On...Eternal Liberty

The Fourth of July is tomorrow and in honor of our 233rd birthday I have written a small piece on Liberty.

Eternal Liberty

Mark A Trexler

Eleven score and thirteen years ago our fathers in liberty shaped on this continent a new world—a republic to enlighten and enrich mankind. Rejecting the tyranny and monarchy of a centralized power they reached deep into antiquity to usher in a new age of reason and humanity. More importantly they hitched our future onto the radical truth that all men are created equal. Not equal in ability or talent but in birth and law. Men and women would live their life free of despotism and pursue their happiness in the way they choose, free from the whims and decrees of kings and dictators. Happiness wasn’t guaranteed, failure sat next to success as equals, but the choice to pursue one’s own fate through freewill was a centerpiece of the republic. Knowing that men were not angels and would never live in an idealized utopia and also knowing that anarchy was a twisted cousin of freedom, they fashioned a government, for the people and by the people, limited in scope, but strong at heart to maintain our precious and fragile natural rights. That government, always run by men and not by angels, has been far from perfect—it too has momentarily succumb to the will and corruption of selfish interests and the mania of war, but has always righted the ship with modernization and hardship. The continual restoration of our traditions, our humanity, and our government is never done. Folly is ensured to those people who embrace the lightly proferred laurel, the easy, ungrudged praise.

Across the decades we as a people have struggled and travailed to live up to the maxim all men are created equal—a task each generation seizes and battles. We have nobly won great advancements, we have cauterized the original sin of slavery, and widened the franchise of suffrage, but we have let slip the other half of the equation, no less in value. And that is the notion of liberty—the freedom to live one’s life without the burden of others dictations, freedom from coercion of the bayonet, and freedom from the manipulation and caprice and impulses of so-called great and powerful men. When individuals and communities, through reason and spirit can govern the republic we will flourish as we have for hundreds of years. When the shackles and lash of oppression are given reign, however slowly, we must be ever vigilant to strike down dangers to the republic, especially those that initially seem like benefits of the greater good.

I ask all Americans and future Americans to remember on this Fourth of July the long-standing faiths of our blessed nation—those natural rights and national values that are more than mere dusty words from bygone eras. Our liberties have long ago given us power, but only if we trust in them and maintain them and use them in our daily lives. Once embraced we can forever dip into that stream of liberty cascading across the ages and refresh our government and ourselves. We must remember that all of this, large and small, is no accident. Through our collective freewill we make choices that herald the future. Let us make those choices wise and fruitful ones. Bear in mind we always have the opportunity for disastrous lapses in judgment as well as bold deeds and exceptional achievements. We must hold tight our convictions and conserve the lifeblood of our revolution—a moment in time when we cast off tyranny and the dictations of faraway kings through suffering and sacrifice and established here, on this soil, a republic cast in justice, nurtured in equality, and conceived in eternal liberty.

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