Saturday, January 28, 2006
It has been one year since I completed the rough draft of the PACT America report.
I started reading through this original manuscript the other day, and while the rough draft is just that, from within these old words, I have found new inspiration.
“Hello, my name is Adam Florzak. I am 23 years old, and I am currently unemployed. The only title attached to my name is that of American citizen, but I think citizen is the most prestigious credential I could ever hope to possess. I would like to believe that America is a place where regardless of age, income, ethnicity, or social standing, an individual’s ideas and opinions still matter. I hope that people will sincerely listen to a person who speaks sincerely.
“I dropped out of college to pursue a career in futures trading. It was simultaneously the best and worst decision of my life. For two years, these experiences provided me with amazing challenges and a certain sense of adventure. But in the end, trading gave me nothing that I wanted and everything that I needed. In place of riches, I gained wisdom, patience, prudence, and realism. Time will tell, but I think that I may have gotten the better deal. Success is paid out in a lump sum, but failure pays its dividends over a lifetime.
“I’m not exactly sure what label society will give me, but it will probably be something along the lines of loser, dropout, or gambler. While all of these labels could easily be used to describe me, I think there is something within me that no label could ever hope to contain. I don’t have any expectations to live up to, and I have no image to protect. Instead of keeping me down, it gives me the courage to say what I feel needs to be said regardless of the personal consequences. When it comes right down to it, I’m in no position to tell this country anything. Nevertheless, I hope that America will listen to me. While I may not have a rifle in hand, I believe that I am helping to defend the honor of my country.”
. . .
“I’m still learning, but I believe that there is only one governing rule to politics. Grab a tiger by its tail, and it will turn around to bite you. However, grab it by the balls, and you will have its full attention. I believe this plan has accomplished such a feat. While I have little faith in the American government, I have supreme confidence in the American people. The American people possess an unwavering dedication to America and the virtues by which it stands. When it comes right down to it, America’s greatest natural resource is her people; it is the people that make America the greatest nation ever to be assembled among men. The government has become overly complicated and also somewhat corrupt. My plan is simple, and I believe that is what makes it right. Together we can make a better America, a stronger America, a united America. After all, this is the United States of America.”
Can winds be chained? Or fires contained?
Words confine as they define, but freedom will not be held prisoner by bars of steel or margins of page.
Freedom is not a law to be enacted or repealed. It is neither idea nor ideal.
Freedom exists without knowing existence. Though being possessed, it never possesses.
What then, is freedom?
Freedom is.
