America has been called the “land of the free” and the “home of the brave.” It is famous for its apple pie and baseball. It is a leader in democracy and capitalistic growth, loved by many, feared by many, hated by many. I was born and raised in this beautiful country, but it was not until adulthood that I stopped to consider what that really meant. When I visited Nairobi, Kenya in the summer of 1998, studying abroad there for two months, I saw what America meant to others, and I was humbled. I recall walking through the markets there, constantly being offered some trinket to buy, a necklace with traditional beading or a soapstone carving. I remember saying to one vendor that I didn’t have the money to purchase an expensive item he wanted to sell me, which as a starving college student was essentially true. He muttered something in Swahili, which was translated for me by a local friend. He explained that the fact that I had managed to get on a plane from America to Kenya meant that I was more wealthy than most of the people I would see on my trip. It did not matter that I had taken out extra student loans to do so; in fact, the very fact that I had the luxury of taking out loans only added to their case against me.
America—the land of the free. We do indeed live a life of freedom enviable by so many others. This country, founded on political and religious freedom, gave its citizens at the outset the rights that were denied by other nations of the same day and age. What would Voltaire have thought of our First Amendment? Would Hobbes and Locke praise the democratic system that we have created in our Constitution? While constantly changing per Supreme Court interpretation, and certainly not perfect, our Constitution and inclusive Bill of Rights is indeed something we should be proud of. It was written with precision and designed specifically to create freedom—for the states from the federal government, and for the people from potentially corrupt leaders. It is a model for so many fledgling nations. It is beautiful.
As I have said to my students many times over, freedom comes with responsibility. It is in this responsibility that our nation becomes the “home of the brave,” for living up to one’s responsibilities can require the utmost in bravery. It is with this mindset that I became a teacher, for so many youth of this day and age demand their rights and their freedoms without fully understanding the responsibilities therein. High on my list of favorite rights, we have the right to an education, but accompanying it is the responsibility to go out there and learn, soaking knowledge like a sponge. It is with knowledge that we are truly free. Of this, I am certain, and I’m pretty sure my heroes Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would agree.
