Today is America’s celebration of independence. With that in mind I’d like to offer a few quotes on liberty:
If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.
Carl Schurz (1829 – 1906)
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
John Adams (1735 – 1826)
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809)
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
Cicero
On this Independence Day, I’m thankful for the support of many Americans who have stood by me as I spend a year half a world away trying to ensure continuing liberty for Americans back home while working to make Iraq a place where human beings have choices about how they want to live, what vocation they want to pursue, who they want to marry, how to worship, whether to worship at all and who they want to govern and represent them.
The process I am involved in is far from perfect. Some would call it fatally flawed. I think they are wrong. Iraq’s rebirth is often painful but I believe better days are ahead.
Thank you to my wife for supporting me. Thank you to my employer back home for standing by me morally and financially while I am away. Thank you to my readers for challenging me to continue examining the world and myself with a critical eye.
I hope each of you who reads this blog entry values and understand the high price that others paid for every drop of independence and liberty you enjoy today.