What is Freedom?

On Wednesday, June 19^th, we celebrated a fairly new Federal holiday named Juneteenth. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation banning slavery, but it only applied to Confederate states, and on June 19, 1865, African Americans in Galveston Texas learned they were also freed.[1] Then, almost 200 years later, Juneteenth was established to remember this important date of the final emancipation of formerly held slaves.

Freedom is something that frequently isn’t valued until it’s gone. There are many different ways to lose one’s freedom. Sometimes, people are so used to being controlled that they fear becoming independent. Being ruled by a single landowner or the entire government are both egregious methods of controlling people. Our founding fathers strove for our individual freedoms and cautioned us about maintaining a small government that serves the people versus a bloated government that could be self-serving. When people are encouraged to be dependent on the government as opposed to being independent and utilizing their own natural talents to achieve personal success, they are risking self-enacted slavery.

Addiction is another form of slavery that is imposed upon society. When things are intentionally made or designed to cause the ‘need for more’ an innocent participant often becomes addicted. Cigarettes, alcohol, refined sugars, opiates, gambling, and pornography are a few of the things that fall into this category. The biggest problem with these addictions is that most people don’t realize what’s happened to them until it’s too late. At that point, the challenge to overcome the enslavement can be overwhelming because their neurochemistry has been altered and they’ve lost the freedom of clear and logical thinking. Because of the dependency and the discomfort of withdrawal, they feel trapped even though there’s always a way out.

Fortunately, no one needs to be a slave to addiction. Once you realize that it’s far more painful and debilitating to stay entrapped than to go through the steps toward freedom, you have already unlatched the lock and started walking toward a better life. But it’s not something that you can do alone. Help is abundant and it does work. There are millions of people like me who’ve learned how to quit smoking, and drinking, and have happy lives. Having a relationship with an addiction is no different than any other unpleasant union. You have the choice to stay or leave.

In some countries, people don’t enjoy the freedoms we have in America. Fortunately, in our country, unless you’ve been imprisoned everyone is free to create a successful life. It might mean doing uncomfortable things like a difficult job, learning a new skill, or going to college. Sometimes we must leave a system that wants us to remain dependent — this can be the hardest breakup of all.

As someone who was a single mom at age eighteen and struggled for many years, I know how challenging independence can be. But all of us, deep down, have a dream and something to contribute to the world. When we decide to follow that dream, we will get the help we need. The path may be different than expected, but the world is full of people who’ve made a successful life built on a vision, hard work, and the support of those who believed in them. But first, you must believe in yourself.

Juneteenth is the day to remember that we should never tolerate any form of slavery. This means not only involuntary but voluntary as well. When we treasure our bodies, minds, and souls, we will have no tolerance for subjugating those sacred parts to a lesser value than our true worth. And every human being is born with the worth to be loved. Some people have had more love than others. But it’s never too late to love yourself and set yourself free from the past — the greatest freedom of all.

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