20-somethings on freedom

Last updated on: July 4, 2017 at 11:09 am by Gerald McDermott

20-somethings on freedom 2017-07-04T11:09:29-04:00 Gerald McDermott

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When I was running on the beach this morning, a gaggle of 20-somethings called out, “Happy Fourth!”

I was intrigued.

I called back, “Yeah, here’s to freedom!”

“Yeah!” they agreed. “Freedom!

But I wondered. What do they think freedom is? So I turned around and ran back to them.

There were four men and one woman. They looked like they had had a long night. Several were nursing a coffee . . . or something.

I told them who I was and then asked them a question. “I’m a writer and a professor. What do you think freedom is?”

All but one looked dumbfounded. There was a momentary silence. Then the one said, “Freedom of opportunity.” Another piped in, “The freedom to start over.” A third cackled, “Freedom to do whatever you want,” and laughed. Others joined the laughter.

I decided to give them something to chew on. “Can I offer an answer?” They all nodded. “Freedom is threatened by two dangers today. On the far left, the danger is militant secularism. On the far right, militant Islam.”

None had anything to say. Maybe they didn’t know what I meant by those terms. Maybe they disagreed. But more likely, they pay little attention to dangers to freedom. Or thinking in any deep way about what freedom is.

St. Paul tells us that the greatest freedom is the freedom to obey God’s law. He wrote to the church at Rome that God sent his own Son to die so “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk . . . according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4).

After I turned down the beach to continue my run, I thought about telling them about freedom of speech, and that the American Founders believed that freedom of religion is the first and greatest freedom. That there is a reason why both are enshrined in the First Amendment.

But I also thought that I might have gotten the same blank stares. After all, the loudest response I had gotten was that freedom was the ability to do whatever we want.

As I kept running, two things occurred to me. First, that the world is clueless about true freedom. Second, that these are present and future voters. God help our country on this Fourth of July.

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