Dear Editor: Are We Really Free?

Dear Editor,

I’m just gonna say it outright, “Unless & until we know who we are, we will never be truly free.”

With that said, I want to quote from ‘The Divine Right of Kings’, a blogpost I made about 5 years ago.

“The question might well be asked, even though we won the War for Independence (AKA The Revolutionary War), have we ever really left the British Empire? Sure, you may say that we beat them back from our shores & sent them running back to England with their tails between their legs, but did we really become independent of them and their influence, as was our main reason for armed revolt? We may have, through our Founding Fathers, signed (with much danger and hardship) a Declaration of Independence, drafted our own Constitution and decentralized power, at least, compared to what it was, but have we ever been truly free of their ‘evil’?’

As I was going through my Facebook notifications this morning (it is the afternoon of the Fourth as I write this: ‘May the Fourth be with you!’), I came across a post that got me to thinking. Many who will read this letter are probably familiar with the recent post, in Whitehall Classifieds I believe, concerning the Fire Department’s recommendation against the lighting of fireworks this Fourth of July. The post generated quite a furor, with some for and some against the whole notion. This, as well as the former post, lends credence to the question alluded to above. “Are we really as free as we think we are?”

One line in that former post ran something like this; ‘we are celebrating our independence using fireworks that are largely, if not wholly made in China’. Now, if that ain’t ironic, I don’t know what is! That, though, is not the point of this letter. The point is ‘have we ever been truly free of their ‘evil’?’ Speaking of the British empire, of course, has not the United States, with the help of Great Britain, among others, done their best (worst?) to establish the American Empire? We go to war as quickly (easily?) as any Empire in recorded history ever did, we are as corrupt (behind the scenes) as any hierarchy or oligarchy ever was and we have enslaved at least as many people as any other nation ever did. In fact, this last point is largely what, if I understand correctly, The War Between the States (Civil War) was fought over.

If indeed we were truly free, do you think we would be continuously fighting for it?! Now, please don’t get me wrong. I support our troops, who, we are told, are ‘over there, fighting for our freedom’. They are, ostensibly, fighting for our ‘freedom’, such as it is, but again, can we truly say we are free? Yes, in many ways, we are more free than, say, Russia (China?), or one of those obscure, war-torn Baltic States, but, for instance, if we were truly free, do you think we would need a license for pretty much everything we do, including permission to erect a fence in our own yard or build an outbuilding on our own land, not to mention paying taxes on that land?! What we call ‘freedom’ ain’t exactly what our forefathers called ‘freedom’. Going further back, it ain’t what the noble savages we replaced called ‘freedom’. And we could go back even further!

Lest this letter become too long; ‘does it really matter that the overwhelming majority of our fireworks come from China and are made, ostensibly again, using ‘slave labor’? Does it matter that our ‘freedom’, such as it is, came & comes largely on the backs of slaves (even if they don’t realize it)? Whatever your answer to these questions might be, or even if you agree with the impetus behind these questions; I, as always, invite your discussion, whether in print or in person: you ARE free to disagree!

Here’s the link to ‘The Divine Right of Kings; https://charlesshank.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-divine-right-of-kings.html

Charles Haddon Shank

Whitehall, Montana