Freedom.
It hangs in the air. Slowly picks up some energy. In time, transforms into an unstoppable force. A source of pride. A broad, deep, and spiraling component of human existence at its best. An essential. As raw and pure as oxygen. What cleanses the soul, sets the spirit free.
Freedom. No! I write not of freedom of speech today, although there is much to talk about that virtue. Freedom of speech is not granted to me. I carve out my own freedom. For there is that heat inside that can neither be contained there, nor controlled once it is released to find its own footing, begin its own enlightened journey.
Freedom. Again NO! I speak not about freedom of association on this occasion. For what is it and where is it? How I ask (on behalf of many citizens, those hundreds of thousands of Guyanese), can freedom be, when there is that tightness between the shoulders when space is shared? When an open mind is presented to absorb what is offered, to distil and interpret later?
Freedom. No and yes, this one is. The one that is about freedom of choice. As long as it is me, then that’s just fine and dandy. All is well, all would be safe. The no comes into play when the chance to exercise or express freedom of choice is extorted, violated, distorted, and last aborted. As Guyanese we have seen all this, haven’t we?
Growing from an innocent and impotent child to a monster of a man now. Unimagined before, given the source of his strength, very much the norm now, with many offsprings of that diabolical creature now roaming, now stabbing, now seeking ways to drag down and then destroy ultimately. What have we become! What would come from all this, to where do all this leads?
Freedom. For sure, today I speak not of freedom of speech, nor freedom of association, nor freedom of choice. Today I speak and write of all those freedoms and then more of them. And how all of them are enchained and in rags, as anyone enslaved is. On this most ordinary of days, I speak and write of that master freedom of all. Freedom from fear.
Freedom. Freedom from fear. Why fear? Who is there so debased, so utterly obscene, such a spawn of darkness and all of its forces, that there is a speck-the merest, invisible, intangible, innocuous, insipid molecule-of fear? For what? For allowing the freest and fullest flow of the mind. Then expressing it openly before all, from friend to foe. Fear that I hesitate, that I think twice, that I retreat. Fear to offend, or to be found offensive. Because I know who they are, how they think, and how they react.
Freedom to speak, for then I say what contradicts, only just a little, and there is the dread that a day of reckoning is all but guaranteed. Freedom to write and that stirs others to think differently, which is seen as a danger. Then, to top it all off, to leave a testimony for the ages to come of the way things were, and how some men came to be. Down through history, powerful men have feared the sword. They feared the pen even more, and with an enduring, sleepless fright.
Freedom. Freedom from fear. Fear that viral paralysis in the blood that clogs the heart, takes away the knees. Fear is that poison spreading in the head, that worm clawing away in the gut. Fear is that evil spirit that reduces strong men, loud men, and proud men to invalids, to that state of helpless impotence. The indignity of death, but of not yet being dead. Of watching oneself die in slow motion, and not being able to move a muscle to save oneself. What kind of existence is that, where even euthanasia is an exit too good to give?
Freedom. Okay, so they take away the job. They take away the contract. They take away the land, and the scholarship, and the relationships, and the sponsorships. All the things that were a part of the fear, they have taken away. So, what is there now left to fear?
I have said this to many Guyanese within listening distance. I now extend the favor to President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Attorney General Anil Nandlall. When there is an absence of crippling debts to truth, there is nothing to fear. When what is clean is not dreaded as a destructive allergen, then there is nothing to fear again.
And, when what is straight and true is not seen as a spear to the heart, then why fear anything, since all has been conquered? Why tremble at the thought of ordinary citizens, and a drop of ink spilled here, one simple dab of common goodness presented over there and everywhere else?
Freedom. Freedom is such an invincible power that it has a way of strangling those who tempt the gods when they seek to suppress it. Freedom can neither be bought nor bartered (nor brutalized). Be of good cheer, be strong, be sure, is my greeting to all.
