Untitled by Jay Goodman

History has taught us that one thing men and women of every place and time have always been willing to fight for, and indeed die for, is freedom. Freedom is the cornerstone of all great nations, freedom is the pinnacle of spirituality, and freedom is the most basic and essential human right. With everything that is going on with Russia and the Ukraine right now, I thought it was a good opportunity to talk about the true meaning of freedom. I have been asking some people in the prison with me what they believe freedom to be. Most of them had different answers, but most were close as far as what they believe it to be. I do realize freedom means different things to different people, if I were to ask this question to someone from the Ukraine right now, I am sure they would have a completely view from the answers I received from my fellow prisoners. Basically, I was told that freedom is when you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Consciously or subconsciously, this is how most people view the concept of freedom in the world today, freedom is viewed as the power, the strength, or merely the convenience to choose, but this notion is false. Freedom is not simply the circumstances that allow you to do whatever you want, freedom is not only the opportunity to choose, freedom is the strength of character to choose and do what is right. With that in mind, ours is not an age of freedom, but an age of slavery. It is subtle, but it is real. The foundation of freedom is not power or choice, freedom is upheld not by men and women in government, but by people who govern themselves. Self-discipline is the foundation of freedom. This self-discipline, this mastery of self, is acquired only by practice of self-denial and is acquired always from within. Discipline can never be imposed upon a person, it must emerge from within a person, self-discipline is the foundation of greatness, achievement, success, heroism, leadership, sanctity, vibrant and flourishing communities and nations. There is no liberty where there is no self-discipline. I can remember what Julie Andrews said, “Some people regard discipline as a chore, for me, it is a kind of order that set me free to fly.”

If you were to examine the lives of men and women who have achieved little or nothing with their lives, people who are miserable, mean and dispassionate, you will discover that it was not other people who destroyed their lives. Destruction always comes from within, it is true for a nation and it is true for people. That is what I have written my last six chapters on, why people are so different now than any time in American history. Any type of discipline, whether mental or physical, has long been forgotten by Americans and it shows in every area of their lives. I was reading a book about Abraham Lincoln, in 1838, he said “At what pint is the approach of danger to be expected? I answered if it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.” As I was reading that, it made perfect sense because America has built itself up to be powerful. Our military is some of the best trained soldiers in the world, and we have positioned ourselves all over the world. No one, not even China or Russia really wants to go into war with us. We know they hate us, but like I said, our country is too powerful on every level. Look at how our country has changed over the last forty years, look at the people of today and what’s taken place. These people who have lived their entire lives doing nothing but getting high and playing video games. Now these people are going to raise their children to think and act just like they do, and while I am fully aware there are more people in our country that don’t get high than those that do, and are raising their children with good moral beliefs, I can understand what Abraham Lincoln was trying to say when he said, “Danger must spring up amongst us, it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher.” How true this is, because it is 100% true that we are as a country where we are today because we have allowed certain things to happen and done nothing to stop them as a whole.

On another occasion, Lincoln said, “Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. In the later part of the twentieth century, we planted the seeds of despotism around our very doors with one creed, message and motto, if it feels good do it.” In a day and age where there is little real threat of our freedom being attacked by foreign forces, especially over the last forty years. A large group of Americans have become slaves, our threat is not foreign, it’s local, internal. In a lot of ways, we have become our own worst enemies. The people that I have been writing about, have become slaves to smoking, alcohol, drugs, food, pornography, gambling, sex, violence and numerous other things. Our slavery is the result of a complex of addictions that we often refuse to acknowledge or challenge. These addictions attack and take over not only our minds, but also our bodies, heart, spirits, everything that leads you from becoming the best version of yourself. Addictions is the enemy of self-discipline, addiction is the enemy of freedom, addiction robs us of our own dignity, I see it every day all around me. I have been in prison for almost two decades, and there has not been one day go by that I haven’t seen other prisoners sell their souls to get high, even the people who are selling it are willing to sell their souls. I haven’t met a man yet who likes being in prison, but there have been countless prisoners I have seen get time stacked on top of their sentence for selling drugs, so even they are slaves. Both the people using drugs and selling drugs, are slaves, because both have lost the most very important thing we have, Freedom.

Without freedom, what do you truly have? Nothing. No matter what you have accomplished, what good is it if you don’t have freedom? Every person I have ever met in prison thinks about that one thing every day, freedom. The odd thing is they haven’t learned what freedom truly means. The very thing they long for every day, the very thing they dream about means nothing. So, remember if you don’t master self-discipline in every area of your life, you will live your entire lives as a slave to whatever whim comes along. As I said, “Freedom is the strength of character to choose and do what is right.”