Written by Joy McIntosh, 13, for the 2015-2016 VFW contest, Patriot’s Pen. For this contest, middle school students write and submit essays to the VFW and are awarded monetary prizes if they win. Joy did not place in this contest, but we are all very proud of her essay regardless of what the judges thought. She did a wonderful job and wrote about her passion, even though it probably did not appeal to the judges. Good job, Joy! Let her know what you think in the comments below. 🙂
To Patrick Henry, freedom means life. The declaration of independence is of the same opinion. But freedom also means justice. America without justice would be chaos! So freedom means life and justice; but it has a cost.
Freedom means life. For Patrick Henry, life could not possibly come without freedom! His statement, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” conveys this. The Declaration of Independence states, “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.” Yet America has fallen short of these standards. Since 1973, almost 58,000,000 precious American children have been brutally, legally murdered before they are born! Did those Americans have freedom? I say not.
Freedom means justice. Without justice, we wouldn’t truly be free because we would have to live in fear of those around us. I’m extremely thankful for America’s government system. We have a judicial branch to make the laws, a legislative branch to interpret laws, and an executive branch to enforce these laws. Each of these has a check on the other two. But not all Americans are treated equally anymore. Those 58,000,000 children didn’t get justice. It is our responsibility as Americans to defend our nation against these evils which have snuck in unseen.
Freedom has a cost. A. Philip Randolph said that, “Freedom is never given; it is won.” America’s freedom was not cheap. Thousands of Americans gave their lives so that we, the future generations, could have “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The cost that they had to pay was their lives. But the price allotted to us is to strike down abortion. We have to give up our right to choose, so that the baby can have the right to life. Since 1973, only 2 out of 3 Americans have survived the American abortion holocaust.
Freedom is life, freedom is justice, and freedom has a cost. All men are created equal and no one can rightfully take this freedom away from them. Freedom’s cost is this: Abortion must be stopped; no matter what. We can pray, raise money, campaign for the right President, and give speeches at school or at church. So think about it. How can you help? Does freedom mean enough to you to do something about this?
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