Do I Care About Our Soldiers Lives?
Do I care about our soldiers?
I once worked at this tobacco store inside of this famous Austin coffee shop.
There was this guy who would come in a few times a week to buy his smokes and have coffee. He'd walk up to my counter first, money tightly gripped in his quaking fist and ask for his brand of smokes while his eyes would dart everywhere and intermittently assess me. Was I a friend or foe? I don't think this guy had experienced a sense of safety in a very long time. He never talked more than to place his order, almost like he only did this because he had to buy his smokes somewhere and it was his therapist's prescribed homework for his socialization.
When I first met "Harold," my first thought was, "Oh my god, what happened to you?" It was love at first sight. His eyes were blue.
He reminded me of a younger version of my grandfather.
He always wore his army jacket and hat even on the hottest days of our Texas summers and he mostly walked and bused everywhere he went, he never told me this, I observed it.
I walked out into the coffee shop one day and saw him, sitting at a table hunched over head half-way down, paralyzed. I thought, "He really needs to take off that jacket he's sweating to death." Then I got a closer look. He wasn't sweating he was crying. His face was blanched pale.
Some one had come in to tell me they were worried about him. They were uncomfortable. They thought he was crazy or dangerous. But Harold wasn't crazy or dangerous, he was a sane man that had been severely traumatized when he was too innocent to know how to cope with it for the rest of his life.
Sometimes he would sit there at his table eyes staring out the open double doors and rock, back and forth, Tears streaming down his face, his eyes locked in grief and terror. I wanted to reach out to him.
I wanted to hold him and make it all go away. But I couldn't.
He would only have been more frightened.
I tried. I did the best I could.
The only reason I found out his name was, after many dealings with me in the smoke shop he felt remarkably safe to tell me when I finally felt it was ok to ask.
And then one day I noticed he started wearing pressed white button down shirts under his jacket and his face was shaved.
This was remarkable to me. I said to him, "You look very nice today Harold." He almost smiled.
It was beautiful. He was beautiful.
When ever anyone remarked about him, his strangeness…
I would say to them, "How would You feel if you had seen what He has seen and had to live with it? How would You cope?
Why don't you put your self in His shoes for just a moment, maybe you are making Him feel uncomfortable."
Do I care? I care A Lot.
What is freedom?
Here is one definition…
0. A Definition of Freedom
0. By Julie Watner
0.
0. ?Freedom is a mental condition-a condition of the spirit. All of us are free, if we but choose to acknowledge it. To borrow from Rose Wilder Lane, freedom is control of self. The essence of your "self" is your mind, soul, and spirit. We all are always free to change our thoughts, improve our knowledge and understanding, change our attitudes and beliefs-the inner part of each of us. We do need more folks to recognize that they already are FREE!
0. Liberty is a condition of the physical body: the absence of physical restraints. We seek liberty to use our resources, time, intelligence, and energy in the most beneficial (to us) way.
0. A productive, healthy society of freedom-and liberty-minded individuals is not to be confused with a libertine one. The conditions of liberty and freedom, above all, require individual responsibility in every phase of life. Each of us must take the consequences of our actions, good and bad. This is not easy, especially with our Big Brother the State standing by to present at least the illusion of "help" with every aspect of our lives.
0. Because the root of the problem (irresponsibility) is so ingrained, trying to convince others to live the freedom ideas through slogans, speeches, and hype is usually short on results. At best they provide the spark which causes an individual to seek out new information.
0. The "library of freedom"-books, pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines-not only documents man's quest from ancient times forward, but also is an important, longer lasting way to spread the word and fan the spark of interest into a flame.
0. But "plain-Jane" and unexciting as it sounds, I believe the most effective way to spread the freedom idea is to educate ourselves and raise our children to be honest, knowledgeable, confident, responsible lovers of freedom-to light a single candle. If each one of us lights another candle, and each of those follows suit, the freedom ideas will grow from a quiet bonfire to a WILDFIRE engulfing everything in its path.
0. Living in an environment of liberty and freedom is akin to being a parent-it is the best of times; it is the worst of times. With neither can you ever relax your vigilance, there is always work to be done, you are always being called upon to exercise new skills, and improve upon old ones. There is a tremendous amount of worry involved, also discouragement and uncertainty. On the other hand, it is hard to convey to a non-parent, just as to a statist, the joys, rewards, exhilaration, and satisfactions that make the responsibilities worthwhile. You just have to have faith, jump in, and DO IT!
Editor's Note: This essay was the winner in a contest sponsored by The Customer Company. The stated object of a one-page essay was to define freedom and suggest the best way to implement it.
http://users.aol.com/vlntryst/defin.html
or,
Main Entry: free·dom
Pronunciation: 'frE-d&m
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous
2 a : a political right b : FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE
synonyms FREEDOM, LIBERTY, LICENSE mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion. FREEDOM has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated
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What is Hope?
HOPE-
v., hoped, hop·ing, hopes.
v.intr.
0. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
Archaic. To have confidence; trust.
Should I be grateful that to our leaders I have been reduced to, "John Q. Public?"
First of all I am a WOMAN. So, by these standards, this does not even include Me. I don't even exist to George bush because I am a woman.
And Men… If it is okay with you to be reduced to this, well, that is your Choice.
But I would like to point out one VERY IMPORTANT thing, man woman or child,
No One can give you your Freedom. No One can give you Hope.
I find it arrogant that anyone believes they can give this to anyone.
Just as an aside, arrogance can be a great gift, but it is also a fatal flaw.
Unfortunately, it is fatal, in this case for our soldiers, their families, our society and likewise for the nations our Most Exalted Public Servant chooses to set his sights on.
No One person or country should be forced to define itself by one ideality of anyone else.
Did you ever think that perhaps the People of Iraq would rather not change their entire way of life to accommodate the dictates of the United States of America's fundamental philosophies?
What makes you think that we are giving them Any kind of reason to have Hope? Do you think they feel Free right now?
The violence that ensues in Freedom's name is blasphemous and completely contradictory of the essence of what freedom is by definition.
You cannot be given anything that it is only possible in your mind and heart to achieve.
It is those that create war that do not feel free.
They do not feel free to control and dominate every aspect of their existence and at heart do not feel free in their existence. Two different meanings here noun and verb.
I Am Free! I am hope-full, because I choose to be in the reality of this dark world. I see a light that shines as the spirit of every woman, man and child. If you could see in your self what I see in you…
You, sacrificing your self on The Alter of fear and self- denial does not create a sense of freedom or hope for me. It inspires me to write my songs and sing them. It inspires me to create all around me in my own quirky way... the world I know we will achieve eventually… but it will not be accomplished through acts of Fear.
Do I care about the individuals that are soldiers?
To the very core of my being I do.
I am choosing Not to be a Freedom Fighter but a Freedom Lover.
I do not fight what I want to be but simply let it happen.
What you fight you push away but what you embrace was already yours to begin with.
Freedom is mine because I choose to be Free.
My brother Harold fought for freedom but I would venture to guess that He doesn't feel free… not any more. Do I care about that?
I Care a f&%$ing Lot
Because the Point in Living is to More than Just Survive,
~DEVAH