Freedom is Just Another Word…

Compared to its original intent, Memorial Day has become an overly “leisure” - focused day.

Rather, it is a day where we can and should take pause and remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we may enjoy our blessed, modern lives.

Along with President's Day, the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving, Memorial Day is one of the Big Four quintessentially “American” holidays.

Yes, days to step aside from our normal work routines and responsibilities, to relax, to have fun, to spend time with friends and family.

But also days to "pay forward" the sacrifices of those that gave their lives, in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “so that that nation might live.”
 
And a great way to pay it forward is to stand strong for freedom.

Freedom is a word that too often has become stripped of much of its inherently spiritual meaning by politicians and others seeking to further narrow agendas.

And, also too often, a distracted (and distraction-seeking) populace has let them get away with just that.

But freedom stands alone as the highest of all of the great “American” virtues - this country’s revolutionary gift to the cultures and economies of the world.

Now, to the degree that the success of the American experience has inspired freedom worldwide - such that economies and cultures and lives of people in places like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, parts of Africa - that until recently have been clothed in medieval darkness, poverty, and rigidity...

... well then if freedom perishes here in the years to come, it will go on living elsewhere to a degree and on a scale many, many multiples greater than on these shores.

And yes, that is inspirational in its own right.

BUT it would not make it any less discouraging and dare I say sinful for those us blessed to be born and living in the cradle of freedom to let it perish here.

Or, as badly, to not take full advantage of the opportunities for self-expression, self-actualization, contribution, and prosperity this freedom affords.

And, of course, on this Memorial Day it would also be highly dishonorable to those who gave the ultimate sacrifices to preserve and protect it.

So how can one rightfully honor this gift of freedom?

Well first from that simple, profound place of gratitude and thanks.

But build on that.

Stand up for justice.

For good, limited, effective and neighborly government.

But stridently and ever vigilantly against corrupted, self-serving, expanding, "celebrity" and far away government.

And when it comes to work, knowing that freedom’s truest modern, civic expression is in the realm of private enterprise.

The realm of business.

Of entrepreneurship.

So go for it.

Think. Plan. Act. Do. 

To the fullest of our ability and with all of our effort.

In the service of noble missions and visions that call to us.

And when done to the fullest of our ability and with all of our effort…

…well on this Memorial Day then, we are honoring the sacrifices of those so they truly did not die in vain.

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