Today is the day when we celebrate Liberty — the foundation of our Constitution. It is what our Founding Fathers and their followers have fought and died for. It is the reason why Americans are exceptional. It is why tens of millions of immigrants, rich and poor, from all over the world have come to our country. It is why we are innovative, adventurous and created the level of technological advancements, affluence and the power of a single country the world has never seen.
And yet, this July 4th, I am not in a celebratory mood.
Liberty may be a right that we are born with. But it is not a guarantee that we will always be able to retain it. Turns out, the enemy that could take away our liberty is not USSR or Russia or China or Iran or any imaginable evil foreign empire. The enemies who are threatening our Liberty, our most basic American value, are our neighbors, church members, our elected officials and strangers who happened to be our fellow Americans living across towns, cities, states.
In the past few years, we have witnessed and experienced Americans attacking each other, demanding and forcing others to give up their beliefs, their way of lives, their sexual and gender preferences, their freedom of speech and even control of their own bodies.
Americans everywhere have sought to use the power of our democratic system to enforce Conformity which is the sworn enemy of Liberty. Corrupted politicians are just too happy to lead the attacks, to strip away Liberty, to install Conformity so they can cling on to their elected positions and continue with their corrupted lives.
Liberty is the most delicate ideology/belief/illusion of mankind. Liberty cannot exist in a vaccum. It must be nurtured by all of us and protected by all of us. Your Liberty only exist when I fight for yours. My Liberty only exist when you fight for mine. Liberty can only thrive when we restrain our animalistic reflex to eliminate and suppress differences and objections.
Liberty will shrink and wither away when only some Americans have it while others don’t. When one free American’s liberty has been stripped away, all of our Liberty has been stripped away. Your Liberty and my Liberty can only exist and survive when ALL of our Liberty exist and survive together, at the same time.
Our Constitution does not demand or need Conformity to survive. But without Liberty, our Constitution will fall. Without Liberty, what is American? Without Liberty, what is July 4th?
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