Reaching for Freedom

Chapter 12

Reaching for Freedom

Being Free

               Freedom is defined as : The power to determine personal action without restraint.

               American Freedom does not mean you are able to do whatever you please whenever you please.  Likewise it does not mean that you have the freedom to not do some things or abandon your responsibilities.

               As Americans we have the power to determine personal action without restraint and then act to follow through on our determinations.

               The limitations I mention are that it is not right nor morally correct that any actions you take hurt or kill others.  Any actions you take should not include withholding your responsibility in situations where your responsibility is clear.   Those are the limitations and they are imposed from within with external sanctions if you should violate some rule of nature and human kind like killing someone else or selling or giving them something that hurts them or others or cheating people.

               This nation was formed from out of a part of a self-style ‘Empire’.  At the time the form of government in vogue in the world were mostly Empires.  The British Empire, Russian Empire, Spanish Empire, French Empire, Chinese Empire – and many other ‘royal’ houses and organizations behaved as if they were empires or building them.  Notably the Portugese and Dutch.  In Africa there were also Empires and predating the invasions from Europe Empires and large political organizations existed in South, Central and North America.

               The incredible idea that a government could break away the ‘Empire’ was viewed as treasonous and illegal.  The idea that people within those breakaway areas – like the original 13 Colonies – could exercise personal action without restraint was not only viewed with distrust and unease it was considered by some to be impossible.

               For many others it was the natural order of events.  Empires just weren’t working out.  Some of them persisted quite late in history – like the Russian Empire and one has partially reformed itself under a new name – that is the  Chinese Empire – but by and large they all have either fallen apart or been consumed by other societies and civilizations that have adopted and taken for their own the idea that individuals can and should determine personal action without restraint.

               The formation of the United States and American Freedom was done with the satisfaction and relief that accompanies slaves being set free.

               It is a sad commentary that slaves in the United States were not set free when the country was set free.  The institution of slavery in the United States, referred to as ‘The Peculiar Institution’ persisted nearly 100 years after the nation was declared free.

               The pressures of maintaining slavery and the arbitrary and despotic rules and manners and laws that it spawned led to the American Civil War.  The American Civil War decided not only the issue of slavery in the United States but many other questions as well that have deviling American citizens.

               The ownership of land, the organization of corporations, the rule of law and the role of government.  The government of the United States had been set up as a free nation and beacon to the world yet in a few decades after its formation it had become a referee in disputes involving one man playing bondage and shackles upon another.

               The situation nearly destroyed the nation.

               Immigrants and Americans born here worked together to fight against the internal tyranny that had arisen in one part of the country and infected the whole system.  In some areas – it was not clear who was on which side.

               Since the Civil War the dispute has been boiled down to a war between the North and the South with the deciding issue being slavery.

               Slavery was the undisputed main point of change following the war but the division of North and South itself  is a confused concept.  Though the state governments were divided primarily along the lines ‘North and South’ due to the surveyed line known as the ‘Mason-Dixon’ line – the ideological differences were not as striking in most areas as they have been painted.

               Some people in the so-called northern area believed in or practiced slavery while in the southern areas there were people who do not believe in slavery or avoided the practice and its practitioners altogether.

               As we can see from today’s society, obviously the practice left a scar in society.  The wound need not be refreshed as it is confusing and contains too many warring ideas and concepts.  It is a sad time to consider in American history and it is best it is over with.

               Suffice it to say that after more than 200 years of struggle and work all Americans are free and have the power to determine personal action without restraint.

               Benjamin Franklin, great American orator and statesman wrote, “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

               It is a right we have inherently upon birth as humans.  It is a state into which we are born and any individuals, organizations or governments who interfere with this right and state of being are themselves corrupt in spirit and attitude.  Nothing good can or will come from their actions.  War and deprivation will appear at their door and their power will be torn asunder and they will be lost.  All that will be left is perhaps a fleeting mark of their passing.

               Knowing this and the course of human events it is clear that the fleeting circumstances of tyrants and despots is not limited only to them.  If mistakes are made and individuals in this nation do not act in a civil and patriotic manner towards their nation and this government does not hold justice, liberty and freedom to be values that cannot be sacrificed then too this nation may falter.  It is only with continued scrutiny and attention to detail can we preserve this union, which, besides being a union of governments is a union of free people bent on doing right and good in the world overall and ensuring that we all have the power to determine personal action without restraint.

               Martin Luther King, Jr, great American orator and statesman said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.”

               Freedom is a continual work in progress.  We cannot for a moment stand aside and hope that someone else will watch over our right to the power to determine personal action without restraint as well as we could ourselves.  It is right and good to become involved in this nation and comment upon its actions lest its actions turn out to be against our best interests and lead to its and ultimately our demise.

               Many people believe that things will just go on as they do without change.  Even though change will not normally come without action – if there are some persons or forces at work to cause change it is quite possible that a person who is not paying attention and not participating may be caught unawares by circumstances.

               This is certainly true in our society and nation today.  Workers and individuals who do not pay attention and participate as much as they can in their local governments and societies have found to their dismay that companies and corporations have either made inroads on their own personal power to determine personal action without restraint or expanded their own to such proportions as to overshadow the rights of the individual.

               In other cases companies or corporations might have turned tail and fled taking away with them large portions of the underpinning of the local economy.  To what effect?  Loss of jobs, loss of opportunity and the destruction of the local economy used to ensure that food, housing and fuel are available for the Americans living in that location are available so that they in turn may us their own personal power to determine personal action without restraint.

