Let Freedom Ring - 4th of July

Let Freedom Ring
by Rachel Keller

Long may the Flag of Old Glory wave,
Long may we honor the men who gave
their lives and fought so that we may be
the home of the brave and the land of the free.
Rachel L. Keller
July 4, 2000

What does freedom mean to you? To some freedom is the ability to do what they want to do when they want to do it without any interference from anyone. According to The Random House College Dictionary, to be free is to "enjoy personal rights or liberty, as one not in slavery," and freedom is "the state of being at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint."

Although many enjoy freedoms, there are others today who are still in bondage or oppression. These people long for the freedoms that so many take for granted. What is freedom worth to you?

In his speech before the Virginia Convention in March on 1775, Patrick Henry boldly proclaimed, "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, stated that "it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us...that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

The following is an excerpt engraved on the granite near President John F. Kennedy's grave side from his inaugural address.

Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.

Now the trumpet summons us again not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need, not as a call to battle, though embattled we are, but as a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, a struggle against the common enemies of man, tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

In the long history of the world only a few generations have been granted the roll of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility, I welcome it....And so my fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send those, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I left my lamp beside the golden door!
Emma Lazarus

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

-Thomas Jefferson

Americans, your freedom was purchased at great courage and price. Have you thanked God for those freedoms He has endowed to you? What are you doing to ensure you maintain those freedoms?

If liberty is to be saved, it will not be by doubters, men of science, or the materialists: It will be by religious convictions; by the faith of the individuals who believe that God wills men to be free.

-Henri Frederick Amiel

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