The Road to Freedom
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
… it was thought good
there should be an association and agreement,
that we should combine together in one body,
and to submit to such government and governors
as we should
by common consent
agree to make and choose …
William Bradford
Pilgrim Leader
November, 1620
They meant to land in Virginia, but their ship brought them to Cape Cod. It wasn’t the first time this group of people, seeking religious freedom, had ended up in the wrong place. In 1608, English Protestants who disagreed with the Church of England were persecuted – as were Catholics. A group of protestant separatists, thinking they would have greater opportunity to freely practice their religion in The Netherlands, left England for Amsterdam.
Within a year, that group of separatists – much later known as “The Pilgrims” – objected to aspects of life in their new city. With their families, they moved to Leiden (Leyden), a Dutch town north of The Hague.
By 1620, it was illegal for anyone in The Netherlands to hold religious meetings in their homes. Leiden, the Pilgrims’ adopted city, was no exception. Twelve years after they left England, the Pilgrims realized they would have to leave Europe altogether in order to practice their beliefs unhindered.
On a ship called the Mayflower, a group of about 102 people set sail for a new life in the “new world.” Their last port of call, before crossing the Atlantic, was Plymouth, England.
Freedom is not a value but is the ground of values because it allows a person to create and appreciate values, to pursue the classical values of beauty, truth and goodness. It enables people to use their creativity so as to bring joy to God and to others, their family, relatives, friends and wider community. According to the American moral philosopher Susan Wolf, freedom is the ability to act in accordance with the True and the Good. According to people such as Saint Augustine and Confucius, this kind of freedom can reach a point at which it always produces goodness.
We live “in interesting times,” ancient saying though it may be, it is still accurate to describe our world–ruined financial institutions, broken promises and big business living in the catbird seat with big politics.
“The catbird seat” is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in all typesof dealings among parties. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled “The Catbird Seat,” which features a character, Mrs. Barrows, who likes to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explains that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber and that to Barber “sitting in the catbird seat” meant “‘sitting pretty,’ like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him.” Further usage can be found in P. G. Wodehouse’s 1958 novel Cocktail Time: “I get you. If we swing it, we’ll be sitting pretty, ‘In the catbird seat.’”
But, when we each enjoy our fifteen minutes of fireworks, a few too many beers, a big dinner that we probably had to use the credit card to pay for and a few minutes talking to people we wouldn’t normally think about… take a moment to quietly thank the people who ensure that your freedom stays free.
