Liberty

“We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.”

Mark Twain

I love chocolate, so driving a couple of hours off my planned pathway to Hershey, Pennsylvania, was an easy decision. I needed a break from battlefields, so what better venue than Hershey’s Chocolate World?! I rode the It’s-A-Small-World-like carnival car through the factory and learned all about the 125-year-old business. I also recently toured the Pez Factory and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory and was inspired by the stories of the folks who started with a simple idea in a country that provides the opportunity to develop the idea into a successful industry. The light bulb is great, but chocolate kisses and Reese’s peanut butter cups…

As I toured the Edison invention “compound” in New Jersey, I was in awe. Edison once said, “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” His expansive research library contained three stories of books and displayed a couple of Edison’s 3500 laboratory journals containing his own ideas, sketches, research, and prototypes. Apparently, scientists are still dissecting Edison’s notebooks for current research and future innovations. Building after building housed a chemical lab, music recording studio, metal shop, electrical engineering lab, photography studio/darkroom, and so on. Thomas Edison was home-schooled the majority of his growing-up years because his grade school teacher believed Edison had learning disabilities and was unable to understand the simplest of lessons. Each year, I share this story with my new students, along with similar stories of educational neglect and misdiagnoses of Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. I use their stories to help students understand that we all learn differently and have unique abilities that must be acknowledged and developed without judgment or limitations – freedom/rights provided by the educational system in our country.

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Although the Civil War didn’t officially begin until 1861, abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid in Harper’s Ferry was a pivotal event that lead up to the war. A white man and 21 of his friends battled against a much larger posse led by Robert E. Lee to fight for the liberty of slaves. After several casualties, Brown was captured, convicted of treason, and hanged for his crime. Deemed a martyr, John Brown’s actions may have been one small spark that ignited the demand for human liberty that continues today.

The Civil War-era seems a bit out of reach at times – too long ago to grasp what the fighting and the war-time living conditions must have been like. I’ve toured museums and read about the weapons, medical devices, and communication techniques used during that time. I understand how 620,000 people died, but have no concept of that reality. Then, I went to the Flight 93 National Memorial.

John Brown died over 160 years ago fighting for liberty. The American citizens on board Flight 93 also died protecting the liberty of every United States citizen. Perhaps we should all spend more time focusing on the immensity of freedoms this country provides and less time attacking one another and nitpicking the insignificant idiosyncrasies of life.