One of my favorite painters is Norman Rockwell and one of my favorite paintings of his is “The Four Freedoms.” July 4th is one of our greatest holidays, the celebration of our independence, which we too often take for granted. However, at least once a year we at least think, even in passing, of our rights and freedoms. By the way, we also too often confuse what are our rights and what are our privileges. Rights we can point to in our laws and liberties provided by our representative government. Privileges are customary permissions that we have grown into and taken for granted as laws, but are, in fact, not legalities, e.g. walking along the street, driving, shopping, etc. We don’t need permissions, we do them all of the time, but they are not regulated. The Four Freedoms presented by Norman Rockwell are: Freedom to Worship, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear and Freedom from Want. Well said, in my opinion.
Are these freedoms rights or privileges? They used to be rights, but they are increasingly being treated as privileges which are unregulated, blurred or even looked down upon. Do we really have free speech anymore? Think of the college campuses that invite speakers to present a case or an idea and are shouted down by an agenda with only its own opinions. Who regulates free speech? Certainly not the college administration. Do the majority of the attendees have a right to hear the opposing side of anything or are the shouters in league with the administration to limit ideas instead of presenting all sides of issues? In this case both rights and privileges are lessened, even negated. This is only one example. There are many.
Do we have freedom to worship? Anything that has ties to religious ideas, symbols or the Bible itself is increasingly eliminated from the public forum. The Ten Commandments cannot be posted in many places. Public prayer has been eliminated from many gatherings and meetings. Anything religious on a T-shirt or hat can be denigrated. Christmas symbols, Nativity scenes, etc, are discouraged in many places. Has this right become a privilege that is now fading into nothing? Separation of church and state does not mean that we eliminate religion entirely from our zeitgeist. Or does it?
Freedom from Want means that we are able to work to provide for our families. It means that we are a capitalistic society that provides opportunities for all of us to find jobs and receive incomes that make life possible. We are able to find housing, food, clothing and all of the rest of the necessities of living in our society. Extreme cases of want are provided for in relief efforts in housing, food and clothing. This is deemed to be temporary until work is found to once again be in control of our own lives. It is not meant to be a way of life. Homelessness has been, and always will be, a problem wherever there are people and large cities. The mentally impaired and those who just cannot exist in an organized society are provided for, but this rarely fixes the problem. Mental instability is resident in any society.
The fourth freedom is Freedom from Fear. This is an all-encompassing freedom because it affects everyone, no matter what their station in life. Freedom from fear means that we are secure in our daily lives; that we are protected from the evils that exist in any society and that encroach on that society. We have local law enforcement, and we have national law enforcement such as the FBI, CIA, and the military. Our police can protect us, be we have to do our part in lessening our vulnerability. We lock our houses and our cars. We are alert in unprotected venues and have 911 as a back-up. The military protects us from other nations and terrorist organizations that may want to take us over or just harm our society. But we have to do our part also in this area. We vote funding for our law enforcement organizations and trust them to protect us. We support our military with our young that are able to join one of its branches. We elect members of Congress to provide for our security by limiting access to our land without identification or credentials, and we trust them to carry out our needs and wishes. When this works we have freedom from fear. Use your vote, but vote with intelligence.
Our freedoms are embodied in some of our music, e.g. “God Bless America,” and “America the Beautiful.” Let us sing them in a meaningful and powerful unison. And, please check out my patriotic music on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc, including: “America Together,” “Celebrate Our Freedom,” and “We Thank Them,” (Memorial Day). Music permeates our society, but we are stuck in just a few styles: Love, romance, drinking, commercials to sell products and background music used as wallpaper in many ways. Branch out! Start listening to more styles with many more messages and feelings. We are free to do this on a daily basis. Let’s get to it…!