The advertisement that has run in the Recorder recently crediting “The Veteran” with giving us freedom of the press, speech, and to demonstrate, got me thinking about the analogy of the three-legged stool.
Each leg on the stool might claim that it is the most important, since without it the stool would fall over. In reality they are all necessary, because each one depends on the other two. The same goes for our democracy — it works because of various elements acting together. Losing any one of them would cause the whole enterprise to fall apart.
Certainly the military is vitally important, but the military alone does not guarantee freedom. Other countries have militaries; not all of them are free. Democratic freedoms require things like the rule of law, freedom of speech, due process, a free press, free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, etc. Those all depend on people — legislators, judges, lawyers, reporters, poll workers, and others — with courage and integrity to keep them functioning and to protect them against abuses.
Perhaps the basic requirement is that we, the citizens, insist that those systems work properly, and take action when they don’t. Democratic freedoms aren’t spectator sports — we can’t just watch from the sidelines while someone else makes them happen. All of us, veterans or not, need to be out on the field.
Very definitely thanks to veterans, who have performed an invaluable service, but thanks also to the many others who work to maintain and defend our freedoms. And a reminder to all of us that we will remain free only by being vigilant against the ongoing threats, foreign and domestic, that threaten that freedom.
Michael Naughton
Millers Falls