WHAT FREEDOM MEANS TO ME

When I first thought of writing this essay, the phrase "Four Freedoms" occurred to me. I ran across it as the title of a set of Norman Rockwell paintings back when I was a kid. I had no idea where the phrase came from until I used the phrase as a search term on the World Wide Web. It turns out to be the title of one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union messages (so much for filth on the Internet, eh! And so much for an American high school education). So I downloaded it and read it over, thinking. (Quotations in bold type are all from Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech.)

"What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition to any attempt to lock us behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past. Today, thinking of our children and their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any part of the Americas."

Today the fearful are seeking to impose cultural isolation on us; to drown the voices of the poor, the nonwhite, the female, to force about half the population to deny their experiences. But truth and freedom are inextricably intertwined.

"The American people have unalterably set their faces against that tyranny," said Roosevelt at the beginning of 1941 - nearly 12 months before Pearl Harbor. Have we changed our direction now? The American people - including your parents or grandparents, who, even if they did not vote for him, certainly benefited from his policies - elected him President in 1932 and went on doing so till he died. What would he make of us now?

Well, maybe that is special pleading or some other kind of logical fallacy. So sue me. Logic can't fully explain the promptings of conscience, which is another reason why freedom is essential. Come to think of it, freedom of conscience is also intertwined with truth. Freedom of conscience means freedom from hypocrisy.

To tweak one of FDR's statements just a tiny bit, "No realistic American can expect from a dictator's peace … generosity, or return of true independence, or …freedom of expression, or freedom of religion - or even good business." (I am not sure about the connection between freedom of conscience and good business, but it would not surprise me very much to uncover one.) I do say that a dictator's peace is what religious political extremists intend for this country.

"We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's freedom." Would we still be agonizing about racism - would we have had the Rodney King riots - might not Martin Luther King still be preaching, if we had not tried, three hundred years ago, to build this country at the cost of other people's freedom?

"The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend upon how effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt." He was talking about sending military materiel to Europe, but the same is true when it comes to free speech and the right to live as our hearts lead us. Who was the activist who said: "When they came for the Jews I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the Communists I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. When they came for the trade unionists, no one spoke up for me, because there was no one left." (I have probably misquoted this, too, and if you know how it goes, email me!)

"The Nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic life in America. … There is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are: equality of opportunity for youth and for others; jobs for those who can work; security for those who need it; the ending of special privilege for the few; the preservation of civil liberties for all; the enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living."

Is that what will result from re-criminalizing abortion and same-sex relationships, from lying to our older children about sex, from playing the race card and the "femiNazi" card and dismantling affirmative action? (Yes, by all means let us have a color-blind society; but how do you expect us to get there from here? Brethren, the end is not yet.)

"Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples: We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old age pensions and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care. We should plan a better system by which person deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it."

Look around you. Not at your own life necessarily; if you're able to read this page you probably aren't hurting too bad. Remember that approximately half of all Americans have no medical insurance.

Now we come to the "Four Freedoms:"

Freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world.

As I said before, truth and freedom are inextricably intertwined. I've heard it said that the recent (and continuing) famine in Ethiopia could have been averted had the government officials in charge of agriculture been sure they could have told their superiors the truth about the true state of the country's food supply. If Hitler had been able to stomach the truth about his understanding of military strategy, Germany might have won World War II.

Let me try that again: if Hitler had been able to stomach the truth about the people he was scapegoating, there might have been no Holocaust.

Freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world.

If it were not for freedom of religion, you would not be reading this page; it would never have been written. It arose directly out of a religious crisis which I was free to deal with as I saw fit. Let us not forget why the Pilgrim Fathers came to these shores - nor that they made second-class citizens of Jews and Catholics, and slaughtered Quakers and pagans, afterwards. (Some traditions ought to die.)

Freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world.

About five years ago, Rush Limbaugh said: "One of the things I want to do before I die is conduct the homeless Olympics...[Events would include] the 10-meter Shopping Cart Relay, the Dumpster Dig, and the Hop, Skip and Trip." Why jeer like this? What is wrong with seeing that other people are "free from want"? Maybe it is no longer possible for this country to be the world's peacekeeper or even breadbasket. Is that any excuse to turn our backs, as a people? Furthermore, is it any excuse for us to turn our backs as individuals, to refuse to be our brother's keeper? Look to Genesis: it was Cain who said that, after murdering his brother.

Libertarians say that instead of government social-service programs, we should turn everything over to private charities. This would make sense…if Americans were willing to give as much in charitable contributions as they now do in taxes. Are you?

Let us not waste energy blaming the poor. While I do believe that noblesse does bloody well oblige, I am not prepared to argue socialism vs. communism vs. capitalism. I will just quote Emma Lazarus and nod in the general direction of the Grameen Bank.

"Freedom from fear - which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world."

Yes, folks, Roosevelt was talking about UNIVERSAL DISARMAMENT. I wonder now if it is possible. To simply refuse to fight, as Jehovah's witnesses do, is admirable! But it is not enough. I do think that the proper work of pacifism is to make war unnecessary. (and what are you doing about it?) This is one of those thousand-year tasks, as Erich Fromm demonstrates:

"Man is capable not only of foreseeing real dangers in the future; he is also capable of being persuaded and brainwashed by his leaders to see dangers where in reality they do not exist. Most modern wars, for instance, have been prepared by systematic propaganda of this type; the population was persuaded by its leaders that it was in danger of being attacked and destroyed, and thus reactions of hate against the threatening nations have been provoked….

"Man, like the animal, defends himself against threat to his vital interests. But the range of man's vital interests is much wider than that of the animal. Man must survive not only physically but also psychically. … If others threaten him with ideas that question his own frame of orientation, he will react to these ideas as to a vital threat. He will say that the new ideas are inherently 'immoral,' 'uncivilized,' 'crazy,' or whatever else he can think of to express his repugnance, but this antagonism is in fact aroused because he feels threatened."

Roosevelt again:

"Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change - in a perpetual peaceful revolution - a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions - without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch."

There are a few people in this country, who get far too much attention, who want to halt the perpetual revolution, and might even view concentration camps and quicklime as temporary, necessary evils. I admit it is so easy for someone who does not agree with them to view these religious political extremists as a "small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests." I do believe that some are in it for selfish gain, if not for money, then for power. But most are sincere. Most of those sincere ones are afraid. Part of the function of freedom of speech is to allay needless fears and to take the true measure of realistic ones.

Listen, folks, fear won't kill you. I know that from experience; it was fear that got me where I am today. Fear of other people's death at the alleged Armageddon led me into religious liberty. When I found myself worshipping with people I had been taught to despise, my fear of them led me to conquer my ignorance and find friendship. Fear won't go away. It is your brother. Use it as a compass; if you are afraid, but not in danger, you are on the right track. Good old Uncle Franklin said in another context, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Not even that. When you fear, look carefully, then run - FORWARD.

Long live the American Revolution - it's 220 years old already.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the "evolutionary" trend of human society is toward anarchy - not red-fanged chaos, but a loose-jointed, un-hierarchical cooperation. We won't live to see it. Democracy will do for the foreseeable future.

But it's up to you to make the world safe for anarchy.

Footnotes

Some of these ideas are linked to more than one web page; so I have bunched them up here. Other "footnotes" embedded in the text lead to only one page -- directly.