Freedom isn't free

Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) writes well. In his first sentence he captures my own embarrassment: that a lifetime of skepticism, about the motives of those who govern, has turned out to be basic ingratitude for a real gift. RadioFreeTom

Speaking for myself, one thing I learned over the past few years - to my shame - is how much I took my Constitutional rights and the stability of the American republic for granted. I treated freedom of speech as my birthright, and never had to exercise a bit of effort for it.

I treated the granite-solid nature of the Constitution, the balance of the U.S. civil-military relationship, the independence of the judiciary - all as facts of nature rather than as precious jewels to be guarded against theft from within.

I was plenty vigilant about defending our nation from foreign threats, because I believed that my fellow citizens, whatever our collective sins or flaws, would never countenance attacks on our common home and our right to live in it.

Some out there will say this reflects “privilege,” earned by my skin or gender. Maybe so. But even when we did wrong, we - as a nation - wanted to do right. When we failed, we fought in public about our shortcomings. We prided ourselves on this.

On a personal level, I have never experienced the number of attempts to silence me, demands I be removed from my job, and even physically threatened as often as I have since 2015. Not in any post, not in any city, not during any other administration.

This, I realize, is how others have felt before this. But I always believed that the system, the society, the law, even most of our leaders, were on the side of right and would defend any of us against such thuggery. I know now I took this too much for granted.

We are not past the point of no return. But it is time to exercise every Constitutional right, especially *speech* and *voting* - with no excuses, without whining, without hedging. This is a time for fortitude, consistency, confidence, and dedication to the American idea.

We don’t get many second chances in a human life. The life of nations is even less forgiving. We have, as a republic, lived through multiple near-death moments. We are perilously close to running out of chances.