Down to the ant heap

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down - up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order - or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

- Ronald Reagan, Oct. 27, 1964

I am a Reagan Republican who will defeat Al Gore.

- George W. Bush, Feb. 28, 2000

Our Nation is blessed and bound together by a creed of freedom and equality that is entrusted to all Americans. Preserving the ideals of our founding requires the service and sacrifice of every generation, and on Loyalty Day, we celebrate the gift of liberty and remember our own obligation to this great Nation ... Loyalty Day is also a time for us to reflect on our responsibilities to our country as we work to show the world the meaning and promise of liberty. The right to vote is one of our most cherished rights and voting is one of our most fundamental duties. By making a commitment to be good citizens, flying the American flag, or taking the time to learn about our Nation's history, we show our gratitude for the blessings of freedom.

- George W. Bush, May 1, 2006

Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.

- Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

I do not advocate for the course Mr. Henry suggested that day, but when a self-proclaimed Reagan Republican proclaims a day in which "we celebrate the gift of liberty and remember our own obligation to this great Nation" - as if we owe the Nation for granting us rights that were once declared "unalienable" - and a day in which we "reflect on our responsibilities to our country as we work to show the world the meaning and promise of liberty" - as if we have a responsibilty to send soldiers far and wide to enforce the promise of liberty at the point of a gun - one wonders how we wandered so far astray.

Some, even Mr. Henry himself, argued that the battle was lost as long ago as when the Articles of Confederation were usurped by the Constitution. I find myself reflecting that the war was lost in the 1964 election that occurred shortly after Reagan's speech - for by the time Reagan became president, and certainly after he was shot, even Reagan seemed willing to trade freedom for security. And today, security - not freedom - seems to hold the higher value in so many minds.

Henry's speech - which concludes famously "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - came a month after Lexington, after government troops had fired upon the Massachusetts militiamen who were defending their homes. The shooting war, Henry noted, had already begun.

I can't argue with history. Violence - and persistance over the next eight years - won American independence from Britain. But these are different times. Folks like Gandhi and Martin Luther King have shown the power of ideas; as Alan Moore wrote in V for Vendetta, "Ideas are bulletproof." And the tyrants of the 20th century showed you can slaughter people by the millions and still fail to defeat an idea as powerful as liberty. In fact, those tyrants by their actions simply proved how evil an unrestrained government can be and how futile is the "solution" of killing one's enemies.

At the end of the Vendetta film, a crowd of people brush past a cadre of armed guards, armed themselves with nothing but an idea: We are going through you in the name of that idea, and you will have to kill us all or let us through. Perhaps unrealistically, the soldiers let them pass. The crowd could not know, however, that the soldiers would do so. They had to be prepared to be killed, without killing in retaliation, to achieve the goal of living in peace and freedom.

How many such deaths would it take before we know that too many people have died? How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free? I don't claim to know the answer. I do know the Vendetta crowd had one answer: Stand up to the threat of violence and be free anyway. Perhaps the soldiers' decision to stand down was unrealistic, or perhaps it was perfectly realistic: Even the tyrants who opened fire have never managed to kill every soul yearning to be free, and they never will.

Stand up. Be free. The oppressor just may surprise you and stand down. And even if he doesn't, you're still free.