The Meaning of FREEDOM

SLAVERY OR SELF-SUFFICIENCY?

by OPOVV, ©2013

(Mar. 2, 2013) — Really now, you have to be amused at some on the antics of our “Rich and Famous.”  I mean, let’s get down to the basics here and examine the word “freedom,” what it means and, once the meaning is understood, how it can improve your life.

First, going back to the depression years of the 1930’s in America, the people who lived on farms (excluding the Dust Bowl) were infinitely better off than their counterparts in the city. It’s one thing to be short on money compared to being short on food.

Many a time a kid from the farm had extras packed into his lunch box to augment the town’s kids’ lunches with an apple, or even a slice of pie. It was people helping people. Every town had at least one kind lady who would bake a bunch of apple pies and let them sit out on the window sill “to cool,” and any homeless man was given the opportunity to grab a slice or two.

The children of that era didn’t have fancy threads or bright new toys at Christmas, but receiving a Christmas orange was a cherished fond memory, better than any soon-outgrown shiny discarded toy.

The folks in town who had a bit of lawn were soon growing something, anything:  potatoes, carrots, lettuce; heck, anything at all that could be consumed or bartered for flour, sugar, or coffee. My grandmother had the neighborhood strawberry patch, and heaven help those who were caught picking the perfectly ripe ones. I hereby confess and I never did it again.

Up in Minnesota every town had lakes with easy access so year-round fishing was one method of catching a meal. I lived on a farm for a while, and what I caught that day was what we ate that night, or else it was a choice between white rice and butter or spaghetti noodles and butter. I was living on the farm when the town got its first stoplight, and that first Saturday we kids would run from corner to corner when the cars had to stop for the red light. You had to be there.

Sometimes, in the summer, after we got our ice cream cones at the Dairy Queen, we’d walk across the street to watch the train go by, and it was exciting because it shot through at 60 mph pulled by a humongous steam locomotive, shaking the ground and moving the air as it went thundering by.  Once I saw the most beautiful seven-year-old (my age) girl in the world, sitting down to dinner, facing towards the rear, and I waved and she waved back, and then in a flash it was all over.

Self-sufficiency is the key to freedom, and lacking each of us having a blacksmith shop and the expertise, or a flour mill, we must do the best we can.  That concept was really brought to the front with the advent of the “Victory Garden,” but the idea is as old as the hills: the concept of barter over the concept of money.

Look, I know we need money to buy stuff, but we don’t need to be so darn dependent on such a flimsy system. We’re slaves to the electric company: we’ve no backup for electricity. Why, each house can have a stationary bicycle to generate electricity to charge a battery for lights, heat, and cooking. And I don’t care where you live, you can grow cherry tomatoes indoors or herbs on a windowsill.

It used to be that houses were built with cisterns, a fresh water supply, just in case.

And that’s the whole enchilada: be prepared. Have yourself a supply, plant a garden, and if you’ve got money, buy a little house on a lot of land.  Heck, you can have one dynamite garden on just ½ acre. The fact is, land to grow food is more valuable than the square footage of a house with an attached garage.

Freedom is the absence of dependency. If you’re dependent on a government “entitlement,” you’re on the other end of the “free spectrum.” If you’ve no backup supplies, food, and water, you’re at the mercy of forces that control you. In any other language it’s called “slavery.” Think about it, and then act on it.

You know, in closing, if you people just keep on electing your President from the same old mold, a Republican Governor here, a Democrat Senator there, we’re going to keep getting the same self-destructing results. Look at McCain and Romney, for example: each one afraid to say “Stolen Social Security number” and ask “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” We better get somebody in that office who has the brains and the nerve to do what’s best for America.

It’s NOT “Immigration Reform;” it’s a sorry excuse to pander for votes to illegal immigrants. We NEED a leader who will tell the U.N. and the Federal Reserve Bank to take a hike, to abolish the IRS and the redundant Homeland Security. We NEED a leader who just doesn’t mouth energy independence but one that’ll make it happen. In short, we NEED a leader who believes in the Constitution and Freedom for all!

OPOVV