Freedom has a price.

 With the Fourth of July approaching, it is time to reflect on events surrounding that fateful day in July of 1776. Equally, we must reflect on one of the most sacred obligations of the Scout Oath, Duty to Country.

While other nations prior to the founding of the United States of America had embraced various forms of democracy, it is important to remember that what was started on that fateful day had never been tried before. The ideal that we are each endowed with inalienable rights, seems so common sensical now, but in those days, your rights only extended as far as the King's pleasure.

In other blogs I have written on true rights, rights that are independent of the action of others, except for protection of same. I won't rehash that here, suffice to say that the right to life is a right, the right to demand a health care provider provide a service is not, without just compensation, that is. Here I want to talk about the freedoms that we as Americans, and even many throughout the world enjoy.

Too often we take the world we live in for granted. We assume, and thus place on generations past, the norms of today. They are anything but normal for the time man has been on this earth. For most of man's history, all except a very minute percentage of the elite consisted of eking out a living, always fearful of attack, or starvation, or illness. Life expectancies were a fraction of what they are today. We project on to the founders our liberated mindset, and wonder why they were so intolerant. We should not. But our projections do not stay in the past. 

We see the actions of soldiers, in a time of war, from the light of living in a  relatively peaceful place, not from the eyes of those on the battlefield, making real time decisions, often with the choice of life or death. Does that excuse abuse of non combatants, which includes those taken prisoner on the battlefield? No.

We see in slow motion on our streets actions taken by police officers, and judge them, again, not in real time, making the same kind of decisions that soldiers make, but frame by frame, capturing each detail, except the one of having a split second to decide, with no slow motion option.

The soldier defends against enemies abroad, the police officer against those that would violate our rights at home. Do we give them the credit that they are due, while NOT EXCUSING inappropriate behavior, or abuse of power? Each of us must ask ourselves that question.

My friends, 53 people signed the Declaration of Independence, pledging their lives, treasures, and most of all, their sacred honor, to stand for principles that many mock today. Were they perfect? Of course not. Not one of them would have claimed to be. To judge them based on today is to make a mockery of justice. Many of them faced reprisals for what would surely have been recorded as Treason, had their determination failed. It was a cause bigger than themselves, and they all recognized that.

The price to buy the freedom of slaves in this country was paid in the Civil War, where brother fought brother, and over half a million Americans died fighting for a cause that each side thought was just. It wasn't, at least not when it came to the fact that people were considered property by one side. As to secession, that is a whole other issue. Abraham Lincoln paid the ultimate price, as well, for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, shortly after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. But that is ancient history, what about today?

To enjoy freedom, one must understand that there are consequences for doing wrong. This is where our society goes awry today. While many try to hold some accountable for the actions of ancestors, (or maybe not even that, if your family immigrated here later), they refuse to hold accountable people today for their criminal acts. Freedom cannot survive that. We have already seen that cycle once, where draconian laws are put in place, to "protect the people". So many are incarcerated that whole generations are lost. Better to have fewer laws, while strictly enforcing the few that exist. The state is every bit a threat to your individual freedoms as your local bully. Except it has the power of legal sanction, whereas the criminal does not.

I am not advocating, FYI, any kind of rebellion. Simply pointing out that the price is more than the cost of blood paid by patriots. For freedom, and a free land to be successful, it requires that people living free have respect for one another.

So how do we live up to our Duty to Country? Some basics, of course: obeying the laws of the land, even if we do not agree with them. If we don't like them, then engage in a campaign to have them repealed. Respecting those who have served us, whether at home or abroad, for they sign their oaths with blood every morning that they report for duty. They say to each of us, that they are willing to sacrifice their lives, so that we can live in relative peace and comfort. How many professions do that? 

When the signers of the Declaration of Independence put their names to the page, they were, literally, engaging in an act of Treason against the crown. Their families were threatened, or killed. Their property seized or destroyed. Their own lives were threatened, directly, or indirectly by the crown. Do we owe them the gratitude that remembering Independence Day should inspire in us, beyond cookouts, baseball, and fireworks displays? Yes, and much more. We owe them a debt that can only be paid in blood,

But they don't ask us to do that. The least we can do is remember. To all those mentioned, that they did pay a price that we currently are not asked to pay.

President Reagan said it best when he said "Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

Wise words. Happy 4th. From Camp Geiger.