What Freedom Means
A Polish family, thrown into slave labor by the Nazis for harboring Jews, then turned over to Stalin and shipped to a Siberian concentration camp, finally manages to find freedom for some of the family in Grand Rapids, Michigan:
"A lot of people don't know what freedom means. I do."
Read the whole thing.
Smale side note: the phrase is "12 months of winter, the rest are summer." The newspaper misquoted it.
(Via Sparkey.)
Wow. Moved me to tears (wet eyes anyway) and I'm not much of a weeper, believe me.
His story firms up an important lesson (for me at least, for most of us I bet).
It could be worse. Look on the bright side. There are people out there who are *really* suffering.
Thank you, Dean.
"I feel great," Jan said. "I love this country. I love this country more than anything else in the world. I do what I want to do. I go where I want to go. I have a dollar in my pocket and a smile on my face, and nobody stand behind me and say it's his.
"A lot of people don't know what freedom means. I do."
Amen.
Thanks for the link Dean.
Freedom is the most beautiful and the most expensive thing in the world. Jan's story should be read by each of us at least once a year.
Tell those whom you love that you love them every day then guard and protect our nation and our freedom.
I like freedom, too. I'm always glad when people can find freedom here in the US. However, there are many people here who do not have the ordinary, everyday freedoms many of us enjoy. That is because they live in parts of America controlled by gangs. Check out http://www.streetgangs.com/
Part of my website is devoted to exposing a white supremacist gang. I tend to believe that until a person can walk down any street that person chooses to walk down without fear of being hassled too much, then "freedom" is a concept. I believe that eventually we can achieve the reality of that concept. Then again, I'm a mindless optimist.
Freedom!
A very poignant story.
Freedom is another beautiful word for Sovereignty...supreme and independent political authority,... These United States of America.
Welcome to America and what she stands for.
Excellent piece. What I have found sad is the complete apathy that nearly every Russian person I know has concerning the incredible suffering that occured under Stalin. Whenever I bring up the subject my wife dismisses me with, "Oh my God, that was so long ago, forget about that. No one even thinks about Stalin anymore."
I guess the magnitude of that suffering is incomprehensible to modern Russians. Either that, or they refuse to acknowledge the lesson confronting them. I think it's a combination of both.