women eventually got the right to vote, own property, and sign contracts
– even if they do still lag behind men in income and other signs of true
equality. Give us time, folks, this is
still a work in progress.
I digress, though; the theme here is the price of
freedom. The founding fathers were
prepared to pay a price to achieve this dream – they could all have been hanged
as traitors had not our struggle for independence been successful. Soldiers in the Continental Army under George
Washington paid the price in blood at places like Yorktown and Valley
Forge. In the more than two centuries
since, Americans of all colors, religions, economic status, and gender, have
continued to step forward when necessary, sometimes laying their lives down, to
ensure the continuation of that dream of those men who gathered in the 1700s to
begin construction of the American dream.
No, freedom is not free. It is bought and paid for with the blood of
patriots; men and women who are willing to sacrifice all to keep the rest of us
free.
No comments:
Post a Comment