Freedom's Cost

Memorial Day is a time of remembrance that originated after the Civil War.  Mourning the soldiers lost in battle helps us to grasp the great cost paid to remain a free and independent nation.

I think too often we confuse freedom with safety.  Freedom is the ability to choose.  Safety is a feeling that we need not fear because we have surrendered the risk of danger to others.  It comes with a hidden danger, though.  It is the danger that those to whom we have surrendered will abuse that trust.  The nature of humans is such that those who seek control do so for their own gain and will use the power given to them for their own purposes.

I subscribe more to the philosophy of Patrick Henry who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."  Let me make my own decisions about what to believe and whom to trust.  Grant me the freedom to fail, to risk and to challenge those who would seek to block me from the pursuit of happiness in the way that I would choose.

I believe the best government is the least government.  Society needs agreed upon rules of order that protect citizens from abuse.  People do not need a "nanny state" that controls every aspect of their lives.  Happiness cannot exist in the absence of choice.

Some would argue that the government must protect those who society deems to be inferior or different.  My question is simply, who defines the inferior or different?  The innocent, the powerless and the incapable should certainly be protected.  That should primarily be the role of community, friends and family.  

Abuse of others should never be tolerated but it is not the role of government to define what is to be considered as abuse because by making that determination they create new forms of abuse.  There must always be mechanisms by which the citizens can quickly and easily correct that abuse.  Otherwise, the ultimate price will again be paid as was the case in the U.S. Civil War.

Life shouldn't be about safety and living under the dominion of abusive power.  It should be about choosing to face the challenges, to overcome the odds, to create and build, to love and to cherish those whom we would choose without the interference of abusive power.

On this Memorial Day let's remember the ideal that those who paid the ultimate price fought and died for.  Let's focus on freedom.  That includes the freedom to be wrong, to make mistakes and to fail.

The Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is one of my favorite flowers of summer.  They were not native to the area where I grew up but are common where I now live.  Their blooming is a sure sign that Summer is near.  The one pictured below is wild although many times they are found in cultivated beds, safely tended by their masters.  I prefer the wild and free ones who blossom where they choose.

A Prickly Symbol

I have been trying to avoid political posts, but this old Yucca makes me think of our embattled President.  I'll let you figure out the symbolism.

This image was taken at Mission San Jose in San Antonio, Texas, a few years back.  The mission was founded in 1720.  Official activities of the mission ended in 1824 and the buildings fell into disuse, being occupied by soldiers, the homeless and occasional bandits.  The mission was restored beginning in 1933.

History is filled with the struggle of those who are "civilized" and their attempt to subjugate and "reform" those who remain "heathen."  European powers fought the Mongol hoards, in Africa the Colonial powers fought against the many tribes who were native to the land -- often enslaving them.  On the American continents it was a similar story with European powers "taming" or, destroying those who were here first.

As the world was conquered by the Europeans, there occurred a blending of the blood in such a way that there remains within those of us living today, a streak of the "wild" people who were overcome.  I suppose that brings me full circle to the political aspects of the image that heads this post.  I think we are still resisting the conquering European mindset that has infiltrated political institutions and that is why so many stand with the President in his resistance.  In him -- despite his prickly nature -- is seen the fight to remain independent rather than subject to the powers of those who would govern.  That is, at heart, why the "common" people support him.  It isn't about his style, or his policies so much as it is about seeing him as one who is fighting against the concentrated power of those who would rule rather than serve.  We recognize his imperfections yet see in him the hope of breaking the corrupt "deep state" that sees itself as above the law.

It really has nothing to do with opposition to "climate change alarmists" or, isolationism, or, any of the other "global" issues.  It is about freedom.

Europeans don't understand that mindset since most have never fully escaped the feudal institutions built on royalty versus commoners.  They have never really experienced freedom in the way those who conquered the interior of the American continents did.  Those of us in rural areas of the U.S. still have the blood of that freedom coursing through our veins.  In our hearts we remain free and that is why those in power or, in the crowded cities of the coasts, despise us.  

Yep, I got political.

Looking Out

Why do we love to look out of windows?
What is it that causes us
To sometimes stop and stare
At nothing in particular?
We sit and gaze out the window.

Do you think perhaps
It is some deep-seated behavior
Wired into our very being
That is a residual of that time long ago
When we feared what might be out there?

Or, could it be a longing
To be out-of-doors
Where we feel less trapped –
Less surrounded --
Less fettered?

Maybe it is dissatisfaction
With what we are doing
And with what we are accomplishing
As we busily battle
Seemingly endless daily assignments.

Is it guilt bearing down upon us
When indeed we long for light?
Or, is it a shadow of our true self,
Trapped within an earthly vessel
Yet longing for freedom?

I choose freedom……