Many years ago, the community in which I grew up decided to end sponsorship of the ever-popular Independence Day festivities and hand over the reins to a private enterprise that promised ‘bigger and better.’ The company hired a conductor to lead a symphony that played patriotic classics in an intimate setting much of the day, while the throngs assembled in parks, pitched tents, barbecued, and waited for the spectacular fireworks finale. The show brought in experienced pyrotechnic crews to design new crowd-pleasing effects. The experience was coordinated in such a way that each blast would synchronize to the beat and tune of a selection of patriotic music on the radio.
It wasn’t long before the crowds began bringing portable radios to blast loud enough for everyone within fifty feet to hear. All were tuned to the same station. The private company that took over the show paid sponsorship money to the radio station to (improve) the experience. This change was a nuisance at first. I was a fireworks purist, there for the dazzling explosions in the sky. The words of the radio personalities always remained inconsequential to me, yet I remember a singular word that was repeated more times than the constant thump-thump of large shells being hurled into the air at frightening speeds. The word was ‘freedom.’
The words and phrases used always wrought subtle questions that I didn’t really begin to explore until much later in life. Being young and independent, I once subscribed to the misguided idea that freedom was a myth—part of some elaborate scheme to herd the general population into a specific line of thinking. My view was that the radio programming was literally attempting to program our minds.
The naivety of that belief didn’t dawn on me until many years later, when I realized that freedom was not merely some word invented to frighten Americans into compliance. Instead, the abstract concept of freedom requires a point-of-view to help shape the definition of the word for each of us.
The general idea of freedom suggests that each of us is free to make his or her own decisions, to think rationally and creatively, and to express the thing that makes each of us tick.
These days, I find a great misunderstanding of the first amendment to the constitution of the United States. Freedom of speech means that we are free to express our beliefs without reprisal from the government. Too many figure on a literal, individualistic idea of that guarantee, thus twisting it into the notion that a person can say whatever he or she wants without another person coming down on them for a hurtful opinion. Then, we start to complain that the other person wants to curtail our freedom of speech. According to my understanding, your freedom does not negate that of anyone else. In short, others have the right to question your ideals, no matter what they are. This right also extends to private companies like the one I discussed in the first paragraphs of this post.
Our freedom of ideas has always been held in high esteem. The society we enjoy today was built on it. Creativity spawns more creativity and the exchange of ideas constantly seeks to make the world around us a better place to inhabit.
American writer Elbert Hubbard said that “Freedom cannot be bestowed—it must be achieved.”
The constitution did not give us the right to speak our minds. We had to fight for that. Before the first shots of the Revolutionary War, before Paul Revere’s famous ride, we were the property of Great Britain. The idea behind the Declaration of Independence was illegal. The British considered it treason (another word that is being tossed about recklessly these days). On July 2, 1776, our forefathers devised a document that would be the impetus behind our Revolution. That document ultimately led us to liberate ourselves from the clutches of an oppressive government. It established one large “autonomous zone,” free of government interference. If our land was not to enjoy a government for the people, by the people, and of the people, the Declaration would never have gotten us far and our fight for independence may have ultimately ended in defeat.
The early leaders of our nation then began to model our constitution, which was based on the ideas of a Frenchman named Montesquieu and earlier, an ancient Greek revolution. Circa 508 B.C., the Athenians established a new order based on the Greek word demos—meaning “the people,” and thus, democracy was born.
The democracy we enjoy in the United States today hardly resembles the ancient Greek version. Instead, we built a representative democracy, which let us elect people to represent our interests in Congress. The ancient Greeks used to employ a clever method of term limits for those elected to hold power. Every so often, the people of Athens would gather in a public square and write names of leaders they felt that power had corrupted on fragments of pottery or shell—an ostrakon—after which said citizens were banished, or “ostracized” from the city.
Sadly, our founders did not think it prudent to establish term limits.
Our leaders, once they have served a certain amount of time, tend to forget that the people chose them for a reason. After three or four terms, these politicians begin to represent only their own interests.
Famed philosopher Socrates commonly sought to teach Athenians how to think for themselves by asking them a series of questions. He famously noted, “To find yourself, think for yourself.” Later on, Socrates was put on trial and ultimately executed for endangering the public with fanciful thinking.
What Socrates urged remains true today. To find our own purpose, our own voice, or our own conscience, we need to break away from the ideas our leaders push upon us, and instead push upon them our ideas. Our freedom depends on us “to petition the government for a redress of grievances” whenever we see the need. And if our representatives truly seek to represent us, they should listen to the voices of the aggrieved. Without that key phrase, our foundation of freedom would collapse.
Next time you see the “bombs bursting in air,” be it tomorrow or next Independence Day, I invite you to divine deeper meaning for the words and phrases we take for granted today. If we do not question those whom are to serve us, we give up our freedom little by little, until a day when we realize we are no longer a free country.