The Freedom To Work It Out

Once upon a time there were a bunch of men and women who got together and decided that the world wasn't free enough. There were a few people out there who figured they had access to power and the best way they could think of to use it was to give themselves more power.


So they came up with lots and lots of rules that prevented lots and lots of people from living and thinking and believing and doing and breathing the way their consciences told them to. These few powerful people told everyone what to do and how to do it. And because they had more influence and money and power than most people, most people figured they had no choice but to follow along.


But the bunch of men and women who got together said, I DON'T THINK SO! Everyone, EVERYONE, should be free to think and do and say what they feel is right. Within the rule of law so that people aren't, you know, freaking out everywhere. And even if someone disagrees with them, or they disagree with someone–they should ALL be free do live and think and breathe in their own way. ALL.


So the bunch of men and women who got together went out and started a country. They had to work pretty hard. It involved moving, and working from the ground up, and foreign relations, and learning to survive in a new world, and working with the people who were already there, and making mistakes, and doing good things, and most of all, it involved cutting the apron strings. And it took some fighting to do it.


But in the end, the people who got together created something marvelous: the only place on earth where everyone was free to be and think and choose and act as their consciences dictated. Free to live the consequences of their choices – whether those consequences enabled them to grow and learn and increase, or whether the consequences they chose took away their personal freedom. Either way, it wasn't because they had no choice. It was because they did.


And this place that the people created was the best in the world, because everyone could do, or not do. Everyone could agree or disagree. Everyone could give their ideas, and figure them out together and compromise, and listen and share and make it work — without anyone forcing them. Without anyone controlling them. They could work it out.


That's what we have in this country: the Freedom to Work It Out. Because we are grown-up enough to do that.


What a great thing.


We should never lose that.