The Tree of Freedom

Often we take for granted what has been given to us as Americans. How often do we get down on our knees and thank all mighty god for the free practice of religion? How often do we speak out in the public square in thanksgiving for the right to free speech? How often do we vote in elections; not just to give consent to our public officials, but because millions have fought and died for that sacred freedom, never having obtained it.

How often are we thankful for those who have worn the flag on their shoulders? Those who were willing to pick up a gun and stand at post; who, in the name of the United States, were willing to fight, to kill and to be killed because they were called upon to do so. How often do we drop to our knees and give thanks for their sacrifices.

The men and women in uniform will tell you that they do not fight for their country alone. They don’t put their lives on the line, going bravely into battle just for their country. They don’t go hungry, dodge bullets and endure explosions just for their country’s sake. Ask any soldier and they will tell you that they do it for their families, and for us individually.

Do you realize that they forgo all the comforts of home, family and peace so that we don’t have to? Do you realize the sacrifices of the families of the soldiers? Think of the children who are left fatherless and the wife’s that are left widows. The price of freedom has always been great. Thomas Jefferson wisely said: “From time to time the tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of patriots.” By fighting for us individually, truly this is a country “by the people, for the people and of the people,” build upon the foundation of those “who more than self their country loved” and who asked not “what their country could do for them but what they could do for their country.”

In the course of war and bloodshed we have been able to free ourselves of a repressive nation. We have loosed the bonds of oppression and granted inalienable rights to all persons both who were bond and those who were free. Aristotle said, “We make war that we may live in peace.” In fact, we have given rights so freely to our citizens that some have lost sight of what it all originally meant. The flag that our men and women fight under and the flag that they wear on their shoulder, is the flag that they solute as they go into battle. It is the flag that covers the coffin of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice as they are laid to rest; and it is that flag that represents freedoms so unbound and so emancipated that it’s citizens are even free to burn that flag.

We cannot be apathetic towards these sacrifices. In gratitude for the freedoms and the sacrifices given in our behalf, let us rise up and join the men and women who have given so much for these rights, and participate in the progression of this great nation. Let us do so by loudly raising our voices in the public square, by silently casting our votes in the halls of government. Let us choose good, honorable, and wise men and women to lead us. Let us become knowledgeable in the current issues of our day. We need to know the problems that face us, the issues that challenge us, and the trials that stand before us. We must arm ourselves with knowledge, sympathy and a strong voice. We don’t have to love politics. It doesn’t have to be our favorite branch of learning or our preferred past time but we do need to become active participants in a government that has secured its power in the hands of the people.

Apathy towards voting or participating in public elections shows apathy towards those who have died securing those freedoms. To become indifferent is to give away your power in government; a power which is an endowment at the cost of American blood. It is to give away a right that is inalienable to you, to someone else. Raise up your voice! It doesn’t matter if you are republican, democrat, an independent, a conservative or a liberal. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, what you vote for, where you vote, or when you vote. It only matters that you do vote, and that you vote for what you believe in. And that matters because it has mattered to those who’s bodies lay scattered across the battlefields of war as well as for those who have had to burry them.

It is clear that freedom is not free, that sacrifice rarely is convenient, and that a duty and power has been entrusted to everyone of us. Let us rise up together and use this god-given power, written by the hand of our founding fathers and secured with the blood of our forefathers, to sing the song of freedom and make this “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

In conclusion, I encourage everyone of you to recognize what has been sacrificed in your name. To give thanks for the rights granted to you by those sacrifices. And to take advantage of those rights, specifically by voting in public elections. Not every nation has been able to vote so freely and safely as we do here in America.