That freedom is the badge of America's
essence first impressed me the most when, as seminary students, we
drove in a 14-passenger van from the campus of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky to Washington DC. It was
in the early 1990s, and I had just fled the war-ravaged,
freedom-starved West African nation of Liberia, whose name ironically
means "Land of Liberty."
During that 18-hour trip our van was
not stopped one time by a police officer or soldier. We did not have
to pull off the road at a checkpoint, to get out of the vehicle and
walk single-file across a checkpoint, to have the vehicle searched,
to dish out a bribe or two before re-boarding the van to continue our
journey. The only stops we made along the way were for food, rest or
to ease ourselves.
The return trip was no different –
one long uninterrupted journey from one point of a free country to
another. I thought I knew freedom before, but on that day I saw and
felt freedom. Since then I have understood the preposition "OF"
in America's name to stand for "Opportunity" and "Freedom":
The United States Opportunity Freedom America. Indeed, America is the
land where freedom opens the gateway to opportunity of various
strands and stripes.
Some time much later after that initial
freedom ride through America, I took a look at the document called
"The Declaration of Independence". The first sentence of the
second paragraph lists "liberty" as the second of the three
"certain unalienable rights" – life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.
To me, listing "liberty"
immediately after "life" tells me that everything alive seeks to be free. Nature surrounds us by this relentless longing for
liberty.
Hold a live bird in your hand, and you will find that
feathered one swirling for an opportunity to fly away in freedom.
A corn
seed tucked beneath the dirt waits to break through the soil and
raise its tender blades in freedom under the open sky.
Even a worm in the hand of a
fisherman fights to avoid being threaded onto a hook that is about to
be thrown into the depths as fish trap. Then when that struggling
worm baits a fish, the catch fights to break away from the
fisherman's line and swim free in the waters.
Similarly, the life in
the womb of a mother eagerly awaits the moment of delivery. And what
is delivery but just one of the many synonyms and nicknames for freedom, liberty, independence?
For this native yearning for freedom
the American military and other guardians of liberty man beaches,
cross oceans, and comb through mountains and landmines to protect
liberty, to liberate captives.
Any wonder then that even in the face
of brutally heavy handed security men the masses of Iran recently dared to
sound freedom's note in the streets of Tehran, disregarding deadly
threats in the aftermath of national elections?
With liberty being the native language
of everything and everyone alive, we can rest assured that lands
where communism reigns or where misguided religion rules are only but
pregnant wombs carrying liberty's seed. As surely as every pregnancy
has a delivery date, the free world will not only feel the
contractions of freedom on the way, but we or our children shall
behold the birth of liberty in one of its many beautiful forms in
such lands as Burma, China, Cuba, and Iran, just to list a few of the
expectant mothers of liberty.
Yes, even innocent North Koreans will one day
sing, clap and dance liberty's song over the ashes of oppression, while the free world, as one
collective midwife welcomes each of liberty's infant into the family
of free nations.
Thankful for the United States, the
guardian of liberty, the land of no checkpoints – except for the
borders – this Liberian-American salutes the brave boys and girls,
men and women in and out of uniforms who daily serve as watchdogs and
heroes of freedom.
Happy Independence Day to all who speak and
understand the native tongue of freedom, to everyone who works and waits for
the day when all the world will be free to enjoy never-ending
happiness otherwise known as Heaven.
