I have watched quietly as many have offered 4th of July best wishes to all their friends while, concurrently, thanking those who serve in the military for our freedom. As I listen to/read the expressions of others, I am saddened by the profound misunderstanding of our freedom and the nature of our existence as we construct it.
Anyone who assumes that the government grants rights or that we have rights because of the military have failed to learn the lesson of the founding fathers. We have the rights expressed in the first 10 amendments to the constitution not because the founding fathers were gracious enough to grant them, but because, as humans, we possess those rights by virtue of our existence. No one can grant them. We possess them as we are, for good or ill.
It is like Buddha nature. We all have it as a result of our simple existence. Whether or not we actualize it is dependent our our ability to not be deluded by the 10,000 straw dogs that distract us from whom we are. Freedom is not the product of an entity’s largess, but a fundamental characteristic of our existence as humans.
The military protects the sovereignty and the integrity of our borders, and for that, I am grateful. But they do not grant rights that are inalienable to my existence. They repulse others who would interfere with those rights. The members of congress are bound by their oaths to not interfere with my freedom, but to establish laws to insure that the inherent rights I possess are not restricted by the actions of the government. The question is whether or not the government should act to broaden our opportunities to act upon our freedom or to allow some citizens to act upon their freedom at the expense of the freedom of others.
It has been five months since I lost my nephew while he was in service to this country. His sacrifice was not in vain as long as I cherish my freedom as an element of my existence. The moment I surrender it to the government or the military as a privilege, I have sullied the memory of his service and I am no longer a free man.
I am free because I am human. Not because of the government nor the military. We all have rights because they are inalienable elements of our existence, not because of the generosity of an other. To be the free person you are is the greatest act of thankfulness you can show to those who have given their lives to protect the sovereignty of our country.
1 thought on “Intimations of the 4th”