Let Freedom Ring!

I figure if I'm going to write a series of posts about freedom, entitled, Let Freedom Ring, then I'd better start with a bit of background of why that phrase rings familiar in American heads and hearts.

All we have to do is sing a few stanzas of the song, My Country 'Tis of Thee, written by Samuel Francis Smith, and feelings about freedom begin to surface.

My country 'tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty,

of thee I sing.

Land where my father's died,

land of the Pilgrim's pride,

from every mountain side,

let freedom ring!

When someone rings a bell, it's usually to get your attention.Wake up! Listen! I have a message! Perhaps Samuel Smith had such sentiments in mind when he penned those words. Maybe he saw himself standing on a mountain side, ringing a bell, and proclaiming the virtues of freedom. Maybe he saw us all as bell ringers for freedom.

In silence people tend to sleep, to drift, to forget. I think we've seen that over the past several decades; Americans sort of snoozing through the political process and forgetting what an amazing legacy was left to us by our founding fathers. Perhaps it's time to wake up!

If we're going to let freedom ring from every mountain side, then each of us will need to pick up a bell and make some noise! And what a wondrous noise it will be.