Of the different types of freedom, such as freedom from taxes, there is one freedom people will die to achieve and defend: Political Freedom. You can't see it, wear it or eat it, but you know when you have it.
Being born and living under the banner of political freedom, I always take great joy in celebrating the 4th of July with fireworks and the singing of patriotic songs.
Every year on the 4th of July, the TV broadcasts 'A Capital Forth', a program of patriotic music capped off by the National Symphony Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture 2, enhanced by the live firing of cannons. Bursts of red, white and blue fireworks fill the sky with shooting stars and giant glistening flowers designed to last only a fraction of a moment. For how ever long the fireworks last, its a magic show that holds one spellbound, whether viewing live or on television.
Celebrating the 4th of July reminds us that political freedom came from fighting the American Revolutionary War. It was not a revolution of redistribution of power as in the Russian Revolution, but a revolution to achieve political independence. As a nation, we are very proud and quick to judge if a threat to this independence arises and we put great stock in the Constitution that guarantees the personal freedoms of citizens.
However well intentioned, the zeal to protect and defend has led to practices that infringe on these rights. The collection of metadata by the NSA 1 has reached the point of absurdity and its time to re-evaluate the value of that practice in the light of Political Freedom.
Anything that chips away parts of our precious independence is a threat that can't be ignored.
[Editor's notes:
1: The National Security Agency (NSA) is one of 17 Security Agencies, along with other law enforcement and regional agencies, in the USA. The initials, NSA, have come to represent all the security services in the US by popular use. The initials can also refer to any security service in the world, although each has their own initials and titles like: GCHQ, BND.
Each of the world's security services, along with regional and local law enforcement agencies, harvests, collects and stores metadata regardless of national boundaries or citizenship of origin. The US NSA just does more of it than the others.
2: The 1812 Overture does not celebrate the American War of 1812, but the eventual victory of the Russians defending their country against the invading French under Napoleon. The Russians lost the battle but the cost to the French was the entire war and eventually their Emperor.]
Victory from the Heels of Defeat
How the invading Grande Armée of Napoleon won the battle but lost the war.
On 7 September 1812, at Borodino, 120 km (75 mi) west of Moscow, Napoleon's forces met those of General Mikhail Kutuzov in the only concerted stand made by Russia against the seemingly invincible French Army. The Battle of Borodino saw casualties estimated as high as 100,000 and resulted in a French tactical victory. It was, however, ultimately a Pyrrhic victory for the French invasion.
With resources depleted and supply lines overextended, Napoleon's weakened forces moved into Moscow, which they occupied with little resistance. Expecting capitulation from the displaced Tsar Alexander I, the French instead found themselves in a barren and desolate city, parts of which the retreating Russian Army had burned to the ground.
Deprived of winter stores, Napoleon had to retreat. Beginning on October 19 and lasting well into December, the French Army faced several overwhelming obstacles on its long retreat: famine, typhus, frigid temperatures, harassing cossacks and Russian forces barring the way out of the country. Abandoned by Napoleon in November, the Grande Armée was reduced to one-tenth of its original size by the time it reached Poland and relative safety.
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