Can we talk?

Is Freedom Free

      Not all our founding fathers were of one mind. In fact, there were strong disagreements amongst them, but they were able to work together to hammer out some basic principals by which they could all live.

    You really can't speak or write about what our forefathers intended because they didn't all agree on every issue. And in the two centuries plus since then, we've added our own interpretations, according to fad and political correctness, or even new insights. Be wary of those who presume to state what our founding fathers intended. They may refer to a specific individual, but not the entire group.

      For instance, Puritans were a very strong influential group in our early history. They had their ideas about religious liberty. They differed from another religious group, the evangelicals. William Rogers, and what we know as Baptists today, would fall into this group. They believed fiercely in independence and separation of state and church. "Enlightened" men, such as Madison and Jefferson, did not think much of religion as an institution at all, despite their own religious and spiritual beliefs. Men such as John Adams and Washington did not believe that government could exist apart from religion and a common moral base.

      I am not qualified to delve into the issues any deeper at this time. I state them only to show the diversity of our founders, We err when we group them together to claim what they intended as we so often hear.

      An example of how time has changed our view would be the line,"All men are created equal." No, seriously, they were not speaking of mankind. They meant males, over 18, of predominantly European descent. Women equal? We don't know that any of them ever considered women, except for Adams, whose wife knew his devotion to her and reminded him to think of them when making laws. If any of them ever thought of native Americans or slaves, there wasn't much mention of it. We presume that if these men were alive today, they would agree with us that all humans are created equal, at least after we caught them up to date on this thinking on race, ethnicity, and gender. At that time, however, it seems they did not intend what we now interpret.

    And yet we hear so many politicians and news commentators speaking about the intention of our forefathers in such broad generalities. If you've read the constitution or the Bill of Rights or The Declaration recently, you'd see that these speakers don't know what they're talking about. Sometimes they really miss the mark, even in generalities. But if we don't know more than they do, how can we call them on their errors?

      The one generality about our forefathers that may hold up is that they believed in freedom so much, they were willing to pay for it. Those daring to sign their names on July 2, 1776, suffered losses. Some died for freedom. Some lost property or family fortunes. A few died bankrupt. Their lives were never the same after that.

      It has always been true that freedom is costly. We have to fight for it, literally or figuratively. But we must be careful not to let freedom slip away from us. We have to let go some comfort to hold on to freedom. It isn't a free gift.

      What price are you willing to pay?