Freedom is not Free at all

Freedom isn’t free at all. Some of us pay for it with our lives or the lives of our loved ones, and in the end, that can sometimes be the same thing. But still, scores of our young people take the oath and become part of our military services every day.

Some people who have never served or never really known anyone who has, question the motives, sanity or intelligence of those who have put on the uniform. But it is important to remember that the very freedom, which allows those questions to be asked is gladly purchased by those who swell the ranks of our military.

So many people, living so many different lives, all had the same ideals – and even if they were just trying to survive day to day and take care of their brother’s in arms, their deaths still bought what we have today.

Yet we still seem to have the ability to elect leadership which views service as something to glorify themselves. They take the oath of office; not with the humility and fear of a common troop, but with the anticipation and glee of a child with a new toy. Nor do they treat their office with dignity and respect, remembering those who came before, but instead cheapen it by self-serving trips, foolish antics, silly photo-ops and canned press conferences aimed at improving their own stature and position.

But are we really still free? What comes of freedom when civil rights can be ignored? What happens when questions and protests are met with ridicule and threats? How do we consider ourselves a free people when more and more of our country’s market system is absorbed by a swelling government? How far are we really from some dark Orwellian landscape when the government begins to dictate terms to its’ citizens?

National Socialism gave rise to the NAZI party, genocide and horrors untold. Germany has, since World War II, avoided anything resembling such ideas, yet our leaders and our government gladly take up the foundations for this. Warnings by Pravda, the newspaper of Russian fame, and the publishing flagship of the former Soviet Union, highlight our slip toward Marxism. Yet still, our leaders take away our money, our children’s money our grandchildren’s money, and follow up their thievery by legislating away our freedom. Like French and Spanish settlers in the New World trading indigenous people beads for land, they give us platitudes, marketing and lies in return for all that they take. Every day we are poorer, not just in wealth, but in liberty.

This is why the response to revolution in places like Iran, by our government, is so lukewarm. Members of our government don’t understand even the motivations and wishes of their own people – and even if they did, they are too certain of their own brilliance and too invested in their own self-interest and personal advancement to care.

And the people?

For so long, we have been told to obey. For so long we have been told that our dreams are in reach, as long as we follow the rules and as long as we try to do what our betters consider right. This is the road toward slavery.

So we serve and we bleed and we cry and we die – and none of it matters to most of our leaders. But it all matters to us – the people. We all remember, and we all care – and for those in our government who believe we don’t, you should know we are watching.

We will find you. We will remove you from office.

We are coming for you.

Freedom.

-We the People