Freedom 2.0
Recently there has been a disaster on our Southern border. Refugees fleeing extremely dangerous conditions in their home countries have walked hundreds of miles seeking the safety and freedom of the United States. They made this pilgrimage toward the light of freedom seeking asylum and a better life for themselves and their children. When they got to the border of our great and free nation they were met with impossible bureaucracy, walls, closed doors, military threat and tear gas. Now they are trapped, unable to go forward and unable to go back. They sit in a horrible limbo as some in our government characterize them as villains and criminals. As a nation we have made this mistake before; sending thousands of desperate Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany back to their countries of origin where they were rounded up and exterminated. It is just one of the dark moments in our history that we should be determined not to repeat. I know that the news cycle has changed and that most of our attention has shifted away from the plight of the latest group of people seeking freedom in our country so I thought I would re-post this essay I wrote over a year ago.
“The cost of freedom is the willingness to die”.
The United States has a rich history of individuals and groups of individuals understanding and paying the price of freedom. These brave Americans have fought and died around the world and here at home, to vanquish foreign enemies and domestic foes. They have sacrificed their lives for the freedom we so now casually enjoy. Perhaps now it is our turn to honor those who sacrificed for us, to rise together and stand as one for freedom.
Abraham Lincoln stalled the end of the Civil War to insure the passage of the 13th Amendment even though he knew that any extension of the war would cost the lives of many but he did so to end slavery. On “Bloody Sunday” a large contingent of African American people marched across a bridge in Selma Alabama, knowing hate and violence was waiting for them on the other side. Undaunted, they marched forward into the fray for equality and freedom. Martin Luther King foretold his own death when he spoke of being “on the mountain top”. He led his people to the “promised land” and he died for his vision of their freedom. When eighteen and nineteen year old American boys climbed into Higgins boats to storm the beaches of Normandy, they knew their chances of survival were slim but they went and they died for freedom. We send troops abroad to fight for others unable to fight for themselves. We do so, to help oppressed people gain the freedoms we have in this country. We support these troops and the cause they carry with them because they fight and they die for the thing we hold most dear…freedom.
Conversely, our history is littered with mistakes and atrocities caused by fear and by the hate driven actions it inspired. The institution of Slavery and the treatment of African American people was an egregious injustice that created a residue that still plagues us to this day. The treatment of Native Americans, cheated, forced on to reservations and in some cases, murdered. Feared and vilified because of a difference of culture and appearance, their freedom was stolen for profit and gain. The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was an angry reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ironically, when Japanese Americans were allowed to fight in World War II, in an exclusively Japanese unit, they became the most decorated unit of the war. They were brave Americans fighting and dying for freedom. McCarthyism was a time of fear and hatred which robbed many, labelled as communists, of their livelihood and freedom. Today we look back on all these times, shaking our heads in shame. We ask ourselves, how could these government sponsored atrocities occurred? The answer is simple. The majority of the people stood silently complicit while a mob, stoked by anger and irrational fear, trampled and denied the rights and freedoms of innocent people.
The United States is the beacon of freedom for the world, a melting pot of race and culture. Like the mixing of elements to create alloy, our diversity is our strength, but it comes at a high price. As we celebrate our communal strength to not only be tolerant of, but to embrace those different-than ourselves, there is the chance of exposing ourselves to evil intent. There are those on a mission to terrorize us. A few may find avenues through our extensive security systems and some of those may actually cause us harm. But we must be brave because freedom is worth the cost. We cannot flinch. We must accept that the burden of freedom is sometimes death. Not only the death that finds the protectors of freedom in foreign places but the death that might be the fate of some of us domestically.
I would say to those who cling to the idea of complete safety. Can you lock yourself away and banish all those who you fear simply because they are different: build walls and create barriers for all those who thirst for the freedom we claim to have and that our rule of law expressly defends; exclude thousands of innocent people in an ill fated attempt to protect the citizenry of this country from the few that may do them harm? Can you do this, hold your head high and call yourself free? We cannot allow ourselves to succumb to the evil urges of hatred and fear. We must provide the backbone for our belief in freedom. We must courageously stand together remembering and being inspired by those who have done so in our better past.
The next time you hear the National Anthem, before you begin cheering for your favorite team to win the game, take note of the last few words, ”O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”. One cannot exist without the other. Let us choose to be brave and truly free.