If Freedom Could Be Easily Achieved, Every Nation Would Have It

Every day presents choices for those desiring liberty and freedom to choose it, or make it more unachievable for posterity. Make your choices wisely and leave no question as to where you stand.

Today, Americans (well, most of us) celebrate 249 years of independence, set in motion by the actions of the brave few who believed the New World would bring about a rebirth of freedom for all humanity. I wrote about the courage of those men, many of them young, in last year’s post celebrating Independence Day.

Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Edward Rutledge and Thomas Lynch, Jr., were just 26 years old. The average 26-year-old today isn’t married, lives outside his means, and most likely hasn’t properly established himself as his own man separate from the family he grew up in. Most certainly haven’t spent time studying the ways of the Old World and how tyrannical men came to impose upon natural rights as the founders did.

This isn’t to say that some 26-year-old you know hasn’t done those things. I’m sure you, just like yours truly, know a few standouts or are seeking to raise your own children to be model citizens. Unfortunately, most people have settled to seek security, when it was Benjamin Franklin who said that you can’t have both liberty and security, and if you pursue them both, you’ll receive neither. That’s why people often choose the safe job rather than the pursuit of a dream or choose to run the rat race when they know they’re destined for greater things if using their God-given talents to change the world.

Freedom, the founders knew, was and is rare. We see that truth every day, with the poverty, bloodshed, chaos, tyranny, and lust for power present across every border on Earth. Freedom requires more than just getting by – it requires getting through those who seek to make subjects out of people longing to be free. If tyranny persists long enough, the cost to restore freedom becomes steeper and comes at the cost of much bloodshed.

We all have choices. The founders had relatively good lives, and in some ways, better than we have today. They kept nearly all of their money, built families, ran businesses, attended church, and if successful, bought large estates of uncharted wilderness, which would soon become the American frontier and spawn an entirely new batch of heroes, like Daniel Boone. They wound up rebelling against their kinfolk over a slow and steady series of grievances and the realization that they would never be fairly represented or seen as full citizens of England. Over time, they came to the sad understanding that they were only subjects in a faraway land.

I saw a video recently that urged the viewer to “choose your hard.” The premise of the video is that no matter what you do, all choices have consequences and are therefore hard. It’s hard to be unhealthy, and it’s also hard to take control over your health outcomes. Likewise, it is hard to struggle under tyranny and be viewed as a subject, and also hard to stay awake to current events, be castigated by friends and family, and stand up publicly – often at great cost to business, reputation, and relationships.

Inevitably, whenever I discuss the sacrifice and the urgent need for those of strong resolve to stand up and get busy speaking hard truths, there are excuses made:

· I have young kids

· I can’t lose my job

· When we get done with…

· I’m almost able to retire

All of these reasons, and more, are perfectly rational arguments to delay an action. It is hard to risk things you’ve spent time building; it is also hard to watch society slip away and hand down a worse predicament, with much lower chance of reversal, to your kids and grandkids. I suppose those in the days of the founding could have rationalized that they had every reason to wait until things got worse in the colonies before making their move. It took the British going for the gunpowder to kick off the first actions at Lexington and Concord, and continued pressure and retaliation made the forthcoming Declaration of Independence, announced July 4, 1776, inevitable.

I celebrate the signing of the Declaration not only for its place in history and the resolve of those who signed it, but also out of the stunning appreciation that many who had plenty to lose in a life that had a lot of good things going on were willing to step forward in faith that much better things were to be realized that could create a blueprint for human flourishing and freedom worldwide.

Happy Independence Day.

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Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. He is intent on living life as fully as possible, taking adventures, and finding new ways to appreciate the road less traveled in pursuit of Freedom.