Cherish Freedom – May 26, 2002
Freedom is one of the most cherished rights in all the world. Freedom is also one of the most challenged rights in all the world. It demands sacrifice and work to secure and preserve it.
It becomes the work of some generations to serve their countries and defend freedom with their lives. Standing on a silent battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln dedicated it to those who had fallen there. He called their ultimate sacrifice “the last full measure of devotion” and resolved “that these dead shall not have died in vain”; that from them “this nation shall have a new birth of freedom.”1
This new birth of freedom requires the work of other generations in preserving such a hard-won gift. The work begins with not taking for granted the sacrifices that came before. It endures with keeping things going and living peaceably. Since freedom can’t always continue in comfort and convenience, preserving it calls for more sacrifice and work. It calls for honesty and honor, truth and decency, respect for the law, and a commitment to live within its bounds.
There’s a quiet kind of heroism in those who cherish freedom. They keep their contracts and commitments, they teach and care for their children, they maintain the sanctity of their families. These are the people who live by and uphold the law, who keep the peace in their communities, and who serve their country out of duty and love.
Precious beyond price is the freedom paid for by lives sacrificed and lives lived to secure and preserve it.
Program #3797
1. Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863.