By George Scaggs
As we approach another July 4 I find myself reflecting on the meaning of these words ... Freedom Is
Not Free.
I must admit that Ive spent most of my life believing this simple yet profound phrase pertained only to our nations founders. And of course those who serve in our military.
One readily imagines the brave young men and women who pay the price while the rest of us enjoy the benefits of freedom back home.
Stretching back through time over the 230 years of our nations history and beyond the sanctity of so many who have sacrificed so much for our freedom is all at once humbling and awe-inspiring. May their roles in shaping America and defending her people never be diminished let us never forget them.
Obviously our heroes past & present deserve our utmost gratitude. I have come to believe they deserve more than that.
Judging by the number of citizens who have taken on lets say certain civic responsibilities in the last few years or less I am not alone.
For many the phrase Freedom is Not Free has come to take on additional meaning. Increasingly people are learning that maintaining their freedom takes work. Most of those citizens are best described as the tea partiers" we hear so
much about.
People have long been involved in grass-roots activism but over the last 1-2 years the growth in the number of participants and the extent of participation has been of historical proportions. Just ask one of the millions of citizen patriots who have stepped forward in that time. They cant be too hard to find.
A growing number of Americans are making a conscious decision to alter their lives offering time energy and money to push back against what they see as a relentless increasingly intrusive government. While generally good-natured kind and generous these are passionate intelligent and determined men and women.
They spend less time relaxing and recreating perhaps less time with their families than they used to.
Instead they are taking action educating themselves preparing and planning. Most know they are in for a long-term battle.
Some realize it will last for the remainder of their life.
They do so in the name of protecting and defending the ideas and concepts they hold dear freedom among them. If this citizens struggle is anything it is about their productive way of life and their personal liberty. It is on behalf of mans inalienable rights our constitution and its principles.
Freedom is always at risk. There are and will always be enemies of freedom internal and external alike.
As many Americans are learning today those threats come in more forms and from more directions than can be accounted for. A notorious recent example
is our right to choose whether or not we purchase health insurance.
The more ones eyes are opened the more they tend to get involved.
Once they understand the source and nature of freedom the more they thirst for it. This is not wacky ignorant or wrong it is the natural state of man.
When self-determination and freedom are threatened people will push back. This trait should be admired and applauded not mocked or ridiculed.
After all this is Americanism in its purest essence its what we do. It is ingrained in our psyche emblematic of the spirit of those who handed us this magnificent experiment which guaranteed man more freedom than he has ever known.
That freedom is not arbitrary. It was earned and then guaranteed by the Constitution.
For freedom to flourish it is the integrity of that noble document that must be protected and maintained. Otherwise rather than the winners of lifes lottery ultimately Americans might find themselves in hell-holes not unlike Haiti Somalia or North Korea.
For those who decry the actions of todays citizen patriots I must ask where would you rather be ... where there is less freedom perhaps? I think not.
Whether the naysayers realize it or not less freedom is precisely what they advocate.
Freedom rests in the hearts of all men but Freedom Is
Not Free.
George Scaggs is a sales professional voice actor writer commentator musician & liberty-loving patriot from a suburb of Austin Texas.
