Freedom Isn't Free. It's a common expression today, used as a rallying cry in support of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, used to honor the service and deaths of members of the US armed forces in those wars, and used to memorialize the rescue workers and law enforcement officers who died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.
But I think it has a deeper meaning, one which most Americans have either forgotten, never knew, or intentionally ignore.
Freedom does, indeed, have a price. But that price should not be bourne entirely by soldiers, rescue workers, and police. The cost of freedom must be bourne by all who enjoy freedom. That price is risk.
The people of the United States seem obsessed with making the world "safe." They want to be safe from terrorism, safe from criminals, safe from disease, and even safe from "harmful" ideas. Well, wake up, America, because it's never going to happen! But in the process, you're surrendering a lot of the most important freedoms we have cherished for over 200 years. We have secret courts granting secret warrants for secret searches, we have government agencies demanding records from private companies without warrants, we have prisoners being held without charge, without access to legal counsel, indefinitely, and we have a president who claims that mock executions (waterboarding) are not torture.
"There are bad guys out there," we are told, "and without these extreme measures, the bad guys will come to America and kill us all!"
I say, bring 'em on! America is a strong nation, not because of any extreme measures we have taken in the last 7 years, but because of the freedoms guaranteed to us by our Constitution. Let the bad guys come, and we will destroy them, not with secret courts or warrantless surveillance, but with straight out American courage. We will band together, in truth, in justice, and in freedom for all. We will survive, not by destroying what we are, but by remaining who we are.
America is not a flag, it's not commandments, it's not even a land or a people. America is an ideal. America is freedom. Our greatest protection is not soldiers or police, it's not security guards at airports or intelligence operatives searching for "threats." Our greatest strength is, always has been, and always will be, the freedoms defined and protected by our Constitution.
Take those freedoms away, and we're just another country.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather live in America and face the danger head-on than live anywhere else and be "safe."