Action ... This Day! Action!

sometimes it seems that the "free-er" we think we are the less free we actually are. Do we really as Americans believe that we are as free as we think we are or do a lot of us just pretend we are because to admit that we are not as free as we think we are would be to deny the basis of everything we think we believe in?

our whole society is built on the concept of freedom (supposedly) and yet every day we compromise on that freedom either by direct choice, by default, or by representational choice.

As an example i believe that everyone should be free to be whatever and whoever they want to be so long as it does no one else any direct harm .... yet i restrict my own freedom by choice through belonging to groups and associations that have set standards of conduct or standards for membership or standards of whatever else (dress, behavior, temperament, age, etc. [You fill in your favorite restriction here] .... and i do all this by direct choice because as i determine within my own mind, the benefits of compromising freedom of action or thought etc. are more valuable (or perceived to be more valuable) then insisting upon my total freedom of action or thought.

we also agree by default to limit our personal freedom to do as we wish (again within the stricture of "first do no harm") by not taking a more active role in public policy debates or by taking personal action regarding things we care deeply about. Most of us tend to belong to the vast grey muddled-mass who live by the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil and do the same with the good too" philosophy of "if it doesn't directly affect me -- don't involve me" theory.

i am more and more tempted to try to live more like those of whom Theodore Roosevelt spoke so eloquently when he penned the words:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

"Man in the Arena" Speech given April 23, 1910

and again in the same vein:

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. "

too often it is the fear of being seen as different, the fear of ridicule, the fear of being cast out or reviled that keeps even the seemingly mightiest of us standing silent on the sidelines of life imprisoned by those fears and limited by them thusly in our freedoms and because not everyone will approve or perhaps no one else will approve of our actions we remain chained even at the price of our own personal happiness.

too often as well we as Americans are wont to exclaim as did the Pharisee's and leaders of the Jewish nation in New Testament times (and i will contextually paraphrase for our times) ...

"but we are Americans and have always been free .... and have never been slaves of anyone."

Yet we are slaves to fashion, slaves many times to "keeping up with the Jones'", slaves to the telephone, the television, the computer, the commute, the [_________] (you fill in the blank). and despite knowing deep in our hearts that we are so enslaved we keep on fooling ourselves and rationalizing it away because we are safer and comfortable just being .... not rocking the boat or making waves or forbid making a determined stand regarding things we care about without FEAR but rather acting upon our principles ... still we sit patiently for someone else to do the hard work of making the first move or starting the ball rolling while we test the current and prevailing winds of fashion or opinion before deciding if we will get on the bandwagon or watch it roll on without us and meekly accept whatever outcome is ultimately decided upon.

Sir Winston Churchill, i believe, said it better than most ...

"The price of greatness is responsibility. "

"It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."

as also did his contemporary in time Franklin D. Roosevelt:

"First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. "

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

Truly the only freedoms worth having are those which are worth fighting for, striving for, working for and yes even dying for....

so what is it that is most important to you??? freedom of thought, freedom of action, freedom of [_____________] (again you insert yours here).

Is is worth putting your time and effort into it even if not a single other person in the entire universe agrees with you?

If it is not then continue as at present ... unimpeeded and unencumbered.

but if it is, then there is but one course that you MUST take .... ACTION THIS DAY!!!!