               Circumstances of life are complicated, this is true.  By not being involved in the normal daily events surrounding us or not responding to them may embolden the bad tempered and hard hearted to further depredations on our freedoms.

               Even the most informed and able persons may be overcome by events – but when there is a populace of persons ready to defend their right to being able to exercise their personal power to determine personal action without restraint then it becomes less likely that circumstances will become so unworkable that they must be abandoned or changed to suit the needs and arbitrary despotic choices of the few rather than for the benefit of the many and our posterity.

               Walt Whitman, great American poet and philosopher wrote, “IT is not only true that most people entirely misunderstand Freedom, but I sometimes think I have not yet met one person who rightly understands it. The whole Universe is absolute Law. Freedom only opens entire activity and license under the law. To the degraded or undeveloped—and even to too many others—the thought of freedom is a thought of escaping from law—which, of course, is impossible. “

               Escaping the law – whether natural or imposed – if the law is just and reasonable – is not an exercise in freedom but is an exercise in futility.

               Slavery is unlawful.  It is against the law to hold another person a slave.  It is also illegal for a person to sell themselves into slavery.  If someone decides to enter into this state or cause this circumstance because they feel it is their right then they are breaking the law and are not only not being free but they are putting themselves at odds with the American people – a natural born and living example of a free people with all the rights and responsibilities attached to that state of being.

               If a person believes they will exercise their freedom by destroying their lives by consuming drugs which have been proscribed by law then they are entering into direct opposition to the American way of life as well as destroying their relationship to the benign and good power that has formed us all.

               If good intentions and actions are not the result of the exercise of freedom then the opposite becomes an expression against freedom and those actions become bestial and the results become personally arbitrary and despotic.  The rule of addictive drugs over lives better spent with loved ones, friends and in communication with their society and government is a tragedy that plays itself out all too often.

               Addiction to drugs – the sale of drugs to persons who become addicted or are addicted is a form of slavery.  Until this is clearly realized and recognized then the chains will be forged day after day and sadly taken up by Americans who should, instead of being chained to circumstances and the arbitrary and despotic rule of cruel and inhuman persons distributing and selling the drugs should be exercising their own power to determine personal action without restraint.

               Some people decide that criminal behavior is how they will be free – or more aptly – how they will thumb their nose in the entire ideal of American Freedom and take what they want and not worry about anyone else.

               Eventually the majority of these people are either foiled by the law or more commonly by others who are pursuing the same course of events.

               To build their dreams by taking away the dreams and aspirations of others they merely draw upon themselves the attention and approbation of those good hearted people intent on pursuing their own legitimate goals.  If such evil minded persons were to win out then chaos would ensue and all freedom lost.  The natural state of affairs to allow activities like to prosper being a nation government in an arbitrary and despotic fashion.

               By working towards your own legitimate goals and watching out for those who are taking advantage or cheating you will do more for this country than you would imagine and at the same time do yourself an immense number of favors.

               Again – to repeat the concept of Freedom to Americans and the stories and legends, facts, fancy and laws that have descended to us – I give you something that President George Washington said, “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

               The Bill of Rights plainly spells out many of the Freedoms that Americans expect to enjoy and are guaranteed by our Constitution.

               These Freedoms include, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, right to bear arms. freedom of the press, right to petition, ‘no-quartering’ right, the right to own private property and the right to enjoy many other freedoms – like choosing where to live or what work to do.

               The freedom of religion allows us to tolerate at least and appreciate at most the religions and customers of others that might not match our own but do not touch upon our ability to pursue our own legitimate goals.

               The freedom of speech allows us to say whatever we please as long as we do not incite violence.  I am enjoying that freedom now by writing this brief synopsis of ‘Being American’.

               The right to bear arms is guaranteed to us so that we may provide for our table if we hunt or we may protect ourselves from the potential ravages of others and guard against arbitrary and despotic government or protect our shores and borders, if need be, from invasion and foreign governmental influence and intrusion.

               We have the freedom of the press to share all of these ideas and ideals that we want to continue, change or end, as the case may be.

               We have the right to petition to ensure that our government remains accountable to the citizens and does not begin that long careening arc into chaos.

               We have the ‘no-quartering’ right to ensure that soldiers are not given leave to take our possessions in the pursuit of some goal that we may not be directly involved in or necessarily directly need to support because we do so through our taxes and other arrangements.

               We have the right to own private property and this ends or sharply curtails the eventuality that some system resembling the feudal system might grow up again and envelop us in ignorance.

               Finally – we have the right to enjoy many other freedoms.  We may move around the country and live in different locations if we choose to.  We can work at different jobs if we choose to.  These things are not accorded to us or assigned to us by the government.  They are matter of personal choice.

               These freedoms and the method by which they are attained – that is – the government is simply not allowed to do any of it or legislate it – allows Americans to live their lives, for the most part, as they see fit, without interference from the government and without undue interference from our fellow citizens.

               In the United States Freedom is sometimes compared to Life itself.  Some people would give up their lives – and many have – to obtain Freedom.

               Freedom has been an idea and ideal since antiquity and here in the United States and among our friendlier and kindler nations abroad – it is generally felt we have obtained at least some measure of it.

               Freedom is not something to be taken lightly.  Some people may easily surrender it in return for riches or ease – at which point they have lost, in my opinion, far more than they have gained.

               We come now to the last portion of this book  - the last short piece to be a direct set of instructions or suggestions on how to be an American.

               In these past chapters we have looked at the American forms of Justice, Courage, Goodwill and Kindness, Politeness, Sincerity, Honesty, Honor, Loyalty, Education, Learning, Wisdom, Self-Control, Liberty and finally Freedom.

               Thank you for your time.