These are the times that try men's souls.

{image: patriotweek.org]

When is Freedom Day?

Today marks the 239th year since our birth as a nation. But I won’t be celebrating our independence today—not while many of us are still fighting for our freedom. When the top one percent of our adult population have more wealth than the other 99 percent combined, who is free to celebrate? What would we celebrate? And why? The key to freedom for the majority of us is in the hands of our politicians and corporate bankers who have no intention of giving it up.

Independence means to clip the ties that bind; freedom means to be able to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. When one-half of our adult population have an income of $20,000 per year or less—with no prospect of improving it—some 160 million Americans are locked out from freedom’s reach. Another 96 million are treading water far below their contribution and their potential, even as our total wealth numbers surge higher and higher. When our young can no longer afford higher education, the primary pathway to upward mobility. Where government takes and takes from the lower and middle classes and gives and gives to the privileged few. Where banks and corporations are rescued by the government and forgiven for their mismanagement of money in riskless ventures. Where wars are fought on dishonest grounds, and their costs are blamed on entitlements paid for by our citizens. Where more and more tax cuts are given to the wealthy on the false belief that they will use those funds to stimulate the economy. Where the vote is no longer a sacred right but something to be denied by dishonest manipulation. Where guns in the hands of lunatics are used again and again to kill our children. Where legislators believe they know more about a woman’s reproductive system and control over it than do women. Where murder by police is protected by prosecutors, and our prisons are overcrowded by excessive numbers of minorities. And where immigration is now a dirty word appended to those whose skin is a shade darker than those who make the laws.

Instead I will celebrate the spirit of Thomas Paine today. He was an immigrant with more fire and fight in his frail body than all of today’s politicians combined. But what Paine lacked in physical ability, he more than made up with moral courage and with the power of his words. Paine risked everything for this nation. He was condemned by Britain, and he barely escaped the gallows in France. Considered by many as both the father of the American and French revolutions, he died a pauper with but two black men in attendance at his funeral cortege.

Moral courage has no residence among those who show up only in fair weather celebrations. Few men of letters will ever rise to the level of eloquence set by Thomas Paine,. Fewer still will ever breathe the refreshing air that surrounded someone with the courage of his convictions.

In “The Crisis,” (Dec. 1776) Paine wrote:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. …By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.

Many of us who are citizens by birth will never know the joy of receiving a certificate of U.S. citizenship conferred at a swearing in ceremony. I observed it a few years ago in some 500 immigrants as they swore allegiance to the United States. They roared their flag-waving approval with cheers and tears. And so did I.

Whether by birth or by immigration, only the privileged few today are given a rite of passage to freedom. It occurs by chance of birth and by virtue of the inheritance laws; not by blood, sweat, or tears. Fighting for your country guarantees nothing. Hard work, scholarship, and determination are not linked to freedom.

And so, in the name of courage and in memory of a man who went to his grave in the fight for freedom with his courage and his honor intact, I will dedicate this fourth day of July, 2016. Without freedom, independence meant very little to Thomas Paine. Like Paine, I choose to fight on for freedom.