NO, Freedom is NOT Free

I recently saw a poem entitled "Freedom is not Free". When I read it I felt a pull at my heart regarding the ultimate sacrifice noble soldiers and victims have made. I could not wish such a thing as death on anyone. A second or two later, I felt the anger. I hate to see death and destruction. I have seen it up close and it saddens me. It bothers me to no end when it is for stupid reasons, and it enrages me when it is for lies and corruption.

So here we go:

Freedom is not free, you say, while attempting to justify the needless sacrifice and slaughter currently raging overseas? No, Freedom is not free and it will be stripped from us if we stand by idly while those in power further rig the game, leech our industry to China, bankrupt our system of government, trash the Bill of Rights and make a mockery of our flag. Freedom is certainly not free. The price is in our duty to demand accountability and justice.

There are forces in the world that would like to see our republic destroyed. There are forces that would like to make slaves of us. Our forefathers knew this and they gave us a republic ("If you can keep it" -- Franklin) in which, by our attentiveness, our liberty would be protected.

For this liberty a free Press is needed, to monitor our own government. With our taxes we pay for three constitutionally-defined, intentionally-balanced branches of federal government including an executive administration which now features a "department of defense", whose alleged purpose is to protect us from attacks by malevolent forces.

Much of our previously free press has succumbed to the collusion of lobbies such as the National Association of Broadcasters, with the armaments industry. Its bias is in favor of wars and a domestic police-state.

The "Department of Defense" failed in 2001, resulting in the 9/11 attacks. The leaders of that department, as well as the leaders of the Executive branch, remain in power as of this writing (November, 2005).

The administrators of our republic failed again in 2004 by conducting corrupt, un-verifiable national elections. This is an affront to, and a theft from, every American.

It failed yet again in 2005 when it couldn't mobilize local militia for hurricane-relief in New Orleans. Those citizen-soldiers, meant for domestic emergencies, had been shipped overseas to a corporatist campaign of imperial conquest in the Middle East, as had been the monies originally earmarked for maintenance of the levees that could have prevented the disaster in the first place. As a result, private mercenaries, "locked and loaded", roamed the streets of that struggling American city while a complicit broadcast industry dusted off such time-tested devices as racism and class-hatred to ensure that the victims were blamed for their misfortune. Yet another division of our Executive Branch, Our Federal Emergency Management Administration, headed by inept, incompetent and carelessly-chosen political appointees, failed to provide the most basic support for the people there, and even hindered voluntary efforts by other concerned citizens to take up the slack.

No, freedom is not free. The cost of freedom is vigilance. The cost is the careful election of, and the responsible scrutiny of, those we endow with power. The cost of freedom is to monitor the activities of our governing organizations and officials, to ensure that they don't become corrupt or ineffective. In a republic that is being sold out to moneyed interests (I.E. "privatized"), and with a press that has been monopolized and maligned largely beyond any true usefulness, our duty as American civilians is to seek out the facts, to learn and organize, and to effect reform. As the citizens of this republic, we are charged with returning our hired government to its original purpose: to support and defend the Constitution.

Silence is complicit consent. To stand by, idle, and accept the lies foisted upon you through the megaphones of corrupt power, while your nation's overall financial and physical security are compromised due to reckless and un-necessary campaigns of plunder overseas as well as rampant theft by deception here at home, is not only irresponsible and juvenile: it is outright contemptible. It is entirely un-American. To avoid, discourage or try to silence the earnest exchange of ideas between citizens, regarding matters of public concern, is also entirely un-American.

You're grown up now. It's your country now. No more excuses. Do your job as a citizen. Seek out the truth and help your neighbors rescue your republic before it's too late. Do it for the people you love. Don't think for a minute that it is wise to passively endorse the lies you get from the corporatist press, when living human beings will be sacrificed for it. You owe, to those who serve in uniform in your defense, a thoroughness of consideration. This is your true duty as a civilian citizen in the world's first true democratic republic. Democracy requires more than just voting and it is not a spectator sport. Putting a magnet on your car, like a flag cheering your favorite football team, is a sorry excuse for the true discussion, debate, consideration and communication with your public officials that should go on at any time we consider sending our young in uniform out to kill and be killed. Don't shirk your duty. Mindless compliance is killing our soldiers and countless other victims AS YOU READ THIS. It is bankrupting our republic, it has made a mockery of our electoral process, and it is further endangering our physical safety and our future as a nation.

Open your Eyes! Defend your constitutional republic and DEMAND JUSTICE! Be a REAL American!

Mark Frankenberg
Former Noncommissioned Officer and Combat Veteran

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