Our little online community here, the place where we congress at our leisure to gripe, complain, laugh, explore, learn, and make friends; is a fine example of one of our American Freedoms. The freedom of free assembly.
It is important that Americans take a time out once in a while to understand and remember that this great country of ours was once a grand and unique experiment. There was nothing like the idea that is The United States of America on the face of the world before its formation. A country founded on the will of its people, for its people, and by its people. With unheard of freedoms guaranteed at its founding, and hard-earned freedoms gained as the young country grew.
It is important to remember because it is easy to become complacent in the comfort that those Americans that came before us fought, bled, worked, slaved, and died for. And not just here. Americans have fought and died in and for foreign lands to protect the idea of freedom from very real tyranny and oppression. Those Americans will never come home; those that died to protect the homes of strangers.
But on this, the 7th anniversary of the attacks of 9.11.2001, we should take pause and be rightly stirred by the memory. It was a poignant and tragic reminder that there will always be those that hate freedom and wish its end. There are those that do not care what you think, and only seek your submission for their ends. And, horribly, there are those that simply want the world to burn. It is a reminder of the price of freedom: Eternal vigilance.
So as we lose ourselves in the petty complaints of our comfort: Who won American Idol? Who sucked? Who does that politician think he is? Who will go get pizza? Who will pay the cable bill? Who will see to my aches and pains? Et-cetera, ad nausea. Let us also take a moment to remember those who came before and paid the finite price that we may have the freedom to complain and the freedom to assemble to do so.
God bless us all. God bless the United States of America.
— theGardener
Below: Four paintings by Norman Rockwell illustrating Four American Freedoms as articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Worship. Freedom from Want, and (the one I'm most thankful for) Freedom from Fear
