Have you ever sat alone at a campfire and felt the warmth of roaring flames alive and dancing against a curtain of stars on a cold crisp night?
I have!
Those types of moments generate the best musings with twinkling stars in the blackness gleaming back at you while your mind wonders at the infinite.
Just being in the outdoors stirs thoughts of liberty and freedom. I go over them again and again in my mind.
What is liberty and freedom? How did these concepts materialize? Why is America founded on these principles? Are there any historical documents that warrant further exploration?
The last few years I have been contemplating liberty.
Sadly, the flames of liberty our forefathers created over 200 years ago have been reduced to mere embers, fading in the night sky. Those embers slowly drift away, whispering the sound of dying liberty, and I can feel chills running down my spine; it is a haunting feeling.
I imagine these pioneering intellectuals around the campfire with me…in silence, I can almost hear their words echoing on the pages of the manuscripts they wrote.
Founding Father Flames
I look around beside me and see influential figures such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. These men were true lovers of liberty, and they sacrificed their time and energy and even risked their lives to stoke the fires of freedom.
Envision their passionate debating as they drafted our inheritance papers…these revolutionary, extraordinary, documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and the United States of America’s Federal Constitution.
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams would tell you the different edits that each prefers for the Declaration of Independence to ensure maximum displeasure to the lunatic King George III of Great Britain.
Adams was the plump fellow in the corner that would sit quietly until you said a bold statement. He would then debate you politely but provided extremely factual arguments persuading on why you were wrong.
While Jefferson would swear that every word was written with clear intent, Adams would insist that these edits were necessary.
Jefferson was the better political poet over Adams. Jefferson had an extremely significant role in drafting his state constitution preparing him for the great work ahead.
Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton was like your annoying little brother who would throw gunpowder into the fire making everyone jump away. Instead of whispering his words of wisdom, he would yell at you while flipping you a friendly 18th-century insult at the same time.
This charisma made him one of the fundamental characters in writing The Federalist Papers (The Liberty Guidebook to our Constitution), and though he was brash, he could convince to adopt the Constitution.
United States of America’s Federal Constitution
Our campfire conversation grows louder with multiple opinions from our forefathers involved in drafting the Constitution.
Some would say that we shouldn’t have ever adopted this document because it gave too much federal power to the government. Can you hear the dissenting voices in favor of returning to the Articles of Confederation?
Others would implore us to add additional amendments to secure more liberty and freedom for Americans…these spirited men are the very reason we have the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights.
Consequences of Abandoning Liberty
After listening to the echoes of our campfire guests, you too may be feeling cold chills down your spine, haunted by the realization that none of this liberty came easy and none of our freedoms are a guarantee.
We must know the consequences of taking liberty for granted within our daily lives.
1.Our liberty will always come at a cost.
Either that fire will continue to be fed by a constant awareness or the flame will extinguish. We want those campfire embers to stay lit with our tenacity and hard work actively stoking and defending the principles that uphold liberty. Our forefathers give us an example of the sacrifices to maintain the very ideas constructing our reality.
2. Our future generations will not enjoy the same quality of life as we do.
We are so worried about the present that we do not think of the future. We often look back at history and think, why did they let their freedoms go? How could they let this happen? It is the slow, seemingly harmless loss of freedom that is the most dangerous to society. It occurs right before our eyes, and we believe the lie that it is for our benefit and safety.
3. Our lost liberties will never be restored.
Unfortunately, there is a pattern in history. Once freedom has been lost, taken for granted and forgotten, it can only be regained through revolution and ultimate sacrifice. It is our responsibility to stoke the fires of liberty NOW so that our grandchildren do not have to make the ultimate sacrifice to be free.
