Tag Archive for 'freedom'

Freedom isn’t free

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on May 30, 2013
in Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

Contemplating the blessing of freedom, wherever it may be found, one prime truth is evident: Freedom is not free. And for those of us who are the beneficiaries of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, the only method of repayment - the only way we can ever be worthy of their sacrifice - is if we do all we can to maintain the freedom that has been paid for and given to us.

This is the 11th year I’ve published the poem below on Memorial Day. It was written by Commander Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret.) in 1981 when he was a high school senior (JROTC cadet) at Homestead High School, Homestead, FL. It is a tribute to his father, a career marine who served two tours in Vietnam.

Freedom Isn’t Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He’d stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?
How many pilots’ planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves?
No, freedom isn’t free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant “Amen,”
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn’t free.

My friends, I pray that we never forget those who paid so dearly for our freedom. Have a safe, happy and respectful Memorial Day.

###

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The power of entrepreneurship and liberty

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on August 14, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

Speaking of America’s founding in The Fortune of the Republic, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We began with freedom.”

Indeed. But that freedom didn’t become useful until the Founders converted it into liberty and lasts only as long as the stewards of each generation protect and maintain it.

Freedom is a state of mind anyone can assume. But liberty is a contract we bestow upon and expect from each other. And from that contract, American entrepreneurship was born as the child of liberty.

Liberty and entrepreneurship have an interesting symbiotic relationship: You can have liberty without entrepreneurship, but you can’t have entrepreneurship without at least tacit liberty. But while liberty as a human ideal is more primordial than entrepreneurship, the latter has a political advantage that comes in handy in some places on planet Earth.

In China, for example, to pursue liberty as a foundation to entrepreneurship might be difficult – even dangerous. But since it is not typically seen as a political statement, engaging in entrepreneurship, even as a veiled precursor to liberty, is more practical and safer.

IEEW's 2012 Peace Through Business graduating class from Afghanistan

IEEW's 2012 Peace Through Business graduating class from Afghanistan

Consequently, outside of America it is possible – sometimes necessary – for the child, entrepreneurship, to precede and flourish ahead of the parent, liberty. Such is the case in Afghanistan, but only for women.

Recently, at IEEW’s “Peace through Business” conference, in Washington, D.C., I met and interviewed an Afghan woman who is a wife and mother of three small children, and an entrepreneur. Freshta Hazeq founded the only woman-owned printing company in the capital city of Kabul. In America, Freshta would be celebrated; in Afghanistan, her business has been sabotaged and her life threatened because she competes against men.

The entrepreneurial desire to create a business that could provide a living for a family actually promotes liberty without a political declaration. Over time, in countries like Afghanistan, as the ideals and values of entrepreneurship acquire critical mass, it will be discovered that liberty has flourished on the foundation of entrepreneurship.

In America we began with freedom and forged it into liberty, which gave birth to entrepreneurship. In Afghanistan, especially if you’re a woman, entrepreneurship will give birth to liberty. But, like America’s revolution, it comes at a high price.

Why is Freshta willing to pay this price? Because she has a daughter.

Liberty and entrepreneurship - powerful and symbiotic.

#####

Click on one of the links below to hear Freshta Hazeq’s touching and inspirational story of the unique challenges she faces as the owner of Royal Advertising and Printing Press in Kabul, Afghanistan and what she is doing to improve as a professional business owner.

How Peace Through Business works in Afghanistan

Breaking the mold for women in Afghanistan

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America: Independent & Entrepreneurial

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 3, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 2 Comments

The first Plantagenet king of England, Henry II, is important to contemporary small business owners because he’s considered the founder of a legal system to which entrepreneurs owe their freedom to be.

Ambitious and highly intelligent, Henry’s attempts to consolidate all of the 12th century British Isles under his rule created the need for order. And while the subsequent reforms were intended more for his own political expediency than to empower the people, they actually gave birth to a body of law, now known as English Common Law, which replaced elements of the feudal system that included such enlightened practices as trial by ordeal.

Six centuries after Henry’s death, the legal and cultural tide of personal freedoms and property rights that evolved from his reforms were being established across the Atlantic. In the colonies, a group of malcontents, now called America’s Founders, envisioned, created and fought for a new interpretation of Henry’s legacy. Their plan was different because it was sans kings.

In The Fortune of the Republic, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We began with freedom. America was opened after the feudal mischief was spent. No inquisitions here, no kings, no dominant church.”

In Origins of the Bill Of Rights, Leonard W. Levy noted that, “Freedom was mainly a product of New World conditions.”

Those conditions, as Thomas Jefferson so artfully wrote in the Declaration of Independence, were, “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

These were 18th century words for freedom and embryonic conditions for which the 56 signers of Jefferson’s document put their lives and liberties at risk on July 4, 1776.

