Liberty by Lamberto V Avellana

Answer 1

Liberty
by Lamberto Avellana

One hundred and fifty years is not a long time in the reckoning of a hill. But to a man it is long enough.

One hundred and fifty years is a weekend to an oak tree, but to a man it is two full lifetimes.

One hundred and fifty years is a twinkle to a star-but to a man, it is time enough to teach two generations the meaning of liberty-how to use it, how to guard it, when to fight for it, and if indeed to die for it.

But what is Liberty?

Of what is it compounded?

Liberty, friends, is a compelling force.

It is the noble strength that rang a huge bell and cracked it in the year 1776. It is a flame that came from a torch in the Bastille and lit a thousand other torches-to reduce an overbearing aristocrat to the level of humanity.

Thomas Jefferson knew it. Abraham Lincoln wrote about it on the back of a used envelope. Sikatuna. . .Lapu-Lapu. . .they couldn't spell it, but they tore open Spanish breast plates to find it. It made Bataan last those few more years. It saved Capas form becoming Dachau. It made every inch of battlefield a camp of resurrection.

Liberty is what made four GIs throw caution to the wind-to plant a battered flag on the summit of Iwo Jima. It is the lightness of heat found in every soldier in every battlefield. It is the night of vigil our women have kept and the tears that they have shed and the pride that they have felt for the brother and the husband and the son who have watched our ramparts and kept our homes safe and sound.

It is life itself.

It is not one war widow, or one orphan. It is not a half-said prayer or a half-sung hymn.

It is all these. . . and blood and sweat and tears. It is the gratitude we owe a great nation.

It is the fear that one day we might find a hammer and sickle where the Crucifix should be.

That is freedom. . .That is LIBERTY!

Source: http://ivanblogspotcom-ivan.blogspot.com/2007/11/liberty-by-lamberto-avellana-one.html