Free Enough

There's a conversation a little over half way through The Liberty Pole in which one character asks an other "Haven't you ever wanted to be free?" to which the second replies "I'm free enough," and she means it. There is no hesitation, no thought on what that truly means. She is simply free enough.

I've been thinking about that line since jotting it down perhaps three or four years ago. I think the idea originally came from a story my dad used to tell me when I was little about how many people would prefer the promise of one meal a day (or a loaf of bread) than the possibility of more without it being guaranteed. These people preferred dependency, no matter the cost.

So I started thinking: just what does one give up as payment to a government that says "We will cloth you. We will feed you. We will put a roof over your head. We will make sure you are educated in our school systems." The list goes on and on, and if you ask where the money comes from, often there's not a clear understanding of it by the ones taking it. Well, contrary to what some people may think, there's not a stash of money somewhere and a country can't just print new money off any time they please and continue to function. So, if nothing in life is free, as they say, what does one have to give up in order to obtain these things?

It starts out slow, but the more dependent one becomes on the government, the more personal freedoms are ebbed away. All you have to do is look at the tyrannies of the generations before us: freedom of expression is smothered, freedom of belief is hampered, and freedom of choice is eventually taken from you. Once you become dependent on an entity they have the ability to move you in the direction that you wish to go and the chains of oppression weigh you down until they have taken every bit of your will from you. In the end, it seems like the most natural thing in the world to follow in line. One right after another. One step, then two, straight towards the edge of the cliff and on over.

I hold a very firm belief that slavery is not natural. To be oppressed is not a state in which mankind was meant to live upon his creation. Freedom is a worthy goal, and also one of the highest ones we can hope to attain in this life. Those that grab for power at the expense of the people to whom this country belongs would have us believe we are free. They would have us be like Ellie, the woman in the novel that believes she is "free enough," and to go through life with the blinders fixed well so that we might not see what is happening around us and the cotton stuffed deeply in our ears so we might not hear. All the while they promise bigger and better things if we'll just give a little more of that freedom away. If we'll consent that we are free enough, even if we're not free at all. They tell us everything will be alright and they smile while they snap the cuffs on our wrists, hang the weights down on the chains, and march us straight over that cliff.

"When liberty is the prize, who would shun the warfare? Who would stoop to waste a coward thought on life? We esteem no sacrifice too great, no conflict too severe, to redeem our inestimable rights and privileges." 

                                                                         Dr. Joseph Warren, 1774

Words, Words, Words

Image via kalyan02
Flickr Creative Commons

As a writer, I think quite a bit on words. What do they mean, how do they fit, and what are the best collections of words to paint the picture of the world that I want to share with the readers? I often wake up with a stream of conversation between characters running through my mind, or a scene playing out, or any number of things, but it all comes back to words. Believe me, putting as much time as I do into thinking on this can be a bit disrupting in life, but I think that it can gives a bit of a different view than others that are not in the business of weaving words. 

Words are powerful, as they should be. After all, as Franklin said, the pen is mightier than the sword, and that is a continuous truth. 

I think this is also why people fear words. When you look to history and start noting similarities in societies  that begin to take that horrible spiral into despotism, there are trends that can be found. Freedom of speech and of the press is either limited or eliminated and knowledge is severely suppressed, often in the form of limiting citizens' access to the written word. While at university the question was posed by a professor why there did not appear to be any art or creativity in the society in the book that we were reading (which took place in a totalitarian state). I stated that artists have always been known to push limits, and that a government that does not acknowledge natural freedoms would not be keen to allow those limits to be pushed. It would threaten them. It would threaten their power.

Image via LordJim
Flckr Creative Commons

It's interesting to think, as citizens of the United States of America, a pioneer in freedom and liberty, that our speech is stifled every day. Our words, thoughts, and beliefs are put under scrutiny, and if we do not toe this imaginary line (one that seems to keep changing without warning) we are labeled. It's as if we've been put in the corner with a dunce hat. Peer pressure will, after a while, encourage all the other students in the room to point and laugh, the words lost and the meanings trampled, even if they might have been worth something. 

Every thought is worth something, even if not implementable. 

Political Correctness has muzzled free speech, causing people to have to internally debate every syllable of every word before speaking them for fear of being called a bigot, a hater, a [insert group of people]-phobe, a racist, or any other number of derogatory terms that are regularly attributed to people that do not adhere to Political Correctness. It stifles meaning and drowns out personal freedoms of expression. Instead of risking offense, we are expected curb our own personal opinions, our own beliefs in many cases, so that they are aligned with what is considered the correct way of thinking in society. All in line. One after another. Just keep marching.

How does this encourage growth? How does a society move forward in such a way? If the Elite (a group nearly as difficult to define as that PC line that we're expected to toe) is able to choose what is right or wrong and demand that you silence any disagreement with it (lest you be called one of the aforementioned names), then they have full control over the direction that society moves in. They have the reigns, and we (the citizens of this nation) become the animal that has been broken in and easily maneuvered the way they wish us to go. 


They control the words and they control the meaning of words. I remember during the '08 elections that a man called into a talk show host on the radio and told the host that he was a racist. The host asked how he came to that conclusion, and the caller stated that it was because he disagreed with Barack Obama, therefore he must be a racist. This was interesting, because I never realized that to disagree with someone on a set of beliefs was to hold a prejudice against them. I suppose that's why I'm not very good at toeing that invisible line. 

