To the Editor:
Feeling Freedom
What is freedom? What do we know about it? Is it like describing parts of the old elephant? Not really – freedom is almost intangible, but it is all the more precious.
Freedom smells like nature's scent rising above all fruited plains, it looks like brave flags flying above people who have fought to maintain it, and it feels like the proud beating of our hearts knowing we have won for our children an irrepressible future. However, can we keep freedom intact? Can we live freely to govern and worship as we please, and do we concern ourselves about our neighbors across the world who are fighting for freedom, without falling in an apathetic mindset? Can the world community adequately hold onto these values that are and should be self-evident?
So, let us gather together with well-lit candles of Faith and Hope while singing loudly like rolling thunder to mute those who fear us free. We will march by hills cast in shadows toward the mountain that looms in the highlight, our Mountain Home of Primes, toward waiting angels who guard it there. Fear not, because there are statues of Christ in the mountains, there are crosses erected in low-lying valleys, and the cross even shines through the valley of the shadow of death.
Finally, we must speak up to revitalize our freedom, and we must show empathy for many of our friends and neighbors who languish in jail here and abroad, our hard-working irrepressible friends and neighbors who, on balance, would do better out of jail than in. Thus, it is fitting to end with lines out of the song "In My Heart" taken from the (slaves chorus of "Nabucco"):
"In my dream there's a land of peace and freedom
"In my heart there is hope for a warmer sun
"that will send all its guiding light to everyone"
Gaylen A. Waddell
Mount Vernon
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