On Liberty

Photo Credit: GenevaTalk.com

By David J. Roth, Jr.

4^th 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”