FREEDOM
Otto Seyforth, who was president of the Chamber of Commerce
shortly after World War II and
during the Korean War, said:
“If we knew we were faced with the choice between freedom and
slavery, we would all choose
wisely—if we knew. But we often do not
know. Day by day we make
decisions which vitally affect our freedom
—without knowing or understanding
that it is freedom truly that is at
stake.
“Some say you can’t eat freedom. By the same token you also
can’t faith and honor and decency—you
can’t eat the consolations of
religion—you can’t eat beautiful
music—you can’t eat the glory of a
sunset or
faith in the goodness of God. You can’t eat most of the deep
promptings
of the spirit which are the real
main springs of human
endeavor and progress.”
*********
Tom Anderson, a prominent Tennesseean, told a story about a band
of wild hogs that lived along
a river in a secluded area of Georgia:
These hogs were a stubborn, ornery, and independent bunch.
They
had survived floods, fire, freezes, droughts, hunters, dogs, and
everything
else. No one thought they could ever be captured.
One day a stranger came into town not far from where the
hogs
lived and went into the general store. He asked the store-
keeper,
“Where can I find the hogs? I want to capture them.” The
storekeeper
laughed at such a claim but pointed in the general
direction.
The stranger left with his one-horse wagon, an axe, and
a few
sacks of corn.
Two months later he returned, went back to the store and
asked
for help to bring the hogs out. He said he had them all penned
up in
the woods. People were amazed and came from miles around
to hear
him tell the story of how he did it.
“The first thing I did,” the stranger said, “was to clear a small
area
of the woods with my axe. Then I put some corn in the center
of the
clearing. At first, none of the hogs would take the corn. Then
after
a few days, some of the young ones would come out, snatch
some
corn, and then scamper back into the underbrush. Then the
older
ones began taking the corn, probably figuring that if they didn’t
eat
it, some of the other ones would. Soon they were all eating the
corn.
They stopped grubbing for acorns, and roots on their own. About
that
time, I started building a fence around the clearing, a little higher
each
day. At the right moment, I built a trap door and sprung it.
Naturally,
they squealed and hollered when they knew I had them,
but
I can pen any animal on the face of the earth if I can first get him
to depend
on me for a free handout!”
**********
As so many have said for so long, John Gardner being preeminent,
we must earn anew our freedoms,
our ethics, our principles, and our
values. Each generation
must carry these forth and earn them for
themselves. The free enterprise
system, moral agency, and freedom as
a nation and an individual are
all part of the fabric of this United States.
You cannot take away any one
of them without shackling with strong
chains the greatest nation under
heaven.
W. Somerset Maugham wrote:
“If any nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its
freedom; and the irony of it
is that if it is comfort or money that it values
more it will lose that too.”
***********
Harvey Jacobs, in a talk called “Freedom Is a Terrible Risk,” declared:
In a Japanese novel of several years ago, the main character,
wandering
in a strange village, becomes trapped in the bottom of a
sand
pit. Food and water are lowered to him, but no ladder. He wants
out
desperately. He begs his captors to let him go. He tries to
bargain
with
them, but nothing works. Months pass. The begging, the scheming
becomes
a way of life. After a long time, he is granted what he wants,
what
he has been striving for with all his will, day and night, the
freedom
to come out of his pit and go on his way in complete freedom.
Suddenly,
he is afraid; he is alarmed by the prospect of facing the
world
without protection. He could get lost, he thinks. In his little
pit
he was at least sheltered from unknown harm. Now he understands
that
freedom is not a reward but a terrible risk.
There is a terrible risk in freedom and family and religion and all that
is worthy and good. All
things of value must be passed on to the coming
generation.
************
President Benson has declared
that the glorious colors of the Stars and
Stripes will still be flying
over the United States of America when the
Savior returns.
*************
President Harold B. Lee said:
“Men may fail in this country. Earthquakes may come, seas may
heave themselves beyond their
bounds; there may be great drought
and disaster and hardship, but
this nation, founded as it is on a foundation
of principle laid down by men
whom God raised up, will never fail.”
*************