“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” Benjamin Franklin

We are faced with a loss of genuine liberty in America today, mostly in the name of “protection from terrorism”. I guess I see two reasons for that, in my simple mind. The first is that we are an ignorant people for the most part, informed largely through 15 second sound bites and the compelling rhetoric of those with no real knowledge of any given subject. The second being that we live in a comfortable world for the most part. Giving up liberties is easy when you take the explanation of a politician as Gospel.
Will Rogers said “ Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.”. Speeches are how we learn from our politicians and other leaders for the most part, rather than by examining their actions and analyzing them against history. At the founding of our nation, John Adams said “There is a danger from all men. The only maxim of free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” His point was that congress should keep an eye on the President, and that the courts should keep an eye on all of them. Unless we arm ourselves with at least a basic understanding of liberty’s history and with a genuine critical eye toward all that our government does, we will probably lose the most precious thing that is liberty.
What seems like liberty to many is really the warm comfort of our affluence. That comfort allows us to believe that liberty abounds when really it is slowly being removed and replaced by thin arguments of safety. D.H. Lawrence wrote “Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.” I think this is really what is happening. Great men drawn from the heart and soul of our nation’s people fought wars and participated in the government that created a nearly universal liberty for most. Since then we are letting it slip away by not being part of that government, not being willing to fight, and by shielding ourselves with that blanket of affluent comfort. Can this continue to the point that the generations are enslaved and will need to fight to gain what we gave up without so much as a thought? The Patriot Act is only one such encroachment, but one we can defeat and gain back some liberty for that coming generation. The real work though, is to become a part of what liberty really is and live it. James Madison said “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” He was right, and this truth still holds today.

Remembering Thomas Paine

There are a few people in the history of America that are often quoted but not really remembered. Thomas Paine is one of them. I was reminded of that last week in a DAV meeting when my friend Terry mentioned him while lamenting the current state of politics in America. Probably my favorite quote is this:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value." These words were printed in The Crisis on December 23, 1776. No truer words have been written.

Politicians are these summer soldiers, patriots only when the sun shines favorably on them. They live in the shadows of fear, not willing to put the moral courage into their convictions.