This is yet another old post from my private blog first published on September 25, 2008. I post it here in tribute to every self-affirming Egyptian revolutionary who in a matter of 18 days brought down a 30+ year dictatorship. May it be that the historic change in Egypt is one that is for the people in every way that will result in a better quality of life, chief among that being the ability to savor freedom in every way. The show must go on! Original post follows:
I was driving in to work this morning, on auto-pilot, as I call it: just cruising along, listening to some talk-radio show, loving the blue skies and the bright morning sun, when I noticed the license plates of the car in front of me. They were not Michigan plates which is why I guess it caught my eye. They were New Hampshire plates, and that in and of itself means nothing, except for the state motto emblazoned on them: Live Free Or Die.
Is that a bold statement, or what? 🙂
Made me smile. I wondered who’d come up with that line, what its origins were. Who was this man or woman who had the courage of his/her convictions to make such an unequivocal declaration? What was the original intent and context that they were stated in? And so, I came in and looked it up; and this is what I found:
The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire’s most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter: Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
So, here’s to General Stark today. And here’s to the people of the great state of New Hampshire who adopted it as their official state motto in 1945.
Freedom is indeed so precious, that to give it up would be the equivalent of death, nay, death itself. Freedom is so essential to living a life that is worth living, that the lack of it would feel like death. The freedom to think, speak, share, take, move, believe, love, and to just be. To be what you wish to be, and to do what you wish to do. If these inalienable truths were not afforded to mankind, death is the preferred alternative. And so: may it be that we recognize the magnitude of these freedoms that we possess.
To live free is our God-given right; to use our freedom well is our right.
[A sample of a NH license plate, for your viewing pleasure!]
