The Price of Freedom

Consider for a moment freedom as a greedy banker. It does not sell the country perpetual security, liberty and happiness, it loans those qualities at a high rate of investment, and it does not allow default. We must make payments regularly. For over two hundred years, we have paid freedom in installments of over one million lives lost in war. Freedom demands family separation as a premium rate for duty – war. Freedom takes as collateral a troop’s mental health. Freedom charges many service members and arm and a leg. And freedom compounds anguish and sorrow, suffering and grief when it demands the highest price in blood and life. In our history, we stood against the world’s greatest military and political power and won independence. The fledgling nation’s determination to remain united and bring about emancipation to the enslaved people of our country took place on the battlefields of the Civil War. In WWI and WWII, with our allies, we faced down kings, tyrants and dictators who, at the expense of all that is good in humanity, attempted to turn the world into a wasteland of subservience and oppression. The Korean War saw America’s resolve tested again only five years after the end of World War II, and again, America arbitrated for democracy. Though we did not fully understand the reason for fighting in Vietnam, when the nation turned to its young people to fight again, they marched forward into war. The Cold War witnessed opposing ideologies of communism and dictatorship vs self-destiny and democracy. Through perseverance, self-destiny and democracy prevailed. From the jungles and rice patties of the Far East to the sand dunes and deserts of the Middle East, the cities of Europe, the plains and villages of North Africa, the shores of the Americas, men and women of uniforms gone, and uniforms worn today have borne and continue to bear the price freedom demands. Tombstones, monuments and flags seemingly whisk by through car windows as we travel down the roads and through the towns of America. We notice how well manicured the cemeteries are, how gleaming the iconic granite colonnades with rows of names appear in the sun, how proudly the flag waves in the breeze. What we do not take time to see is that these are the receipts we paid in exchange for our freedom, and we have paid dearly the greedy banker who issued those receipts.