Free to Dream?

The people cheer as a small privilege is once again allowed.  Aren’t you so excited?  I can go do my workout again, or maybe my kid can play a summer sport…A bar can reopen, a rural area is allowed to partially open up.  And while I am grateful to see society begin to resume operations, am I the only one who doesn’t feel a sense of satisfaction…of elation?

Don’t misunderstand me, I am not opposed to the reopening.  I think I am more bothered that we as a people are viewing the return of basic freedoms as a gift, something the government has the right to grant us.  Freedom is an inalienable right, something endowed by our Creator.  Definitely not something that can be taken away at the whims of those in power, or at least not justly.

But yet, that is now our new lens that we view liberty.  It is now something that government can remove if it is not convenient to them.  This time it was a health emergency. But what will it be next time?  Will it be that the peaceable people assembling make someone feel uncomfortable?  That is an emergency also isn’t it?  Maybe a church is teaching something deemed intolerant.  That sounds like a public emergency also.  Let’s ban all church meetings while we are at it. 

It is hard to see all the possibilities and you may read this and think I have an overactive imagination.  This time it was different.  We would never allow that to happen on those other items.  But if I told you six months ago, we would shutter society in the manner we just went through, I do not think anyone would give that prediction any credence, especially when you look at the actual impact so far.

Liberty is delicate thing.  Something to be protected and something easily lost.  Before cheering in gratitude to our leaders for giving a small bit of freedom back, maybe we should step back and ask if they had the right to take it away to begin with.

For more pondering of lost liberty, check out my novels, Call of Kayden and Free to Dream available on Amazon.