On the Nature of Liberty

On The Nature of Liberty

As an American and a devout Christian, I believe it is imperative to recognize that the rights, freedoms, and liberties of all people are not bestowed by any government, ideology, religion, creed, or circumstance of birth, but by the simple nature of being human. This is why we call the inalienable rights spoken of in the Constitution “human rights” and why the same Constitution was written to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” While these rights may be inherent, they are not inherently secure. This is why Ronald Reagan, said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance, it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” Liberty is an inherent right—one that falls the moment it ceases to be defended by good men. History has borne this out time and time again. Liberty characterized the conflict of WWII—a lack of liberty on one front, and a defense of it on the other. Dehumanization and a lack of liberty go hand in hand. When liberty and human rights cease to be defended, we fail to recognize one another as human, hence the many genocides of the 19th and 20th centuries. This makes the government's greatest duty, above all else, to secure liberty for its people. Those who argue security is the government's greatest priority fail to realize that security falls the moment liberty fails. To the extent that we defend liberty, we secure the future for generations to come. This is our greatest duty as the current generation—to ensure that the inherent, inalienable rights we are born with remain the realities that we live by, defending them with our lives just as countless generations before us did.