Freedom Compromised

Freedom Compromised. By Andrew Benson Greene Jr. © (Written between May-August 2019).

At last freedom has been compromised,

In the land of the free and brave.

If only the laws were not revised,

I will run towards the foot of ‘Lady Liberty’ with hopes to be saved.

And now from the bridges of New York to New Mexico,

I can walk and talk freely in the home of the free and brave,

And listen to a volcano of voices that will re-echo,

What the ‘Founding Fathers’ in their true and distinct spirit gave.

There is a call to maintain the statuesqoe

In the home of the free and brave.

Where a throng will be lining up in search of a life of warm embrace.

From all ages and all races, not expecting to be disgraced,

Like a migrant -

Or an immigrant,

Like an asylee -

Or a refugee,

I will dash towards ‘Lady Liberty’ with assurance of being saved.

But now, I wish freedom has not been diluted

In the land of the free and brave,

And the minds of some in the land are no longer polluted

With draconian laws, now made even more grave,

In the home of the free and brave.

And ‘We the People’ are not divided into them versus us

But united in peace, freedom and a common cause

In the home of the free and brave.

Author's note: In pursuit of freedom and liberty, the founding Fathers risked everything they had to create a new nation, and a more perfect union. Schools of thought predicted that had the American Revolution failed, each of them would have faced execution – and the loss of all their property, which would have condemned their wives and children to a life of poverty and penury. It was a heart- throbbing and remarkable gamble, because most of the Founding Fathers were already wealthy, successful men. Their rebellion against England was clearly not for personal enrichment for they truly believed that the loss of freedom was worse than death.

Through those sacrifices, the founding fathers and their vision was successful in removing the shackles of tyranny. And all along the way, Liberty’s lantern was their guiding light. That's what I invoked in the poem 'what the founding fathers in their true and distinct spirit gave.

The founding Fathers of the US fretted and were concerned about liberty, freedom, morality, patriotism, the republic, democracy, Constitutional law, and American Exceptionalism. One of the founding fathers John Adams was known to have cautioned and adviced:

“You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.”

Whilst -Benjamin Franklin could turn to the consolidating the hard-earned liberty

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”

Truly believing in God's own liberty to man, Benjamin does not attribute freedom from man to man.

“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

-Benjamin Franklin

It is in Hamilton that we see the true sacrifice in furtherance of the attainment of liberty

“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”

-Alexander Hamilton

In this poem, I alluded to a 'volcano of voices that will re-echo'; ... voices that include other freedom fighters like Martin Luther King, or individual activists, lawyers, unions, organizations fighting for all forms of freedom in the U.S.; for immigrants, refugees, Senators passing legislation that help assuage such infringement of freedoms etc