Freedom Isn't Free

Freedom isn't free!
Freedom isn't free!
You gotta pay the price
You gotta sacrifice
For your liberty.

So said the song on my father's Up With People album when I was a kid.

I used to hum that tune all the time, and this year it's come back to me. Maybe it's because my wife and I were in Boston last weekend and did the Freedom Walk, visiting those pre-revolutionary sites and reminding ourselves of that city's great history (before sampling absolutely AWESOME cannoli from Mike's Pastry in the north end).

I am one of those people the polar opposites of politics derides: I'm a moderate. I am as likely to vote my party as not; I'm one of those swing voters presidential candidates love to court. I'm a big fan of the political process, but not a big fan of politics. I vote in nearly every election, and have even when we've lived overseas. I watch political conventions (of both parties) and debates.

I appreciate that part of the strength of our union is also what strains it: the taking of sides, arguing of position, debate of views -- all those help to refine our direction.

I'm grateful for family members, friends and others who serve in our military. I'm grateful for the rule of law.

I have no Mormon pioneers in my genealogy; my parents were converts to the church long after wagon trains headed west. But we have plenty of American pioneers -- some who settled Virginia in the 1600s, some who settled the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s. While many of our immigrants came before this was a nation, others came in the great waves of immigration in the late nineteenth century.

When I was in high school, I spent a summer as an exchange student in Germany. Before I left, my father told me he suspected I'd find a lot of wonderful things in Germany -- and many might even seem much better than the US. He cautioned me, however, not to judge my home country too harshly. His counsel was wise (and maybe not even needed -- I was in the summer before my senior year and probably less aware of the world than he gave me credit for).

I later served my mission in Germany, and then have lived with my family in Latin America and twice in Asia. Each time, as happy as I was to be where I was, I've been happier to come home.

In Memorium

Today is Memorial Day in the US. It began as a tribute to fallen Union Soldiers after the Civil War, and now honors all those who have died in the service of their country.

I have no such soldiers in my own family that I knew personally, though in the generations that preceded mine, we have many veterans of various wars. And I have friends who have lost loved ones in war. And today I gratefully bow my head to honor those who have so served.

Our family has lived overseas a number of times because of my work. It's been exciting to live in Asia and Latin America, to learn new languages (or to try!) and new cultures, to see exotic place we otherwise would not have visited, and to learn about what makes us the same and different across the human family.

One thing my wife has worked particularly hard to do is to help our children to retain their American-ness while overseas. She and I are grateful to have been born in the country we were, and we have sought to share a love for that country with our children. And our children (and we) have had that patriotism tempered by our international experiences.

That is to say, I know that the United States of America is a blessed land and great country. But it is not the only great country. I know that many Americans, regardless of which side of the political aisle they occupy, love their country. But I know that citizens of other nations love their county, too. I know that American ingenuity and opportunity have allowed many to achieve the American dream -- rising out of poverty, improving one's circumstance, able to give their children better lives than they did. I believe I've been able to do this for my own children. But I also know that parents in many countries seek this same ideal and many achieve it.

I also know that the United States is not perfect. And by not perfect I do not mean disagrees with my flavor of politics (though there are plenty who do and that's ok).

We were talking about the Pledge of Allegiance yesterday. My son asked my daughter if they are still saying that every day in her elementary school. She reported they were and he was aghast! I pointed out that one of the reasons they are is because when I learned a few years ago they weren't, I wrote letters to the principal and to the school board encouraging them to do so.

My all knowing 14-year old son insisted that America is NOT a country of liberty and justice for all. And he cited some political hot buttons to bolster his case (he argues just like his father...). I allowed that the United States is not perfect. But it is also a place where for hundreds of years political power shifts from party to party peacefully. And a place where that political process allows for open and vigorous debate.

And it is a place I'm happy to call home.

Of the People, By the People and For the People

I've been on vacation this week with my family, and we travelled to Washington, DC, via Gettysburg. As a result, I've been more reflective about my country, its founding fathers and principles, and about my own political views.

This is my sixth trip to Washington DC, and my third in the last fifteen years (we've come about every five years with our kids; the last two at home are 13 and 9). For this trip and the last we stopped in Gettyburg on our way to DC, and this time, after a brief stop in Gettysburg, we ended up on the Mall in Washington the same day.

So we stood at sunset in the Lincoln Memorial, and reviewed together the words chiseled into the south wall of the monument, the text of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Just hours before we had driven the self-guided tour across the fields of Gettysburg where thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers gave their lives in an astounding show of valor, and where the Union armies finally began to turn the war in favor of the north.

Lincoln's words on that occasion, elegant in their brevity, remind me of the source of our nation's strength, and cite the conflict that divided them: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."

He concludes indicating that the ground which they were dedicating as a cemetery had already been hallowed by the blood of the fallen, and suggests instead: "It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

At stake for Lincoln was the fate of the Union. In a presentation given in the National Museum of American History (one of the Smithsonians), we listened to a film which suggested for Lincoln his first priority was preservation of the Union, and all else came second to that priority as he prosecuted the war, and has he wrote and signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

In Lincoln we had, as happens through history, a man forged for a particular point in time, a man who rose to a challenge and faced it and led his nation through it. It was not without pain and sacrifice, as his Gettysburg address makes clear. And it was not without controversy, as his own assassination demonstrated. But through it our nation survived.

Today we find our public discourse mired in discontent. A duly elected president and members of a duly elected congress are enacting a health care plan they campaigned on. Yet there are those who feel their liberty is at risk because of government interference in their lives, and because of the implicit tax that the new health care legislation places on those who would otherwise choose not to be covered (and the actual tax increase on some to help pay the cost). Some feel that the political brinksmanship under which this new plan has been enacted diminishes its legitimacy (though the methodology is legal and has been used before). And to hear some commentators tell it, we are either on the road to ruin economically because of run-away costs (or their potential) or because of the loss of basic freedoms or both. There is stark argument about whether there is a right to health care, and whether there is a right to be free of it.

Indeed, I would not be surprised to see either side quote Lincoln to support their view. But for me the point of remembering Lincoln in this instance is that no war is needed. There is an established political process – in fact several – that will allow us to move forward peacefully (even if the discussions are rancorous). First, midterm elections will soon be upon us and voters once again will have the chance to exercise their franchise, just as they did when electing the present congress and president. Second, the court's check-and-balance of the legislature will allow some to test the correctness of the measure at hand and how it came to be.

I'm grateful to live in the country I do, knowing that this matter will sort itself out. The debate will continue to be vigorous, and I hope that the debate may proceed on its merits (though I am not so naïve as to believe it will limit itself to the merits of the matter, Elder Cook's counsel notwithstanding).

Mormons teach that there are blessings for those who live righteously, and the Book of Mormon promises that is especially so for those who live on the American continent. As a result, members of the LDS church have passionate views about politics. I've expressed before that there are not political litmus tests for worthiness, and I believe that is so. I also personally do not generally favor citing religious views to support political positions. But I am glad to know my fellow saints will engage in the debate with their countrymen. And I'm grateful to live in a country where the engagement of the citizenry continues to encourage a government of the people, by the people and for the people.