Column: A new year brings with it new demands, choices for all of us

Staff

Published Tuesday, December 30, 2003

By David Behling, Tribune columnist

Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light, but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.

- Ursula Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan

I've used the quote above to start columns in the past, but always in connection with Independence Day or some other patriotic celebration. It's the most accurate statement of what "freedom" feels like that I've ever read, because it describes the responsibilities that go with being completely in charge of our decision-making. Freedom, with it's insistence on us saying either "Yes" or "No" all the time, can be a very scary burden.

On the threshold of a new year these seem like the appropriate words to be holding in our minds as we look to the decisions we know we'll have to make and prepare, as best we can, for those that will come upon us unexpectedly.

If we find ourselves holding on to our fears and anger too firmly and acting out of ignorance, we will find it hard to reach the end we all want: a world with freedom and justice for all.

It has not been an especially good year for freedom in America. Our war against a tenacious and unscrupulous enemy continues with no clear end in sight. Many of our soldiers fight and die in foreign lands, while others stand guard at our borders and throughout our country, protecting us from those who continue to hope our courage and endurance will weaken.

However, our freedom is not just endangered by enemies who are out there somewhere, intentionally trying to destroy us; there are dangers to freedom here at home, as well.

Our obsession with security as we fight these conflicts has led us to allow our leaders to ignore the documents and institutions that are supposed to guarantee our rights and freedoms. Others have argued these points more eloquently than I, but it's worth pointing out again that we lose everything if we give up the freedoms we have in order to fight our enemies.

If current trends in our country continue, our enemies will have won without having to actually defeat us.

How are our freedoms being jeopardized?

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When fellow citizens are imprisoned without charges, with no access to attorneys and family members.

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When trials are held in secret, before military tribunals, with normal rules about evidence and innocence suspended.

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When we send suspected enemies to other countries to be tortured until they "confess" to something.

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When the police can search our homes or spy on us using warrants issued by secret courts.

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When our leaders lie to us or manipulate the information they have in order to gain support for wars.

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When people who criticize our current warmongering are portrayed as cowards or accused of treason.

Our freedom has always depended on our ability to recognize and resist anything that threatens it, and on making sure our elected representatives remember that we have rights and they have responsibilities.

The current disregard for constitutionally protected judicial procedures is especially troubling. It isn't easy defending the rights of people who are accused of terrible crimes, but dispensing with the procedures that protect us from false imprisonment or secret trials endangers all of us. In A Man for all Seasons, the playwright Robert Bolt says it most eloquently when his hero, Sir Thomas More, responds to criticism of the way the "law" protects his enemies. More says "This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast

... and if you cut them down, d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that blow then?" When our rights are ignored in order to punish our enemies, what will we do when unscrupulous leaders gain power? What will protect us from them?

As we enter the fray of another election year, I hope that we citizens remember the burdens our freedom brings, and ponder the consequences of giving up our rights in the name of security. Our journey towards fairness, equality and freedom for all will move forward only if we avoid the chasms of tyranny and injustice that lie on either side of our path.

(David Behling is a rural resident of Albert Lea. His column appears on Tuesdays.)

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