by Kerry Thomas
July 21, 2005
From New York to Casablanca to Madrid to London, terrorists have been busy. Ever since Osama bin Laden’s 1996 declaration of war against the West, his followers and imitators have sought to inflict death and destruction on the “infidels” who pose a threat to their dictates.
What these terrorists, and their domestic apologists, fail
to understand is that America is not so much a place as it is an idea. America is the one country in the world
where We, the People, have succeeded in creating a country where the Citizens
rule the country. We don’t have a
monarch dictating what we can and cannot do.
Each of us is master of our own lives.
The underlying principles governing America are Freedom,
Justice and individual Liberty. Most of
us understand that Freedom is a natural human condition. In America, Freedom is seen as a natural
Right, endowed by God as a birthright.
Freedom does not have to be imposed.
It is a state for which the human spirit naturally strives.
This concept has been enshrined in the American
Constitution. It is the one document
which sets specific limits on the Powers granted by the People to its
government. Recall the words of the 10th
Amendment: “The Powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.”
When our governors exceed their Constitutional Powers, We,
the People, have it within our power to peacefully right that wrong. We don’t have to overthrow our government; we
simply vote the offending public servants out of office, and replace them with
another Citizen who promises to support and defend
the Constitution.
Such Freedom is a powerful idea. And a dangerous one. It’s contagious. And it makes for a more powerful weapon than any bomb ever
devised by man. Freedom is so powerful
because it cannot be destroyed by physical force. Yes, individuals can be, and have been, killed for believing in
Freedom, but the idea itself lives on in the hearts and minds of humanity the
world over. From Moses to George
Washington to Poland’s Lech Walesa to Iraq’s Jalal Talabani, the human
pursuit of Freedom is as old as humanity itself. Freedom is the American way of life, and wherever the human
spirit seeks Freedom, the American spirit lives on.
We are in the middle of a global world war on Freedom
itself. The terrorists will hit America
again. They have made proclamations that
they are planning to create an “American Hiroshima.” But no matter how much chaos they seem to create, Freedom will
survive. And because America is more
than just a place, America will survive.