Today, celebrate your freedom of conscience. It is the essence of humanity and Democracy.
More below.
What is freedom? Is it something that can be legislated? Is it something you are told you have by an occupying nation? Is it something any mortal can give to you as if they are any more special than you? No. Freedom is a state of mind and ideal, and it is something we all had with our first breath. It is not something bestowed upon us by magistrates, Kings, dictators, or Congresses in their arrogance. It is something abstract and wonderful given to us by the creator or that entity which we believe guides our souls. It is our freedom of conscience. And that is what I celebrate today, because it was in reality from that freedom of conscience that America was borne.
It is the choices we make, the lives we touch, and the good we do. No rich white men with stock in Halliburton have anymore right to it than a poor citizen in poverty. Freedom is not defined by station, rank, or wealth, it is defined within us in our very spirits and the will to fight against that spirit being broken . It is the inherent right of all mankind. Therefore, when a man with a bomb comes to tell you he has given you freedom by detonating it, laugh at him, for he has given you nothing you didn't already have and he really is a master of deception. For some in this world to think they are "chosen" as purveyors of such a personal and sacred right is laughable.
That is why I laugh whenever the current regime spouts, "They hate us for our freedoms" to use it as a political hook, because it proves they have no idea what the word means. Do they think their "Patriot Act" is freedom? Do they think "shock and awe" is freedom? Do they think "purple fingers" at the point of a gun is freedom? Do they think "crusades" and jihads" are freedom? Of course they would, as it gives them power and riches.
However, freedom isn't something tangible, it is an abstract ideal that rules your conscience, your heart, your mind, your soul, and your deeds. Man can restrict your freedoms "physically", but he can never take them away- not unless you surrender your soul to him. So today, while I mourn the physical intrusion upon our freedoms by those who have the arrogance to think they have been ordained to do so, I also know my soul, my mind, and my heart, and I know I am free. For they will never have my soul and my conscience.
And that is not because of the paper, but because of the timeless intrinsic value and ideals of the words on that paper called our Declaration of Independence that I know I am free by the will of a higher power that no dictator could ever hope to see. Our Founding Fathers for all of their faults also saw this, and tried and succeeded brilliantly in relaying the reality of this concept to the American people who used their freedom of conscience to topple an empire. That is what I celebrate today, and also the truth that I too have that freedom of conscience and am using it today in carrying on a legacy borne 230 years ago.
May that freedom of conscience once again bring us to a rebirth of America, and may those who would seek to thwart that freedom of conscience that is ours alone realize they have failed.
As Thomas Jefferson stated:
"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." --Thomas Jefferson to New London Methodist, 1809.
"The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions." --Thomas Jefferson to Danbury Baptists, 1802.
"We are bound, you, I, and every one to make common cause, even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Dowse, 1803.
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for
himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and himself." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1803.
Happy 4th.