But America’s founding documents weren’t perfected until they perpetuated rights that were, as John Dickinson declared a decade earlier in 1766, “…born with us, exists with us and cannot be taken from us by any human power without taking our lives.”

By definition entrepreneurs take risks. But only freedom to enjoy success can make those risks acceptable. Thank you, Henry II.

Research shows that there is a direct connection between the rate of new business start-ups and economic growth. And the American experiment has demonstrated that a healthy entrepreneurial environment fosters national economic well-being. Thank you, Founders.

Without their vision, courage, passion and sacrifice, it’s doubtful that entrepreneurship as we know it would exist today. And if capitalism is the economic lever of democracy, entrepreneurship is the force that renews the strength and reliability of that lever for each new generation.

We began with freedom. Freedom to dream and to try; to succeed and to fail; to own and to enjoy; to accumulate and to pass on to the next generation.

We began with freedom and entrepreneurship was born. We began with freedom and capitalism was made to flourish.

We began with freedom. Happy Independence Day, America.

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America: Independent & entrepreneurial

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 5, 2011
in Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

Seven score and eight years ago, Abraham Lincoln’s dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery included these words: “…our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Four score and seven years earlier, one of those fathers, Thomas Jefferson, penned what is arguably the most important secular document in history, the Declaration of Independence, which included this passionate passage:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Having the spirit, courage and vision to declare independence, at a time when monarchy was the accepted model of government, is impressive. Fighting for those principles then, and defending them from within and without for over two centuries is unprecedented.

To be sure, America has had lapses in the delivery of some of these tenets. Indeed, while Lincoln was trying to save his beloved country, he made this judgment: “We made the experiment; and the fruit is before us.”

Even today, America is a work-in-progress. We’re on a journey of understanding with many stations where new things are learned and past wrongs can be righted. But in terms of contribution to the world, Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill” has an incomparable record. Warts and all, the United States is still a benefactor nation with millions of beneficiaries.

Freedom to dream is found in other lands, as is freedom to pursue dreams. But no entrepreneurial soil is more fertile than in America, and it’s because of those who had the spirit to create our founding documents, the will to deliver them, and the courage to defend them.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been essential to millions of American small businesses. If you ask anyone, anywhere on the planet, where to go to start a business and have the greatest chance to succeed and accrue the fruits of that labor, the answer would be America. Generation after generation of small business owners have, like the Founders, demonstrated spirit, will and courage as they have claimed and perpetuated the American dream.

As we celebrate the blessings of another Fourth of July in America, let’s fulfill Lincoln’s hope that the bonds of affection for each other will be “touched by the better angels of our nature.”

I talked more about entrepreneurs and liberty recently on The Small Business Advocate Show. Take a few minutes to click on the link below to listen and leave your comments.

America: We began with freedom

America: Independent and entrepreneurial

Freedom isn’t free

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 3, 2010
in Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

Contemplating the blessing of freedom, wherever it may be found, one prime truth is evident: Freedom is not free. And for those of us who are the beneficiaries of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, the only method of repayment - the only way we can ever be worthy of their sacrifice - is if we do all we can to maintain the freedom that has been dearly paid for and given to us.

I have published the poem below on many occasions in the past because it reminds us of the cost of something that we hold as one of our greatest blessings but too often take for granted.  Unfortunately, I do not know the author’s name.

Freedom Isn’t Free
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He’d stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?
How many pilots’ planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves?
No, freedom isn’t free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant “Amen,”
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn’t free.

My friends, I pray that we never forget those who paid so dearly for our freedom.  Have a safe, happy and respectful Independence Day. God bless America.

Practicing appreciation and thanksgiving

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on November 29, 2008
in Economy: National and Global, Inspirational and Motivational and Online technologies
. 0 Comments

Clearly we’re living in unprecedented economic times right now, at least within the past 60 years. And with such a long list of uncertainties in our world today, it can sometimes be difficult to find the perspective to feel thankful and appreciate what we have. But there are a few other areas that are unprecedented the other way. Could you use some help getting started with your list? Here are just a few global examples:

• At the end of World War II, there were approximately 20 democracies on planet Earth. Today there are more than 120 – unprecedented freedom.

• Medical science is delivering wonderful healing and preventative products and services everyday which not long ago were just dreams – unprecedented healing.

• Billions of Earthlings have access to the Internet, many in parts of the world where 20 years ago they might not have had access to a newspaper – unprecedented knowledge.

• Entrepreneurship is becoming a dominant force in the global marketplace, and small business ownership is seen as a top career path by young people around the world – unprecedented self-determination.

Our list of 21st century blessings is also long and enough to embarrass us when we start to think that our world isn’t working anymore.

In a recent interview with Mike Robbins, author of “Focus on the Good Stuff: The Power of Appreciation”, we talked about how to get into, and keep, the spirit of thanksgiving all year long. Take a few minutes to listen to our conversation, and share your own thoughts on thanksgiving.