For Americans it is another exciting and perhaps frustrating election year with massive amounts of rhetoric from debates to online articles from and about the potential presidential candidates. In this rhetoric is a buzzword used extensively by the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, or other third party options. That buzzword is “freedom,” a powerful word which resonates with any American. It’s often thought of as one of the most important and defining American ideal, having been embedded into the fabric of the nation in our Constitution, our rhetoric and shared belief system. Freedom is core to the American identity to able to choose to work together, to live together, and to pray together. Freedom however, is an abstract concept freedom. Ask any person what freedom is and the answers will diverse and often conflicting. Does freedom of religion mean Christian organizations are free to spread their gospel into public schools or as a public institution, religion should be separate from the state? Should we as Americans have freedom of sexuality, is that covered in the Constitution? I give only two of the countless potential conflicts where freedom means something almost completely different between fellow Americans. We as Americans can argumentative and often fiercely opinionated and this election is another proof of how freedom is not a universal term with one, defined meaning. Freedom more of a shared ideal as I quote from World War Z by Max Brooks as a character of the book paraphrases the president during the outbreak of zombies. The president was arguing for holding elections even through the entire world was suffering a catastrophe of epic proportions. Why during a zombie apocalypse would we need to hold an election? “We don’t have the luxury of old-world pillars. We don’t have a common heritage, we don’t have a millennia of history. All we have are the dreams and promises that bind us together. All we have…[struggling to remember]…all we have is what we want to be.”
In short, America is not united because of internal cohesive elements such as shared history, racial or ethnic elements, or even religion. No, America is united by the shared ideals such as freedom, legal equality, and common citizenship. As for me, I believe freedom is having something and then having the right to protect it. To be free to believe in the right of gay marriage and then being free to protect your right to believe within the reasonable bounds of the law. To be free to own a home and have economic freedom and be able to insure it and lock the doors for safety and protection. This freedom of speech, religion and other civil rights entitled to us are unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happyness.
Yet these rights are an ultimately a privilege, as the Democracy Index shows and we can see on a daily basis in the news, there are a lot of countries with more authoritarian governments than ours. As privilege we have to pay a price for this freedom we come to enjoy. As hard it is to define freedom, it is harder to define what the price of freedom is. What upkeep do Americans collectively have to protect our freedoms and avoid tyranny and destruction? This is what I feel is a question that is asked and answered with every presidential election from Donald Trump’s exclamation of “Make America Great!” and his agenda to protect his version of American freedom to Sander’s rejection of the PATRIOT Act as the price paid to protect freedom is too much. With all of this political grandstanding, I wanted to pose this question to my fellow Americans, what is the price of freedom? And how much are we to pay to remain free? In this article I wanted to go in-depth into what I feel is the price of freedom is and in doing so gives some food for thought to reflect upon the questions I posed.
When the price of freedom is discussed the most common price the price in blood. Every year we remember the cost of freedom on Memorial Day and we pay tribute to our troops in service every day. In America, almost everyone claims to support our troops who suffer from the horrors of war and some pay the ultimate price for freedom. However, perhaps we don’t actually do enough for our troops, perhaps we as civilians do not actual pay enough for freedom as our soldiers bear an incredible amount of the cost of freedom. As I quote from Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, as a character named Sergeant Dime rants, “Support the troops, support the troops, h*** yeah we’re so f***ing PROUD of our troops, but when it comes to actual money? Like somebody might have to come out of pocket for the troops? Then all the sudden we’re on everybody’s tight-a** budget. Talk is cheap. I got that, but gimme a break. Talk is cheap but money screams.” We spend millions on football, the stadiums, HD, live coverage and the amount spent for the VA is paled by comparison. Personally, I have had a friend who died in Iraqi Freedom and it sobering for me to think I’m now older than the friend I have lost. How saddening the cost of freedom is. As Americans we often will hear that the price of freedom is paid in blood as we fight against the enemies of the American way. Yet, there is another cost we pay in blood for freedom.
While freedom of sexuality is often a topic of heated debate, this debating is part of the American experience. Living in a country of free speech, this rational (or perhaps irrational) debating is core to maintaining the health of a free society. When this opposition to freedom of sexuality turns to violence such as the most recent tragic shootings in Orlando, it is extremely clear that this violence is fundamentally un-American. Violent opposition against sexual freedom is abhorrent and against the principle of not only the nation, but of the free world. This violent act and many others like is as in the words of Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister of Australia, “a vile attack on freedom.” An attack against the LGDT in a sense is an attack against us all, against the principle of being free. In the face of these horrible attacks born out of bigotry and hate and those to come, we as Americans will have to pay another price of freedom. For every death to hate and terrorism we must never waver. These violent acts of terror against our shared freedom must always be meet with opposition in whatever form be it tweets of support, prayers, or whatever we can do. the price of freedom is being strong in face of those who would seek to destroy freedom with violence. To pay the price of freedom is to strive to help those who died to hate crimes and other attacks on their freedoms to ensure their bloodshed was not in vain. The price of freedom is we all must stand up for freedom together.
Another burden put upon us to have freedom is the price of free speech. Free speech is a gift but it is also a burden. In our country we are free to express ourselves and openly give out our opinions and political stances. This means that the price of freedom is watching as others scream out their speeches of hate and malice about anti-gays, anti-abortion, anti-guns or whatever and saying, “ok.” It’s the price we all have to pay to see Hilary or Bernie or Trump preach a platform you fundamentally oppose to and say, “ok.” This freedom of speech can be painful I know. Speaking personally seeing attacks and articles against feminism and misogynist makes me both angry and sick. Being a self-described pretty easy-going guy most of the time, it is rare to see such a strong emotional response. I will visibly cringe when a friend uses the term “femiNazi” I studied Nazi Germany for an upper level history course, read many of the books from Ian Kershaw, one of the foremost expert on Nazism and wrote a 22-page paper on the ideology of Lebensraum. I feel comfortable in stating “radical” feminists are not even closely relatable to Nazism. However, despite how utter ridiculous I find some of these opinions spat out by friends or on twitter to be detestable. The republic means that we are all equal under the law and equal to each other and yes this includes women. However, I have to respect their right to free speech. I may never fully respect their beliefs; however I have respect they have the right to freely express themselves. As said once in Star Trek: The Next Generation, “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied – chains us all, irrevocably.” It is my price I pay for freedom to say “ok.” There are many more cases like mine for Americans have to tolerate and to respect the freedom of speech because that is the price of freedom. The price of freedom is being able to accept that we may conflict in many political, social and economic issues, however every American is entitled to their opinion and able to freely express it and collectively we as Americans have to accept this because the alternative is censorship, tyranny and the destruction of the American way of life.
It is important to reflect upon the price of freedom as we head towards another presidential election. I would carefully listen to all of the candidates and see what price they put for freedom and if you are willing to pay that price. With the massive influx of political opinions during the year because of the election is it easy to become passionate and get into arguments with others. However, I urge you to respect those with conflicting opinions as that part of the price of freedom. The shared cost of having free elections, to live our comfortable lives of in a republic, safe from foreign enemies and able to enjoy the modern convenient of a globalized and technologically advance country. There is always a burden, a price to freedom, ironically freedom will never be free.
