Most people aspire to freedom.
That ability and capability to think, speak and travel, to work and worship wherever and whenever they choose is a cherished asset for many in the world today.
To be, and to feel safe whilst going about our daily lives is often taken for granted.
For freedom is a given, especially for those who have never experienced life without it; thus many of our current generation, especially the younger, have never experienced a lack of freedom; in a sense not dissimilar to the many living in our generation who have never experienced the financial hardship and deprivations of the Great Depression.
It is a story from the past, a myth even…
Equally, and unfortunately, it is this same freedom that eludes many across our world; whether by virtue of their birthplace, race, gender or as is often the case due to the imposition of the tyrannical or despotic objectives of others.
Those acquainted with and living in freedom frequently ascribe too little value to it; as it is often something only fully understood, and thus fully valued once lost or taken away.
Yet, freedom, once taken away it can be extremely difficult to regain, if not impossible.
It goes without saying that our forebears paid for, and often fought for the very freedoms we enjoy today. They strove to secure and then maintain, to protect the very freedoms we collectively take for granted.
We should not for one moment dismiss or belittle the price these men and women paid, the cost they bore, and the deprivations and hardships they endured in their day, to secure our freedom today.
Freedoms paid for with their resources, time, committment and in many instances their blood. They paid that we might live freely; and so often they paid it forward, never realising the very benefits they sought in their own lifetime.
They gave, and often they died to gain and to protect the liberties we assume, often as our birthright today.
They understood inherently the risks and costs of failing to act, and failing to pay it forward, though they often were never to experience the fruit of their sacrifices.
Then, as is often the case now, the cost of securing and maintaining our freedom was born disproportionately by a few, for the benefit of many.
Sydney, 2014 bore testimony to this as a few gave their lives to demonstrate and declare our claim to freedom.
May we never forget them and their sacrifice.
