A United States Navy veteran and friend asked me to publish this. He wants us to realize what freedom means to him, and many other veterans, as they reflect “it could have been me” on this Memorial Day Weekend. The author wishes to remain anonymous.
The first day I returned home from war, there was no parade, no fireworks, no hashtags. It was a simple day and I enjoyed the simple things I missed — I rented a car, played my favorite music, drove along the ocean, stepped into the sea I stared at for so long, went to the mall, ate some average Chinese food, and saw a movie — by myself.
During this pandemic, we are all missing ‘things’ like that, but those things are not freedom itself.
As such, if that day was today, I would have stayed home.
I would have stayed home because for those of us who spend this weekend revisiting, “it could have been me,” shallow notions of freedom during a global pandemic — actions that interfere with the liberty of our neighbor, exploit the responsibility freedom comes with and inevitably add risk to a future of the nation we fought to call home — don’t fall into the definition of freedom that we learned the hard way.
So let’s talk about what freedom isn’t, since we’ve all seen a lot of it lately. Freedom isn’t your Facebook post, t-shirt, confederate flag, sparklers, or conspiracy theory.
Freedom is being able to pray to your God without fear, not the ability to do whatever you want on Sunday.
Freedom is treating it as Reagan said, as a “living thing,” or how Pope John Paul II spoke, that “freedom consists not in doing what we like, but having the right to do what we ought.”
This pandemic knows no opinion, color, age, or social status. As our founders enumerated our rights built from the most raw principles of human nature, they were written in the same way. Both are self-evident.
And, instead of turning toward exercising our greatest rights and qualities to help each other in this dire time, the loud few have chosen to ignore why we fought to keep them safe — ultimately, so we can keep each other safe here at home too. In other words, since the constitution is so loosely attributed lately, to “provide for the national defense and general welfare of the United States.”
While perhaps the greatest tragedy of several generations, this pandemic creates the opportunity for all of us to renew our understanding of freedom and exercise it responsibly to save ourselves and our nation. It is disappointing to see how this pandemic has only further illustrated the shallow understanding of what freedom is, because for most this notion has never truly been challenged in their lives.
Wearing a mask isn’t an attack on your freedom or your civil liberties, it’s allowing your neighbor to live free as well.
Restrictions aren’t an attack on our freedom, they are ensuring its future. They aren’t the seed of economic distress, they are ensuring short term pain doesn’t grow into an even more severe and lasting recession.
On this Memorial Day, instead of thanking a veteran for their service, act on it. Self-restraint is the pillar of strength, most authentically born from freedom.
https://medium.com/@jefftimmer/a-veterans-plea-stay-home-this-memorial-day-df63696dffbc