Independence Day

Freedom is hard work. I think we forget that. I know we forget that.

Most of us know nothing about what it is to yearn for freedom. Pray for it. Fight for it. On our televisions, we see people in places all around the world protesting in their streets. Seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Their families. Their neighbors and friends.

And then we go to our local Starbucks and order another latte, and maybe a bagel. We drive home in our own car to our own house, and our streets are clear. There are no troops. There are no protesters. There is no civil unrest.

We are safe.

We don’t know what freedom feels like to someone who has never had it. We can’t know. We just can’t. Even our military, our soldiers who have served in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam and Korea, really don’t understand what it feels like, because they were raised here. But they have seen the yearning at close proximity. And they have been there, supporting the cause. And they understand the cost that must be paid.

The last generation of Americans who really understood was that which fought for civil rights from World War II though to the 1960s. Thurgood Marshall. Medgar Evers. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackie Robinson. Rosa Parks. So many, many others. They understood the price. They paid it. They earned their freedoms. And in earning their freedoms, they secured ours as well.

For most of us, though, those of us who either did not serve or those (like me) who served in peacetime, freedom is a given. We take it for granted. It is like the air we breathe. And in those circumstances where freedom is not perfect, where discrimination exists or bigotry continues, we have recourse. We can sue. We can protest. We can organize.

In New York State, gay Americans now have the right to marry. It is a continuing step towards a perfect freedom; but it is not freedom itself. Freedom itself was the recognition that there was disparity of treatment under law, and the ability to affect change. Without freedom, the subject never could have been raised, much less addressed. Not only would there be no right to marry, there would have been no discussion allowed. The subject would be settled. Closed.

Our debt to those who fought for our freedoms and spent their lives and fortunes is immense. We cannot hope to repay them. But what we can do is nurture the gift they gave us. Use it. Avail ourselves of its protections. And NEVER allow anyone – not government, not our fellow citizens, not nearby or distant states – to take it, abridge it, or deny our use of it under any circumstances or for any purpose.

Freedom is hard work. Please, today and into the future, remember that.

And remember the people who gave it to us.