The Obtaining, Cost, and Loss, of Freedom

Here in America we have been attacked almost constantly.

Attacks on our Economy and Government and the American way of life have occurred numerous times in history.

While those were the specifics of the attacks, they were mainly attacking our Freedom.

Defending our freedom is a choice we make, yet so many Americans take it for granted and seem to forget the high cost we have paid, and that while our Freedoms are being fought for and preserved on the foreign front, they are being gradually taken away on the domestic front.

Attacks on America...

The 9/11 attacks were not just mere attacks on some buildings, they were attacks on the American way of Life.

The terrorists tried to do so by instilling a fear in the American people, a fear of flying.

This in turn, affected our economy negatively.

Our economy plays a vital role in the American way of life.

We can see that throughout history.

One of the most common analogies would be the great depression. Our economy collapsed which resulted in unemployment for many of the American people, which negatively affected the American way of life.

While we didn't go into a Depression after 9/11, our economy did suffer. Not only did it suffer, it was attacked.

The World Trade Centers stood for free trade and capitalism, which is Part of the fiscal American culture.

By hitting those buildings they temporarily shut down our economy.

However, free trade and capitalism were not the only things that were attacked. Our government was too.

The investigative office was attacked, and there was believed to have been an attempted attack on our Legislative branch.

Had both gotten hit, it would have been detrimental to our society.

Both of those offices are important to the American culture.

The investigative department was a key attack because they gather intelligence to help counter terrorist attacks.

The legislative branch-had the terrorists gone unstopped-would also have been a key attack because that branch helps to keep the Executive branch in check by:

Making sure that it isn't overstepping its bounds, or by keeping pieces of legislation that shouldn't be considered, from reaching the Executive branch.

Choices

Ronald Reagan truthfully said "Freedom is a fragile thing and is only one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation for it only comes once to a people. Those who have known freedom and lost it have never known it again."

Which means, each generation has a choice to make. Do we defend our Freedom-even if it means acting unilaterally- or do we back down?

That is the question each generation has been faced with, and has answered.

We ourselves were faced with that decision most recently in the 9/11 attacks. We could have done one of two things.

We could have acted in fear (like Spain did after the Madrid bombings) and responded how the terrorists wanted us to.

While clinging on to whatever promise the terrorists made in order to satisfy us, while they proceeded to cripple the country.

However, instead of backing down like Spain, we took the initiative, and went on the offense.

The only course of action we could have taken-besides cowardice- was war.

A few days after 9/11 President Bush went to ground zero and gave the 30 second pep talk that made Americans proud.

" I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people that attacked these buildings are going to hear from all of us soon"

That speech united a Nation –well for a little while anyway- On that day, our generation chose, once again to defend our freedom.

Our freedom is not even close to being free! Millions of American soldiers have died just so you and I can have the freedom to say what we want to.

From the American war for independence, to Afghanistan, to Iraq, our military has always remembered that freedom costs us millions of lives to obtain, and we can't let those hero's lives be lost in vain.

Our military are not the only ones who have risked their lives for others.

On September 11^th 2001, United Airlines flight 93 originally destined to San-Francisco was merely an hour on its way when Hijackers-armed with box cutters decided to take over the cockpit.

Then several strong young men decided to rush the Hijackers. The plane crashed killing those on board, but those heroes saved many other lives that day.

They sacrificed their lives, so that others could live free.

While freedom is mainly measured in lives lost, there is also a very distinct financial cost.

Trillions of dollars has been spent on defending our freedom abroad.

The fact that to THIS DAY people are STILL fighting, and there are more preparing to defend our freedom makes, this already priceless gift, even more valuable.

Though we do have people defending our freedom abroad, we have to remember that it can be taken away.

Historically, when we believed that something couldn't possibly happen, it did.

For example:

Everyone declared the titanic unsinkable, and it sunk.

After the war to end all wars-world war one- there was another.

We saw the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as our barriers which no man would cross, and Japan crossed the Pacific in World War 2, and the Terrorists crossed the Atlantic on 9/11.

Now, many Americans have the tendency to think that our freedom is something that can not be taken away.

But unless we're ready to defend it, it can.

The sad thing is, that while our freedoms ARE being preserved and fought for on our foreign front, they are slowly but surely being taken away on the domestic front.

There have been many attacks on our freedom, not only by terrorists, but by our own public schools and Supreme Court!

In the book Persecution by David Limbaugh, there was a true story in there about a kindergartener named Antonio Pecks.

He was working on a school assignment, which was to draw a picture on how we can help the environment.

The first picture he had was a picture of Jesus saying "the only way to save the world" and "love changes things".

Of course, he wasn't allowed to use THAT picture because it had Christ in it. So the teacher had him draw another one, in the second one he had a picture of people picking up trash and an unidentified figure in the middle with his arms raised to heaven.

The teacher agreed to put this picture on display ONLY IF the figure in the middle was folded over.

The family sued for religious discrimination and denial of free speech.

Not only are our 1^st amendment rights (the freedom of religion and freedom of speech) being attacked, but our 10^th amendment is constantly being usurped by the federal government.

The tenth amendment says: those rights not delegated to federal government, nor prohibited by it to the state, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.

Recently the US Supreme Court passed something called eminent domain.

Eminent domain basically means that if a developer wanted to build on your private property they can, WITHOUT your consent, if they can prove it will benefit the county.

That particular ruling not only undermines the 10^th amendment (because that issue should be decided on a State by State basis) it also undermines your right to own property, and keep it.

This is happening right under our noses, and we don't even NOTICE IT!!!!!!!

So what, the federal government is overstepping its bounds, but that's nothing new, it does it all the time, it hasn't hurt me, why should we care?

Lets focus for a minute, on the 2^nd amendment, the right to own and bear arms.

Imagine that one day a criminal came to YOUR house.

You both are armed, he –not wanting to risk being identified, takes out his gun to shoot- you're faster and shoot in self defense.

Then YOU are the one that ends up being arrested, because the court just ruled that the 2^nd amendment is no longer constitutional.

Now lets move on the 7^th amendment, the right to a trial by jury.

Lets say, that your grandma had to go to the Dr. because she had a stroke. The Doctor knows this, but doesn't acknowledge it.

Instead of treating her for the stroke, he gives her blood thinner, which causes hemorrhages in the brain, and she ends up dying.

You and the Dr. BOTH know that blood thinner causes a hemorrhage, so you go to sue, but you can't because the dr. is federally protected.

You lost your right to a trial by jury.

I already brought up a story about our first amendment, but to really touch base. What if something similar happened to you?

Imagine that one day you go to Church, and right in the middle of the worship service, the police came and arrested your pastor because what he was preaching did not line up with what the government believed.

Now our first re-action should be, wait! That's COMMUNIST!!!!!!! That can't happen in America! We defeated communism in the cold war!

But it IS happening in America.

Slowly and steadily, Our freedoms are being taken away by Supreme Court decisions, right under the nose of the American people.

Ronald Reagan once said that "We stand here, on the only island of freedom that is left in the whole world. There is no place to flee to...no place to escape to. We defend our freedom here, or it is gone. There is no place for us to run. Only make a stand, and if we fail, I think we face telling our children, and our children's children, what it is we found more precious than freedom. Because I am sure that someday-if we fail- there will be a generation that will ask"

What we need is the next generation to rise up and fill the voids in our government, State, Local, and Federal, to change for the better.

Don't let this generation be the one that loses our freedom by forgetting. Let our generation be the one that remembers, we are the only island of freedom left in the world, if we lose it here, it is gone.

Let us never forget!