I See... Freedom Dying in its Sleep

“The most ignoble death of all is when freedom dies in its sleep.” This is one of my favorite quotes- I wish I knew who said it. Currently, in our United States, freedom is dying in its sleep. It's our fault, and it is time we did something about it.

When someone dies their sleep, they slip away quietly and peacefully, almost unnoticed. This sounds pretty comfortable at first. But then, after the quiet, peaceful act is over, and reality sets in, we are faced with the terrible truth that our loved one is never coming back – death has occurred. Accompanying death are all the rigorous realities that should be there. What will I do without them? Who will take care of me now? Will I ever see them again?

Except for a few voices crying in the wilderness, we ignored the looming monster of easy credit and real estate speculation facing us and continued to spend money we did not have and buy houses we couldn't afford. We ignored or minimized the obvious nationwide Ponzi scheme of sub-prime lending and highly speculative financial practices in the stock marketplace, with almost no perspective of what would happen down the road. We were slowly, almost imperceptibly, building strong shackles of debt that would eventually bind us and restrict our freedoms. Need was eclipsed by greed, and freedom slipped quietly into a coma. Perhaps we should have relied on our elected leaders to warn of these stark consequences- but how could we? Aren't they people just like us, susceptible to being hypnotized by the promise of easy, unearned wealth?

If freedom is to die, it should not do so quietly. It may be too late for our politicians, but we are still connected to life support. We, the hardworking, dedicated, and compassionate masses of America who form the backbone of our moral society, need to let all know that we still have a will to live. We educate ourselves on what went wrong and how to fix it. We return to that inspired document that God used to grant us our freedoms, the Constitution, and make sure we are committed to understanding its principles. Then we talk to our families and friends; our PTA colleagues and our Primary teachers; and our mechanics and maintenance men, and with conviction tell them that we will not go away quietly. With God and the Constitution as our Urim and Thummim, we should be prepared to lobby loud against greed, selfishness, and the reckless morality that lies at the root of the all-encompassing crisis looming before us.