Kudos to the person that put this together
It's been floating around FaceBook for a bit now

Words are important. Words are powerful. If a group of people can twist words to mean what they want them to mean or can intimidate another group of people into silence the second group is shackled. Think back, once again, to American history. In many places in America, free speech and freedom of the press was stifled by the British just before the Revolution broke out. Before the Civil War, it was illegal to teach a slave to read. They were not allowed to speak their minds, they were not allowed to put forth their own thoughts in most cases. Why was this? To keep them subservient. Once a voice was heard saying "You cannot own me, I'm a human being" it gained strength. When Americans gathered in Boston and spoke of God-given rights that King George and Parliament could not take from them, it threatened England's authority. 

If you claim to be free, speak boldly, for if you choose to bow to the passing whims of Political Correctness you give up that freedom and enslave yourself to it. Respect those whose views differ from your own. You can always learn something from them. Believe strongly and keep faith in your ideals. It is only by voicing those thoughts that you can change the world around you into a better place. Stand firmly for what is right. People will always speak lies around you, but know for yourself where you come from so that you do not have to rely on their opinions for validation. 

I've been listening to the words of a man that I have a great amount of respect for. That respect grows each time I hear him speak. I'll close out this post with Dr. Ben Carson's words and his thoughts on the matter.

A Character in the Making: Freedom Lewis

I tend to reserve this blog for historical and social/political musings, but every once and a while I may branch out into a bit more. Today is one of those days. I usually begin with a bit on history, but sadly this has little to do with our foundings and more to do with my own personal history in finding a place for a character that I created in my writings.

My second semester at university I enrolled in a philosophy class. The class itself obviously had little effect on me as I remember very few things about it. I believe it was in the morning, one of the books we read was Pride and Prejudice, the teacher had an affinity for knee-high boots, and it was during one of these classes that Freedom was born.

No, this is not meant to be some grand statement on the liberation of the mind, but an acknowledgement of finding the face and name of a character that I have grown to love very dearly. She had a heart-shaped face and dark hair that was bunched into dreadlocks. At the time she had several peircings (that she has since grown out of in her expansion as a character), a Chi Rho tattoo on her wrist, and was a bit of a gypsy. She was a free spirt and, because of this, she was very quickly given the name Freedom.

"Freedom's Dance" (c) 2006
(excuse the old, terrible art!)

She was fun, but I really had no place for her. She really was a free spirit roaming about my works with no place to settle down in. She had no setting, no family, and she didn't even have a last name that suited her. Every time I tried, it just didn't work. She wouldn't have any of it. So I continued to let her wander through my artwork, settling into a short story here and there where I tried with everything I had to come up with a backstory. It didn't fit.

For a short time in 2007 I was working on a story that I don't believe ever had a solid name attached to it. The idea was to take a look at various underground movements in culture and really dive into them. (I was a sophomore in college, it was that "finding yourself" bit I've mentioned before.) I thought that Freedom would be a nice balance for the characters, many whom would have fought and bickered regularly and her sweet spirit would act as a buffer.

That story line was fairly short lived. I moved on, working on other ideas that floated about in my mind, and Freedom resumed her status as my wandering character. She landed a brief stint in a short story that I wrote for a creative writing class that has since been lost.

Freedom on a political poster
(c) 2009

Then came the summer of 2009. While I have always been interested in politics, this was when I became vocal and active in various events, including peaceful protests. I noticed that many people created hand-written signs and the like, but as a cartoonist I was interested in using the hobby for something more than just enjoyment. As an artist, my art needed to mean something. So I began sketching and dug out my markers, hoping that they wouldn't dry out on the much larger project than they were used to.  Freedom, having no story home and being very much a favorite of mine, took center stage for my own poster.
Her peircings were gone and I still did not have a solid skin tone or eye color for her, but she was perfect.

Fall of 2009 rolled around and school began again. I had begun to think about a dystopian book project that would eventually form up into what has become The Liberty Pole. I knew at the time that I wanted many if not all of the characters to be heavily based off of historical figures. I had Nathan Thompson, a spy deep undercover in enemy territory that was based off of America's first spy Nathan Hale. I had Joseph Diem, a character that was originally meant to be based off of the fantastic Dr. Joseph Warren, though the character's father (Warren Diem) really took on more of the founder's personality as I wrote. I had the general in Alec Lewis, a silent and sturdy man that may bring about thoughts of George Washington, and, of course, there is the novel's lead protagonist: Bethany Adams.

As I began doodling out characters and forming up plot ideas I remember thinking how well Freedom Lewis flowed. As I thought more on it, on Alec and his wife Margie, on their adopted son Nathan, and on Bethany who was in great need of a friend to help her through the trials she faced, Freedom seemed the only plausible answer. After all, a young woman that goes by the name Freedom simply belongs in a story that's plot line is the struggle for liberty.

"Let Freedom Ring"
(c) 2010

"Freedom is Never Free"
(c) 2010

I can't begin to describe how excited I was to finally have found a place for this beloved character. She had a name, a past, and a family that she loved. It was just so right that I'm not sure how I could have ever pictured her in any other story line. There was no forcing her into the plot, there was no awkward shifting of other characters to accommodate her. She belonged in The Liberty Pole.

Most characters (or at least mine) set out on their journey at the beginning of the story that they are in. Alec, Bethany, Nathan, and the other characters of The Liberty Pole developed as I wrote, telling their story. Freedom, to me, had already been through so much. There was no questioning what she would do in a situation, because I knew the character inside and out. I knew her wants, her dreams, and her desires. It was comfortable.

I feel I'm having a hard time wrapping this post up, but I think that's because her story's not quite over. It may never be, as I do hope that others will enjoy her journey as much as I have. I would dare think that every writer would hope to produce something of worth that will change the status-quo and shake up the wrongs of this world and it would be well within this particular character's personality to be involved in that.

Freedom Lewis
(c) 2012