The Ongoing Promise of Freedom

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

I attended a funeral recently, well, a celebration of life, really, and it struck a chord in me with regard to what is going on in our country today.

I have been to many celebrations of life. People express the goodness and positive impact the deceased had on their lives, the challenges overcome, the victories of perseverance, love and spirit.

Of course, however, every person who has lived has had shortcomings, disappointments, failures. But, when we celebrate that person, we celebrate the positive, the good, and we understand that while we are all flawed, we are all valued.

250 years ago, a great experiment began. An experiment that placed power in the hands of the governed – to make decisions about what they valued and prioritized, and who would lead them, even how  much they would pay in taxes. They may choose differently than you would, even differently than the people in power would, but the authority to make those decisions lay within the individual citizens.

Today, in our country, rather than celebrate the tremendous gift that power gives us, there are those who focus instead on rejecting that system, and embracing a government that is overpowering, all-inclusive.

It is, perhaps, easier for citizens to just be on board for the ride, because governing ourselves takes time, effort, responsibility and accountability. Our republic expects our citizens to be informed, engaged and to act in their own self-interest. That could be asking a lot.

So, these new leaders say, trust us! We will take care of you! we will fight your fight! We will secure your rights! But who are “they”? They are the government. They will do as they choose. But, once you give them that power, you lose the authority over your own destiny.

There is a reason, in countries which do not have a democracy, a republic, that there is a collection of power in a small group, or one individual. They have the power to decide. Some inherited that power. Others took it by force. The end result has been that “they” – those in control – can do as they please, while the citizens do as they say.

In this country, we used force to take the power away from that small group, that individual – the King – and gave it to the people. We the People, have made this country the success it is today. On this, our 250th Anniversary, let us celebrate that greatness and aspire to more.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.