Freedom from Fear

 

Freedom from FEAR

When I listed the Four Freedoms as a menu feature in my blog, it was done because, when we think about the definition of freedom and what it means, these are truths. President Franklin D. Roosevelt named these freedoms in a speech he gave during World War II: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

The army department commissioned artist Norman Rockwell, then illustrating for “The Saturday Evening Post,” to create an illustration of a machine gun runner in need of ammunition. He did so, but, Mr. Rockwell wanted to do more and decided to illustrate Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. The rest is history. To read more about this, please click here and click here.

I have always been struck by these concepts of freedom. Rockwell’s painted depiction of them, which is world renown, is impressive. I am particularly stuck by Freedom from Fear. There is something so ordinary about the setting, that is, until you focus on the newspaper’s caption held in the father’s hand. It is this caption that many miss. Even in reinterpreted reproductions of this scene, the newspaper’s caption is somehow missed, and I don’t understand why.

Today, aside from everyday fears of death and paying taxes, we are bombarded by new and/or renewed fears. Fears such as loss of liberties and freedoms granted to us by our constitution, national Socialism/Communism, higher than average gas prices, inflation, stagflation, foreign invasion into our country, loss of food on store shelves, rise in diseases, censorship, government oversight into our bank accounts, lack of police protection, rise in crime, indoctrination of our children in schools, the list can go on and on. These are only a few of the fears we face individually and as a nation.   

These should not be the fears of the average American, but today’s America is a very different place. We are afraid. We don’t want to stand out because we might get called out. We are less likely to shift our ideas from wrong to right. We end up going along to get along while our nation crumbles at our feet. Maudlin concept and words, I know. I suppose it isn’t as bad as all that, but close.

Clichés abound around the idea of overcoming fear, ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ that kind of thing. Fear is real. It’s the ugly cousin of trust. When trust is lost, fear sets in. We experience this daily, from trusting a loved one to fearing their anger when domestic violence sets in. We trust in job security then fear the loss of that job when told to comply with something we don’t believe in, especially when there is no guarantee the job will be permanent if you comply. You can be fired at any time, regardless of compliance or not. We trust that our privacy is secure when using our electronic devices but fear intrusion from government oversight into our electronic searches. We trust that our children are taught the three basic R's called Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic, but fear outside influences of teaching propaganda for indoctrination purposes.

We should have the right to be free from fear. In this context, free from the fear of those things within our control. Those things outside our control, i.e., national security, safeguarding our freedoms as identified in the constitution, etc., are for our elected officials to concern themselves, which is why we elected them. Speaking of which, we should also feel free of these concerns as well.

We, the people, control what we can. I’ve heard so many politicians speak of what the American people want or don’t want. I often wonder about that and who they’re talking about. No one I know has ever been asked what we want or don’t want, especially in a non-election year. So that got me thinking. In electing these politicians, I suppose they feel that they embody the masses of Americans they speak for. In saying the American people want this or don’t want that, they are speaking for themselves—not us. They think they are the many. They think they embody the many of their district who elected them, so they speak for us regardless of what we actually think. I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

I hope that makes sense.

We have three branches of government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. How do bureaucrats fit in exactly? To read more about them in the they department, please click here. In my opinion, politicians who care about America need to be out where Americans are to hear their voices and find out, truly find out, what it is we want. Then take that message back to engage in debate on how to achieve it. It can’t be that hard, or should I say, it shouldn’t be that hard.

I know it’s complicated. We’ve made it complicated over the years, but freedom means something. We have enough to fear without the thought of losing this God-given right to free will, life, liberty, and happiness over to bureaucrats and those in government who think they know better.

Freedom from Fear. It sounds good.   

~DaMarie

Photo Courtesy of Etienne Girardet