Freedom

60: (June 2021)

My understanding of freedom has certainly evolved over the years. Reading the late John Lewis’s book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, these past few weeks was a grave reminder of the extreme differences in how freedom is experienced and how society has arrived at where it is today.

John Lewis opened my eyes and heart so much wider. I can’t recommend Walking with the Wind enough, in which he vividly describes what it was like to grow up in the South and then details the unfolding of the civil rights movement. Lewis offered these cautionary words:

“Know your history. Study it. Share it. Shed a tear over it. Laugh about it. Live it. Act it out. Understand it. Because for better or for worse, our past is what brought us here, and it can help lead us to where we need to go.”

The systematic efforts to quell the black vote by making it dangerous or impossible for blacks to even register were viscerally painful to read as laid out by Lewis. He made me feel as if I was there; it became real instead of abstract. Freedom had to be won by fighting for it, and for Lewis, “fight” meant by nonviolence at all costs; he didn’t raise a hand against those who beat him mercilessly time and time again. Lewis and those he marched and stood with were met with vicious brutality by people filled with blind hate, and law enforcement that was corrupt to its core. But the “freedom fighters” persisted for many years, despite being relentlessly attacked and arrested. They literally laid their lives on the line—for equality, for the vote—for freedom.

Although Lewis wrote the book 23 years ago, the wise and inspirational words it contains are as relevant now as they were when he wrote them. We are currently experiencing new challenges to freedom in our country, where many states are once again making it harder to vote. And using the 1619 Project or critical race theory to examine racism is considered so threatening in many states that they have been banned in the public schools. Freedom is indeed a fragile state—hard won and easily stolen if not well guarded.

The hatred, greed, and willingness to perpetrate cruelty that were at the heart of slavery didn’t dissolve with the end of the Civil War or disappear with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The fight against injustice continues. We are all part of it, either by our action or by our inaction. As Lewis said:

“Simply put, we are all in this together.”

40: (June 2001)

It’s easy for someone in my generation to take for granted the gifts of freedom and equality in our country and to appreciate them merely on a surface level. We were born into them, never had to fight for them, and rarely contemplate the thought of losing them. Studying American history with my home-schooler made me appreciate our country’s gifts, as well as its transgressions, on a deeper level than I ever had before.

Our freedoms spring from the groundwork laid in The Declaration of Independence, that “All Men are created equal.” How idealistic its writers were! These were new thoughts, revolutionary thoughts, just ambiguous enough to allow us to grow into them as our consciousness was gradually raised over time to include people of color and women.

Today most of us consider the assumption of equality and its accompanying rights to be a given. It is heartbreaking that this dream did not originally include the indigenous people who were treated so shamefully. It also allowed the horror of slavery. These disgraces must be owned. Patriotism need not, must not, blind one to past or current cruelties and injustices. A seed, the kernel of justice within our Constitution, propelled the dream forward, giving it life and the strength to move beyond our failures.

At our country’s birth, as now, there were those seeking wealth and power at any cost. Yet among them were those seeking various forms of freedom and hoping to build a home where these rights would be protected. The first amendment of our Constitution, contained within the Bill of Rights, assures us the precious freedoms of religion, speech, the press, and more.

These are our country’s jewels. These are the ideals we must always continue to honor, to polish to a shine. It is so easy to forget that equality and freedom are gifts when we have always had them. But they were hard won. What was once won can be lost. The dream will only continue to shine if we actively participate in it and remember both to guard and prize our jewels.

It is up to us to put people in power who will continue to honor the ideals upon which our country was built. Equality and freedom are not a given. Power has always corrupted. We have only to look around the world to recognize that these gifts are not universally shared. It would be foolhardy to believe that these treasures will remain without our vigilance. We must likewise be vigilant in our efforts to assure that they are available to their full measure for all segments of our population, lest our failures be repeated.

It is said that when Benjamin Franklin came out of the Pennsylvania State House in 1787, he was asked what kind of government the new nation would have. He is reported to have replied, “A republic, madam. If you can keep it.”  May we each do our part.

60-40:

Maybe it takes a lifetime to understand—deep in one’s bones—how hard black Americans (and many others) who were alive in the 1960s fought for freedom and equality. The Black Lives Matter movement and protests are just another step in that fight for true freedom and equality for all. It didn’t end with the civil rights movement; it was just one step toward the ultimate goal.

Lewis warns that freedom can be subverted relatively easily if the electorate isn’t active, engaged, informed, and vigilant. What a beacon of light he was. I wish I had read his book decades ago. But the fact that he is gone now does not diminish his ability to stir the soul with his words, born out of a lived experience of commitment, passion, and an unquenchable belief in justice for all.

“A free and open society—a democracy—is by definition an eternal work-in-progress. … The summit will always recede. It is not there to be reached. It is there to give us a direction, a goal. It is there to lead us higher.”

Thank you, John Lewis. Your guiding light still burns bright.