Freedom fighting
In my more recent adult years, July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, has always been an interesting one for me. It’s a bit, at least on the surface, and if I am being honest, hard to relate to.
That feels like a risky and privileged thing to say, I know. It is.
I wonder sometimes if that is a bit of a generational thing. I suspect that those in my generation who have served in the armed forces themselves, or have family who do, see it differently than me. Because they see and experience the very tangible ways that they, or their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles and cousins make daily sacrifices to ensure the freedom from tyranny our country was born out of continues.
While I know that they are doing what they are doing, and am profoundly thankful for it, it’s more of a head knowledge than a heart knowledge. It doesn’t permeate my every living day in the way it does theirs. And so my experience with it is just different.
The wars that the U.S. has been involved in in my lifetime are so much more hidden from plain view than they used to be. I suspect society prefers it that way. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. That many men and women continue to sacrifice daily for my freedom to live without the worry of someone or some power trying to wrestle it away.
There are other wars, too, that rage on all around me. Day in and day out. Wars that don’t involve our country sending armed forces to do battle or to keep the peace.
Wars like: poverty, racism, nationalism, sexism, addiction, pandemic. There are battle lines that define the sides. There are winners and losers. There are weapons. There’s collateral damage.
These wars have stood the test of time. They were raging in the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the Iraq War. They continue to rage today.
It seems to me that if we could somehow manage to end those wars that maybe we wouldn’t find ourselves in new military wars that will get a name and be added to the history texts of the future.
Freedom is at the heart of the hidden wars, too. Freedom to be ourselves as we were created to be and freedom from judgment – both self-judgment and the judgment of others – seem to me to be the freedoms that are most elusive but also the most foundational to a healthy and free society.
Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind. In the parable, the despised and unclean Samaritan was the only person who showed empathy and kindness toward a left-for-dead traveler at a time when the Jews (those who were gathered to hear the parable) and Samaritans were sworn enemies. Jesus ends the parable by telling those who were listening to “go and do likewise.”
Before we humans can do, though, we have to think. At least I do.
For me that means cultivating and nurturing a daily practice of thinking about freedom not just in terms of the kind that is won through major wars or well-crafted diplomacy. I have to drill down to freedom at its most elemental level – the freedom to live and let live, and to treat and be treated, as the beloved children of God – or whatever name you give to the Creator – that we all are.
When I start with those freedoms, and take seriously my individual role in passing them on, then celebrating freedom becomes something I can much better relate to. Because then it’s not just something in my head I think about, but it becomes something in my heart that I do.
One act of freedom fighting at a time.
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On Further Thought
War takes its toll on the veterans who shoulder the heaviest of its burdens. The incidence of suicide by U.S. Veterans has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. According to the 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report
