When God breathed the breath of life into Man, He also breathed and imbued in man’s soul a spark of freedom. Tyrants, since the dawn of creation, have attempted to smother and stifle that spark of freedom.
In the colosseums of Rome, on the steppes of Russia, in the concentration camps of Europe, in the rice paddies of China, on the jungle floor of Vietnam and Cambodia, in the mountains of Laos and Afghanistan lie the bodies, bones, and dust of countless millions – martyrs to freedom.
Lives have been forfeited to evil tyrannies whose desires to ruin and rule scorched the souls and extinguished the lives of millions of innocent men, women, and children. All are not dead. Our abandoned prisoners of war from Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia live still, subjugated to fiendish and diabolical torture, racked by pestilence and starvation, imprisoned by the tyrannies they still resist.
The last free society founded in liberty, dedicated to “In God We Trust,” still exists – a thread of hope in the fabric of a World riddled with tyranny and hatred of God and freedom. We are still free because men of honor and courage deeply believed that the defense of liberty is a noble cause. How noble their cause – how ignoble the end. This is the same cause the National Health Federation serves.
It is not often that you can be privileged to be engaged in a battle where you can accomplish the twofold results of saving lives and preserving for ourselves and generations to come our precious and hard-won freedoms.
The NHF’s mission is to restore vigor to our people and freedom to our Nation.
Among all of the hopes and desires I have encountered in young and old, healthy or ill, rich or poor, king or peasant, they all had but one desire – to be left in peace, to be free.
In 1956, a man who fought the tyranny of Communism stood in a square in Budapest and shouted to the multitudes, “Shall we free men be, or slaves? Choose the lot your spirit craves.” Thousands have sacrificed and are still sacrificing in service to that spark of freedom that we might enjoy its benefits. The price of freedom comes high. The sacrifice that purchased that freedom cannot be commemorated in a few words or even a book.
We have a responsibility to those who have fought so nobly and sacrificed so dearly. If those who have sacrificed themselves in the cause of liberty are truly to be honored, then we, who have not sacrificed, have a duty and a responsibility to protect the light of freedom.
As eternal vigilance ensured the freedom we enjoy, we must, in turn, be sure we are diligent and hard at work in the vineyards of liberty. Loyalty to a cause, to a country, to a service, is not a one-way street. Those who serve deserve the loyalty from those whom they serve. It is the only action to take. It is the only right thing we can do.
I do not labor for remuneration or material benefits – not even for the adulation of an audience. I labor because I have a duty to perform. I have a duty to see that my fellow Americans are free. My conscience creates a compelling sense of duty.
This is not a political decision, although politicians are involved. This is a moral decision, and an ethical and a spiritual decision. It is a decision based on equity and fairness and justice, on duty, honor and loyalty. If we are to enjoy the fruits of liberty emblazoned with sacrifice in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence, paid for by the man in uniform, then we all have the same duty and responsibility to see that those who gave their lives may rest in peace, knowing the land they defended is still free.
May God guide us in and give us the strength to meet our responsibilities. I have named the National Health Federation in my will so that the fruits of my labor will continue serving the cause of liberty after my demise. Have you?
Republished from Health Freedom News’ predecessor journal, Public Scrutiny, the January 1982 issue and more recently in the Spring 2020, Volume 38, No. 1, issue of Health Freedom News, published by The National Health Federation.
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