July 4th 2009.... FREEDOM

Today is the day that our Independence is celebrated...

The one word you wont hear much today is freedom.

The country was founded on the premise that we should all be free. Of course at the time freedom was best left reserved for property holding , older white gentlemen... Yet I have always felt that some sort of providence was at work in the wording of our founding documents.

I hold close to me the thought that where human beings are concerned freedom is an inevitability...

It is a horrific process, full of violence and blood.. Insurrection is the order of the day. Indeed, when our own freedom was won from England, only one third of the people here in the colonies wanted it.. One third fought against it and the last third didn't give a damn either way...

Freedom is a long sought for and seldom won thing. Societies have been destroyed in seeking it out because the other inevitability when it comes to humans being involved in anything, is the "cluster fuck factor".. There is always going to be someone who follows the mindset of money and power is the way to go for themselves and be damned what others want or need.

Micro analysis of the process we went through in gaining our freedom will reveal many flaws and backward moments that arm chair hindsight will cause many to shake their heads at. Which is of course true with any situation...

Freedom is a simple thing to possess and amazingly difficult to hold on to. We wantonly vote our freedoms away in many names... "Security", "Peace", "for the children"... there are many labels which are used yet we forget the most important thing that keeps freedom in place.. failure.. Failure and the ability to pick yourself up and try again until you succeed.. That is the basis of basic freedom..

The desire to keep freedom with us coupled with the agreement to die for it is a powerful tool indeed... There aren't many situations in which "taking to the streets" actually helps... When you see something that you think must be changed the most effective way to do it is by working from within that system... the only thing you really get from protesting in public is a traffic jam and if pushed too hard, dead people... neither of which really pushes your cause too far along the ladder toward completion.. When an entire society is oppressed there comes a time when armed insurrection is the only way.. but those times are few and far between and, as is shown throughout the third world, only really ever sets up warlords...

The cynics look at this day as "closet patriotism" when most people are looking to dust off flags and wave them at parades while awaiting the fireworks... To me.. I don't care.. Even if it's one day a year, I still enjoy the sight of many flags waving and being worn.

I think about the number of people who gave everything for freedom, from property to their very lives... To me it's like voting... Cynics will say "the lesser of two evils" or "your vote doesn't really count" yet I feel I have to vote... I think of people like Alice Paul and know that I can not stay away from the voting booth simply in honor of sacrifices like the ones she made for that right.

I place myself in a field standing alongside other people who's homes were being destroyed, families murdered, livestock butchered, and money taken away in the form of unfair taxation. I imagine staring at a group of people who were ordered to kill me because I want to be free. I smell the cordite, blood and fear of that day. I see them approach and I imagine the abject terror of looking at 50 caliber rifles aimed at me, and I still stand firm. I think of the lyrics to the Scottish tune that will forever haunt me:

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground
I’ll not be afraid
Thoughts of home take away my fear
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me
Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Where before many more have gone

Am I a romantic simpleton who cries when I think of these things and hears this song? You bet your ass I am...

So embedded cynicism aside, I will proudly wave my flag today and watch my small hometown's cheesy little parade.. And when the soldiers come by I will cheer and scream for them as loud as I can.. Am I willing to die for my freedom? Absolutely... As much as I am ready to die for my family and my friends...

Enjoy this day, think of why we celebrate it... pay no attention to the cynics.. let them laugh at you, let them speak the terms and phrases of the clever cynics who know better, let them suffer smugness...

Me? I shall enjoy the pride I feel today, I shall taste that freedom and relish it's exquisite flavor as I watch my children play in a land that was bled on by men and women who never had any idea that we would live, yet were willing to lay their lives down so that we could live in freedom...