And Proclaim Liberty Through Out The Land

Everybody knows the Liberty Bell has a crack.

Have you ever thought about the crack as an analogy for liberty itself?

Perfect Liberty is flawed; just as the Bell is.

If we are allowed the ability to act freely, then we must take responsibility, and face the consequences of our acts. And some acts have severe repercussions.

And acts can’t be withdrawn. You can’t unring a bell; can you? (Come on; you knew I’d go there.)

Liberty is not perfect. We trade some liberty for security daily. The freedom to drive as we please is traded for the security of licensing and traffic laws. The absolute freedom of speech is traded for the security of false cries of ‘Fire’. Some liberties are curtailed; others lost completely, sacrificed on the altar of security.

Should we have perfect liberty? Could we handle it? Laws are passed that curtail one individual’s liberty, while granting extra liberty to others. Every smoking ban takes away the liberty of a property owner to do as he wishes with his property, while granting an extra liberty to those who abhor tobacco smoke.

Some merely restrict liberty and only grant a false sense of security; like gun control statutes.

So back to the Liberty Bell and its famous crack. The Bell swung free until 1846, when the crack rendered the bell useless as a free swinging bell. Since then it has only been tolled, or struck with out swinging. Prior to then it was rung on many occasions. But as the years roll on it has even been tolled less; usually on very special days.

Kind of like the way we treat liberty itself today. We drag it out and display the fact that we are free to do this or that, but fail to remember we once were able to this, that and the other thing, and that other thing besides. We don’t lament the liberty we have lost; only celebrate the small one we have left.

And we forget the wars that have kept that liberty safe for us. Maybe that is why we have lost the drive to protect our freedom; we look around and see so little of it left.