Where Our Freedom Comes From
By Doug Hagin (03/15/06)
Americans love their freedom; they love to talk about it, revel in it, embrace it, and of course, make use of it. How many of us, though, really take the time to reflect upon the sources of our freedom? How many of us truly ponder why, we, as Americans are as free as we are?
Now in answer to the questions listed above, I would wager that Americans who subscribe to a conservative view are likely to be more attuned to where our freedom comes from. Now, this is not to say Liberals cannot or do not grasp or appreciate why we are free. It is to say, however, that it surely seems that Americans on the right are far more realistic about where our freedom originates, and who defends it.
It seems to me that Liberals tend to embrace freedom as a given, that it is just there, with no source at all. In a way they are correct, freedom is the natural state for human beings. They are created to be free. Ah, but there is the first major differ! ence in how the left and right see our freedoms. Those Americans on the right, even if they are not particularly religious, have no problem agreeing with Thomas Jefferson that we were all created with certain rights no government can take away.
Some Americans on the left can also admit this without undue stress. There are many on the left, though, that refuse to acknowledge such a possibility. For them, to even utter the word Creator is somehow a violation of their right to religious freedom. They do not see that America is a free nation because our Founders believed in a Creator that bestowed upon us all our inalienable liberties. Their right to not believe in a Creator exists because they were created with it. That is something many on the left absolutely refuse to accept.
For them, their fear of any mention or acceptance of anything even remotely Christian or religious, is so blinding they are unable to see that without the Creator they would not have rel! igious freedom, yes even the freedom to not be religious. Quite an odd quandary they find themselves in. They are free to believe anything they wish, yet they cannot bring themselves to admit the source of that freedom.
The second major area where the left and right do not tend to see our freedom the same concerns the Founding Fathers. Both those on the left and right, often quote these brave men. It is the right, however, which more readily identifies the Founders as heroic figures who risked everything they have to form a new nation, a nation that took the liberties men are created with and sought to guarantee and protect those rights.
Too often those on the left look upon these same men as a bunch of White men, a symbol of evil patriarchy. They see the as a bunch of slave owners. They see them as men who founded America, not to secure God-given rights but to secure greater wealth for themselves. Now, how can people who look upon the Founders with such dis! dain really appreciate the freedom these men helped secure for all Americans?
Yes, some were slave owners; yes, they created a nation where not everyone was, at that time equal. They did, though, also create the same nation that is, today, a land where everyone is equal and free. The left apparently cannot see past the fact that these heroes were imperfect and not politically correct enough. They refuse to consider where our freedoms would be today were it not for the Washington’s, Madison’s, Franklins, Adams, Hamilton’s, Jefferson’s, and Monroe’s.
There is a third chasm of appreciation of our liberties between left and right. The right is very aware that our liberty first comes from God. Secondly, that liberty was secured in the constitution our Founders gave us. Thirdly, Conservatives recognize with absolute certainty that those liberties bestowed by God, and secured by the Founders, would be non-existent without the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who ha! ve fought, and died to defend them.
Not to say the left does not recognize this fact, but it is those on the left who always seem more eager to defame our troops, to protest the wars they must wage, to question their effectiveness, and to under fund them. It is the left, which always is prepared to predict failure for our armed forces. It is always the left that questions the wisdom of Americas’ military might. It is the left, which trots out words like imperialism and arrogance to characterize our military might. There is a very good reason the left is looked upon as weak on national defense, their record shows them to be weak on it.
Apparently, they cannot come to grips with the ugly truth, that the only true peace to be had must be achieved and maintained through strength. America is free because of military might. Evil regimes exist; the Soviet Union would have forced us to live as they chose had we not been stronger than they were. The Soviets knew! to face America meant their destruction.
The left still refuses to accept the reality of the peace through strength ideology. Somehow they are deluded enough to believe by being weak, and non-threatening, we can assure peace. That course, would lead to our destruction and an end to our liberty. The left cannot see this.
Do both the left and right love our liberty? Yes, but the left seems unwilling to recognize the source, God, those who founded America on liberty, the Founders, or those who defend it, our armed forces.
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