Freedom

The following is an article written by John Gerty a physics professor at Broome Community College:

“Freedom is a beautiful word, a word to die for, or to send others to their deaths. It has been used so often in the last few years it is hard to remember what it means. We have been told (hundreds of times?) that our soldiers are fighting in Iraq for our freedom. I am sure that our soldiers are brave and probably the best in the world. Our army can keep us independent, it can protect us from invasion, but it does not give us freedom.

“Iraq under Saddam Hussein had an army of 400,000. That should have given Iraqis a lot of freedom too. Power may come from the barrel of a gun but freedom does not.

“Our soldiers gave us independence and preserve our freedom when they kept Hitler from dominating the world, but normally our freedoms come from political efforts.

“Remember that our country started with the Declaration of Independence. The Civil War was to preserve the Union, not to free the slaves. As I remember my early American history: many of the early settlers came to the colonies to escape religious persecution -- only to persecute anyone who had a different religion. It took our citizens a long time to realize that their freedom was only possible if they extended the same freedom to others.

“The words ‘... all men are created equal...’ were written in the late 1700s, but we are still trying to define the word ‘all.’ It once meant ‘... all wealthy (landed), white, Christian, heterosexual men are created equal...’ We have been working for 200 years to remove the qualifiers from the word ‘all.’

“More recently we are told that the attacks on 9/11 were attacks on our freedom. This also makes no sense. Terrorist attacks can affect the ease of travel but do not limit our right of free speech, assembly, religion or any other right established in our Constitution.

“Our response to the 9/11 attack, was the Patriot Act, which impinge upon our freedoms. Allowing the president to act without supervision of the courts has the real potential to decrease the freedom of some or all of our citizens. Allowing the security services to act outside the law without court supervision is the first step toward a dictatorial government.

“The important thing to notice is that our freedom was established by legislative action, is protected by our Constitution, and is being affected by laws (or the violation of laws) -- not by military actions.

“We tend to get loose focus in our discussions. We tend to raise the flag up to being the most important part of our democracy. We should remember that the flag is just a symbol of our country. It is a beautiful thing but it is not our country. Every school day we insist our children pledge their allegiance to a piece of cloth, but ignore the important thing that makes us what we are, our Constitution.

“A better pledge might go something like this: ‘I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the principles it incorporates. A government of the people, by the people, for the people, insuring that all citizens receive equal protection, equal representation and equal rights, under the law, as they pursue their lives in liberty and peace.’

“If Iraq is to become a free country, its citizens will have to find a way to share power and the wealth their oil can provide them. They will have to learn to respect other religions and other ethnic groups. They will have to establish laws to punish the crimes of the past, not use street justice.

“However, you cannot force freedom on someone. They will have to find it for themselves. In the meantime, we need to be ever vigilant to protect our own freedoms. Our army can’t do it for us -- it is the job of the citizens and our Congress.”