FREEDOM

     We in America just marked the 237th year of this country's freedom.  For most of the world's population this cannot be also said.  While we have faced in the last decade or so some of these freedoms to be taken away or infringed upon we are still markedly free compared to other developing nations.  With the advent of Radical Islamist Jihadist's  rising to oppose western thought and our "decadence" we have become a nation on guard against the possibility of attack on our way of life.  Nothing is the same since 911.  Hence the fight to capture immense amounts of data hoping to intercept the next big thing.  We have become caught in the middle of ideals and overt intelligence warfare in this America of ours.  Those in power do not wish to cede any ground to the ideologies that are opposed to our way of life and in so doing some freedoms diminish.
     Born an American I am grateful for the freedoms I experience and I know it comes with cost, some of which I never paid for in terms of service to the country in a military service.  I also know that I had no choice in where I was born and so realize that I could very well been born in an Arab, Jewish or African nation.  It was my parentage only that determined the outcome.
   So I must go back to the story of one Saul of Tarsus, born a Jew, zealous for his religious heritage, who studied under Gamaliel and later was a major persecutor of "The Way."  In his way of thinking he was doing God's work in killing the heretics that were spreading a false religion. One that directly competed against Judaism.  Everything he was taught and studied came into play just at the right time to destroy the Christians that followed one who claimed to be the Son Of God and raised from the dead.  It wasn't until Jesus himself interrupted him and had to blind him for three days to get his attention and change the man's motivation forever and forevermore change history of the world.  Without that this nation would not be the same.  We get many "freedoms" from the Jewish culture and have infused many of their morals into our Judeo-Christian society.  And so our beliefs are forever infused with that past heritage.  In saying this it is not hard to understand how hard it is to fight the Jihadist's who themselves believe they are doing God's work however far  removed it is from the Koran's true teachings are.   The replication of anything is hard to eradicate once it is started.
      So I say that the freedom we enjoy now in this country is valuable and must be kept with a view in mind that any type of repression of rights tends to quash the spirit of anyone no matter what the repression concerns.  Those early Christians that were persecuted died hoping in one who guarantees the ultimate freedom of the human spirit and a life eternal in his kingdom, of course one not seen with the natural eye.  It is that hope that( I) now labor for.  Going back to the issue of defending this country I was never of a mind to join even though my father a Marine served for 20 years.  He was a technical Veteran of WWll having just entered in 1946 and served until 1964. He saw Vietnam up close and it ruined him for life.  Yet he invited marine recruiters to our home on my 16th birthday to persuade me and some of my buddies to "join-up".
    I was of a different mind and did not wish to fit the profile he wanted for me.  The very thought of killing someone else in their own land with their own beliefs was abhorrent to me.  I was not even old enough to understand this Constitution of ours.  And so his indoctrination of his belief system to me never took hold.
      And so it broke the chain....I became a believer in the one who promised a well-spring of life up from the belly,  and would never thirst any more.  One whose eyes were seeing something different and one whose mind changed it's position on many issues of life over time......
                   
                  If I were in China I would probably be in jail right now....if my parents were Chinese.....