Author's Note: "Freedom is not Free"- Walter Hitchcock
Freedom; it's an abundance of choice, the given ability to live in a manner that is dictated by your own decisions, granted under God by those above you. It's beautiful, vivid, and not confined by limits. However, its existence is entirely determined by the government by which a nation might be run, and we have been blessed to live in a country that operates under the very epitome of it. Other countries are not so fortunate.
Its price is unfathomably heavy. The difficulty of ensuring it is immeasurable, and every day of its stand is a miracle, a victory of the free world. We often take it for granted, using it how we like, often forgetting to remember those who risk their lives fighting for it.
This became more than evident, when, over the summer, my family and I traveled to South Korea, seeing the sprawling palaces, visiting museums, and just observing the the over-all beauty of the nation. One of the many things in our itenerary was to trek north to the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone), which, in irony, is the most heavily militarized area in the world. Arriving at the JSA (Joint Security Area), a shared sense of fear grew within the tour group, knowing how the slightest gesture or facial expression could get a person killed. But what was probably the most frigtening of all was the fact that we were on the border of South Korea.
We stood a matter of feet away from the hermit kingdom.
There, in its horrid splendor was North Korea. Guards stand in front of the North Korean visitors center, which stands out upon the endlessly void hills. Sorrow and the absence of life in a picturesque landscape. In the distance, Kijong-dong lies, empty and solitary, lodged between the highs and lows of the land, balanced like a portrait of nothing but its background, motionless and unfocused. A massive flag pole flies red and blue, the bright white star poking through fog in the heights.
If America is the epitome of freedom, North Korea is the chilling realization of lost hope.
An absence of freedom.
The contrast was stark, as we stood there. South Korea, founded on democracy and representation, and North Korea, founded on no clear principles at all.
Continually defining us, Freedom is why we can call ourselves a great nation. Believing that it is everyone's inalienable right for all of mankind, we venture to nations we've never heard of, expecting nothing in return, to ensure their own freedoms. Fighting on the Korean Peninsula as refugees fled to Busan, American soldiers were able to push back North Korean forces to the current border, saving my mom's family from a government that threatened to take their rights away. It makes you appreciate our veterans. For what they did. For what they do. They saved a nation. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't get to call America my home.
My family and I thank the veterans for their unconditional sacrifice in the Korean War, and in the world abroad.
