Independence Day 2

       

Well, I was a bit intense in my last post.  After the MSNBC event, I was even amazed at my own disgust for the man.  However, today is a new day, and an important one at that!

Today is the anniversary of our declaration as a free people.  What does ‘free’ mean, really?

Clearly we all have to follow rules.  A civilized society requires that we be governed by a set of laws that affect everyone equally.  But more than that, what is the essence of the freedom that we have here that is so hard to duplicate or find in the rest of the world?

So, I started thinking about the course of my life….what kind of life have I lived for almost 70 years so far? 

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When I was in grammar school at St. Cloud Elementary in West Orange, New Jersey in the 1950s, the memory I keep coming back to are those classic portraits by Norman Rockwell of the Four Freedoms.  The school had large prints of those four pieces hung in the assembly auditorium where we all would go from time to time for various events and gatherings.  I remember those portraits in great detail.  Those images are still burned into my mind.  They somehow always made our lives here singular and special---Remember them?

Freedom from Want

What bounty!  Every time I sit down with my family and there is a table full of food and smiling people, I see that image of people laughing, smiling and ...not hungry!

        I especially remembered the expressions on those faces….Rockwell was such a master!  My favorite was the Freedom of Speech.  The man who was speaking represented Abe Lincoln for me as a child—he even looked sort of like him.  But the face that I remember most was the man sitting just to the left of ‘Abe’.  He was looking up at the speaker and his face said “You are lucky to have this moment, young man!  Speak wisely!”

        

And what about Worship?  Can you tell what religion is being depicted?  Could be anything, right?

But most meaningful perhaps is the Freedom from Fear.  

Do you remember the headlines in the newspaper the father was holding?....all you can make out is “Bombings and Horror”  Those headlines could be today’s headlines, but still the innocence of the children is amplified by the love and protection provided by the parents.  That made me appreciate the freedom my parents gave to me as a young child.  That was my Mom and Dad.

All through my life as I became witness to all the things that I lived through, I kept those images in my mind’s eye.  I applied them over and over. 

This is what our Freedom means to me.

As we celebrate this 241^st anniversary of our Independence, I urge all of you to remember what these images depict and promise.. to ALL Americans.  Our founding fathers wanted these freedoms for all our citizens.  Have they successfully insured that legacy for all of us?

I think we have a way to go before we can honestly say ‘yes’ to that question, but the ideal of that America is something I cherish and hope for every day…..and so should you!

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