A Day to Remember

Andy Snyder|June 19, 2023

The markets are closed today as the nation celebrates its newest holiday.

As we reflect on the day and what it means for our country and her people, we can’t help but ponder an idea that hits at the heart of Manward.

Our old-school readers will be nodding along.

It’s something we’ve mused about before – the subtle but critical differences between freedom and liberty.

Our culture tends to think the two terms are interchangeable.

They are not.

Understanding the differences between them will change the way you think… live… and even spend your money.

Freedom is a word of German origin that simply means the ability to make decisions or perform actions without external constraint.

But liberty, which has French roots, means freedom that has been granted by some sort of external entity, typically a society or government.

Boiled down… freedom is something we are born with, while liberty is something we must fight for.

That’s a critical idea. Liberty must be granted by an external force.

A holiday like today is a strong reminder of that.

It took a massive force to take away so much liberty… and it took much, much more force (and bloodshed) to give it back.

Here’s why it’s vital to know the slight but powerful nuances of each word… especially these days…

America’s Founding Fathers believed freedom was a God-given right. We all know that. But few folks know that they left it up to the government to grant its citizens the liberty to take advantage of that right.

That’s where we get into trouble.

No government will ever grant true liberty on its own. It is a preposterous idea.

We wouldn’t need this holiday if one would.

It proves that this grand national experiment is still a work in progress.

Ronald Reagan added some color to the idea in a speech he made prior to his presidency…

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States, where men were free.

When most folks think of protecting freedom for their children, they think of brute force – wars and revolutions.

Sure, that’ll get the job done. But there’s a better way to protect our freedom… a far more reliable way.

Wealth.

It’s the root of all man’s evil and the greatest shield against it.

Nothing has liberated more people than wealth. And nothing has enslaved more people than a lack of it.

By definition, no government can do what money can do.

By the very nature of our being, we all have the freedom to travel where we want and do what we want.

We simply don’t have the liberty… unless we have wealth.

There’s a new form of slavery taking place in our nation. It’s sinister and covert. It’s the massive push to create government dependence and destroy individual wealth.

It will dismantle liberty in a massive, irreparable way.

That’s what we must tell our children and grandchildren… that the only way to avoid the horrors of being controlled by another man is to have enough wealth to live for ourselves.

Anything else puts us back in that nasty place whence we came.

Many folks will ignore today’s holiday. They’ll look at it as yet another partisan move.

They’re wrong.

It’s a day of remembrance and celebration for a country that was built on freedom and the liberty to enjoy it.

And it’s a day to remember just how quickly it can all be erased.