Saturday, September 10, 2011

On Liberty

Photo Credit: GenevaTalk.com
By David J. Roth, Jr.
4th July, 2005

What price, Freedom?
What cost, Liberty?
What benefit reaped
For securing the two-edged prize?

Signatures on a document
Of protest, price paid in sweat
And blood.
Granting freedom, within limit

Offering liberty, with rational control
One thousand, two-hundred fifteen,
Year of our Lord and John,
By the grace of God King of England,

Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine,
And Count of Anjou, to his archbishops,
Bishops, abbots, earls, barons
Justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards,

Servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects
In short all free men.
Purchased at great cost
Redeemed at greater.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal;
That they are endowed by their Creator
With certain unalienable rights;
That among these are life, liberty,
And the pursuit of happiness.
Fourth day of July
Seventeen hundred seventy-six.

Two hundred nine and twenty years hence
Freedom is still a vague and fleeting mist
For some for whom it was purchased,
For others, escaped at will

And yet, truth, as it is known
Is that Freedom and Liberty
In their truest sense
Are not decreed by human mandate.

But rather in the simple declaration of God
Before John, King of the Britons
And George, Leader of the colonies
The profound truth was eloquently said

“You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free”

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