From Where do Our Freedoms Come?

Some would have you believe that the freedoms we enjoy (and so often take for granted) come from our elected representatives in Congress writing and enacting just and wise laws for us to follow. Others say that our freedoms stem from our teachers who guide us wisely when we are young to know the freedoms we have inherited and teach us how to properly exercise them. Others say that our freedoms come from the courts that protect the free by making sure that our laws are applied justly. All of these notions are wrong. These are all people exercising freedoms they already possess through the efforts of the guarantors of our freedom.

Our freedoms come from a long line of people who put their principles before their personal well-being so that present and future generations could live a better life. My freedoms started with God who blessed me with rights when he created me. My rights were then further ensured by 56 men who signed a document that in part affirmed that we have inalienable rights granted to us by our creator, and that those included, but were not limited to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For the record, of those 56 men who pledged to their brothers and their posterity their life, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, 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 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, Gwinnett, Eyward, 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 home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

For the last 233 years this type of heroism has been continuously displayed by this country’s protectors of freedom, it’s military. They leave their homes and families for regular duty and for war, sometimes for months or years at a time. They do it for little pay and less recognition. Their families suffer and are often torn apart as a result of their service to us.

I am blessed to have come from a military family. I have ancestors who served in every war this country has been involved in. Three of my four grandparents served in WWII, one of them retiring from the military after serving in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam in both the Navy and the Air Force. Several of my uncles and cousins have served or are serving in the military. My father served 28 years in the USAF with distinction.

I was taught from whence my freedoms come by the word and example of these brave and committed people. They come from brave men and women all over the world standing to in harm’s way, drawing that line in the sand and then placing their lives on that line and stating categorically that here, in this place, is the boundary of freedom. Friends are welcome. Foes cross this line at their extreme peril.