Let Freedom Ring
Poetry Friday
Fifty-one years ago (yes, I’m this old), I had an experience that changed my life. It changed the way I viewed my country and it awakened my views of freedom. I was a young person having only traveled outside of Ohio to vacation in Virginia. I didn’t know much about the world. In high school I had an opportunity to try out for a band that was going to make a trip to the White House and then to Russia as the first cultural exchange since the Cold War began. I auditioned and was chosen to be a part of the band. Three other people from my high school were also chosen.
To say it was an eye opening trip is almost an understatement. My dad dropped us off at the University of Maryland, College Park. It was a couple of days of intense auditioning for seating within the band and practicing the music for the first time together as a group. We took a bus to the White House to be greeted by President Nixon. We had a lovely reception but a dignitary flew in that day and so the person to host us was not President Nixon but Julie Eisenhower. I was excited to talk to Ms. Eisenhower rather than the President!
We boarded a plane for our flight to Russia that afternoon. When we arrived in Moscow it was dark outside. Our hotel was within a block of the Red Square. We got a tour inside of the Kremlin and a walk around St. Basil’s Cathedral. I believe we were treated like dignitaries, these young wide eyed kids. What I experienced was such a different life than what I had lived. We were warned to not travel far from our hotel. We were watched by soldiers with guns to make sure we did not travel in areas we were not allowed. The people were gracious everywhere we went and we played several concerts in Moscow and Leningrad.
I began to get homesick after a week of traveling. It was the Fourth of July and I was so naive to never have thought that I would not be celebrating Independence Day. I took this celebration for granted my whole life. I heard someone running down the halls knocking on doors of the hotel telling us to meet in the hotel parking lot. Once there we formed a marching band block, someone had brought an American Flag with them. We were scared someone would stop us but we began singing The Star Spangled Banner, waving the flag, and marching around the parking lot. The feeling of patriotism and home was aching in our hearts. After the song we quickly dispersed and ran back in the hotel hoping we would not be in some sort of trouble for doing that. It was an act of showing freedom in a place where everywhere we turned there was such a lack.
I am reminded about this because today is my high school reunion and I will be back in touch with those with whom I made the trip to Russia. Every Fourth of July I am reminded how I learned about freedom in a country that had very little and my blessing to be in the United States. I am reminded what it takes to have a nation where we aspire to honor what it takes to be “free” as a people and a nation. I am reminded that not everyone is still free. And, as I write this I am also very aware of how freedom can be taken, how important the rule of law is, and what happens when authoritarian rule is imposed. Democracy is fragile and I will never take it for granted. Everyday I pray for our country to uphold the ideals to “let freedom ring”.
Peace,
Jace
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou
from poetrysoup.com
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 is not 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 is not Free!
©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong
from yourdailypoem.comSweet Land of Liberty…. may it be so.
It’s Friday…. go ahead and dance out freedom with your body! Get up out of your chair and dance!