FREEdom is NOT Free

an essay by Hank Beymer


Freedom....it's a capricious word, hard to put a handle on as to just what it means, but even more so it is almost an oxymoron...a word that contradicts itself.

Freedom is many things to many people, and each freedom that a person recognizes, or confesses as "freedom", is usually based on what that person perceives as something they desire. Freedom can mean the ability to go wherever you want whenever you want and do whatever you want. It can mean the right to say whatever you want. It could mean the right to be able to go into any profession desired, or to get a higher education. Freedom is all of those things, and many more besides. But the one thing that freedom is not, is free. There is a price tag attached to freedom, and all that it is, that most today have no comprehension of. There is little appreciation, except on a few occasions by a few people, of the price that has been paid by so many over the past 227 years.

That price came in many forms...money, health, family, life, even liberty...one of the very freedoms that has been sought so diligently, but as Patrick Henry so eloquently put it, "give me liberty, or give me death." The Declaration of Independence bears once again another penetrating look at what it says about us, what it declares for us, and what it demands from us.

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Our founding fathers made several points in this preamble that bear emphasizing during this age and time . First, that there are laws that have been set in place by God, and that these laws are part and parcel of the world that surrounds us. Note that in Romans 1:19, Paul writes "Because that which may be known of God is manifest to them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made...".

The second major point we need to remember is that they, to a man, professed understanding and knowledge of the fact that they had been created, and that there existed One who is in charge of all things, including the passing out of certain rights indigenous to humanity, these being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Once again, our founding fathers made a direct reference to what has been spoken for thousands of years, and is contained in our Holy Bible, the Word of God. Jesus said, in John 10:10, "...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." In Galatians 5:1 we see "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free...". And in Mat. 5:3-12, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus describes what happiness is.

At the end of the Declaration, the assembled men declared their intent and pledge to these principles by saying;

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

These men staked all on what they understood and believed, and placed themselves, their families, lives and fortunes in Gods hands. That they were right in their assessment of Gods Providence, and in placing all in His hands, is evident today, in this United States of America, as it continues to be a beacon of freedom and liberty for all the world to see.

What is also evident is the price that was paid then, and is still being paid, to purchase and maintain that freedom. Following is a description gained from historical documents of what befell some of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners: men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall and straight, and unwavering, they pledged, and delivered on that pledge, deeming it a sacred honor. In the ensuing 227 years, over a million other brave men and women have given all that they had to keep the memory of those patriots, and their dreams, alive, and to allow us today to live and breathe in a freedom that the rest of the world does not know.

This month...this year...keep them in mind, and honor them with your sacred pledge.

Remember: Freedom is never free!