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Jewish World Review July 4, 2013/ 27 Tamuz, 5773 Independence Day plus 237 By Cal Thomas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." -- Freedom is not the default position of humankind; otherwise more would be free. In much of the world, dictatorship, religious persecution and the suppression of women are the norm. Freedom has a price. Its currency is the blood of those who paid the bill. They can be found at Arlington, Normandy and scores of other places of rest where Americans died so that others might live in freedom. If a nation is unwilling to pay the price for freedom, freedom dies. As Threats to freedom come not just from foreign powers or domestic terrorists. Subtler enemies can enslave us. These come from a focus on self: my rights, my pleasures, my money, to the exclusion of what benefits the whole, or as the Founders put it, "promotes the general welfare."
Who in our increasingly fractured country speaks of the general welfare? We are now mostly subsumed into groups. Identity politics is replacing our national identity. We are hyphenated Americans, divided by language, gender, race, class and orientation. Few are willing to stand up and point the way to what should unify us by embracing what is objectively right and good. Any political leader who attempts to define right and good can be subjected to an attack ad and stereotyping. We are hastily exchanging real freedom for license, which is unfettered morality and as dangerous as setting sail without a rudder. At best, freedom ought to be about doing good for one's self, and especially for others. Sacrifice does not always require one to give up something. It can also lead to an investment in the life of another person, which collectively contributes to the health of the nation. It goes beyond paying taxes. It is, as What does that mean? At the least it should reflect the words from one of our great patriotic hymns: "Who more than self their country loved."
Find one poor person who wants help and liberate them from poverty. If you are pro-life, volunteer at a women's pregnancy help center to save babies and help women, freeing them from the difficult circumstances that cause many to seek an abortion. If you think government is too big, become more responsible for yourself and rely less on That which constrains us from being seduced by our lower nature is what guarantees our freedom. For some it is Scripture. For all Americans it should be the Constitution. In 1878, British statesman That document flowed from the Declaration of Independence, which presumed the existence of "our Creator," the ultimate source of freedom and our rights. Abandoning these threatens freedom. On this, the 237th birthday of America, we would do well to remember the meaning of freedom and why it must be renewed by every generation if it is to endure.
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JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2011, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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