According to my Ronald Reagan wall calendar, today is National Freedom Day. Established in 1948 by President Harry S. Truman, National Freedom Day commemorates the signing of the Thirteenth Amendment by President Abraham Lincoln.

But Freedom is so much more than the abolition of slavery. We no longer buy and sell men and women like cattle. We are told that each person is guaranteed his or her Freedom. Yet, are we really and truly "free" in 2011 America?

I think not. We are beholden, not to an overbearing taskmaster, but to the federal behemoth. The nameless, faceless, soulless bureacracy saps our strength and erodes our will. There is no aspect of our life which is too trivial for the government to regulate.

President Reagan spoke to our disappearing freedom during one of his weekly radio addresses to the nation.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction," he said. "We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

It is up to us to impart the love of liberty to our children. Government schools won't do that; they teach conformity and obeisance to the state. Why? Because being a sheep is easier than choosing to chart one's own course. And so the erosion of our freedom continues. To counter it we must stand firm, resolute in the face of progressive pressure, because in the end the claimed benevolence of our masters will inevitably devolve into tyranny.

Every day ought to be National Freedom Day. Our freedom is too precious to be trotted out for merely one day a year, exhibited like a curiosity before being tucked away for safekeeping. Use it, or lose it, and remember above all that Freedom isn't free.



Posted at 10:32 by Chris Wysocki [/odds_n_ends] Comments | Perm Link | | Tweet