Letter to the Editor: Freedom isn't free

Posted

To the Editor:
It’s become more than a cliché to say that freedom isn’t free. We demand it, we bemoan it, we frantically figuratively, and literally wave what our brothers in arms fought for: our sacred, blood-drenched banner, a banner that we only irrevocably denigrate by its abysmal and increasingly disgusting misuse. We bandy it about blithely as we “courageously” refuse to wear bike helmets, masks or get simple vaccinations to both protect ourselves and our fellow citizens. We buy $60,000 SUVs while we refuse to pay for functional roads and bridges and then we have the gall to whine about the cost of the gas to fill them. We futilely struggle to insulate ourselves from the gale force winds, fires and floods of climate change as we hide in our McMansions and double wides binging on “Real Housewives” and “American Idol”. We applaud the butchering of our fellow citizens for traffic citations and block often-starving human beings from accessing the freedom we don’t even begin to understand, much less appreciate.
Freedom is not about inconveniences, prejudices, or personal peccadillos. And bless your heart, it sure as heck isn’t based on lies, no matter how convenient they are or how many times you’re fed them or regurgitate them.
If it wasn’t clear to us before, it should be etched in our retinas and scoured in our memories for all time by the horrors of what’s happened in Ukraine in the last few weeks.

Freedom is about defending yourself and your family to the death against tyranny, lies and subjugation. It’s about truth and justice and giving and defending and embracing others when you don’t have a bed to sleep in or a roof over your head.
Your life is in no way poorer nor less free when you embrace, understand and fight for others…It is fuller, brighter and God Bless You…in all ways, freer.
Freedom isn’t free…if we would take it away or allow it to be taken away by our inaction, from our fellow human beings…we irrevocably strip it from ourselves.
Jim Martin,
Perryville