WORDS: FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD? NO, NO IT’S NOT

Words change with age.

For a few years I lived next to a quirky neighbor. Sound familiar? Most folks have either had one, or been one.

I was already there when he moved in, a ripped muscle-man with a crewcut.

‘Great,’ I thought, I’ve got either a policeman neighbor, or a gym kook. Either way worked for me.

Turned out he was familiar with law enforcement, just the other side. He had done time in OSP. Meeting him, and getting to know him, changed my opinion of ex-cons.

The man built a sense of community I’d never felt before or since. How?

He’d been a general contractor before prison and picked up where he left off.

The crime that put him in the system started with school show and tell. His side hustle was farming, weed farming, and when his young daughter’s teacher said bring something from daddy’s work, she brought in a bag of weed.

It set off alarms, then sirens.

Eventually, maybe a year, we talked about his experience. His words then were chilling. Still are.

Words Build Community

The words he used in his community worked for freedom. Prisoners who had a job and a place to live got a break. He gave them jobs in his company and found them places to live.

Sometimes his house was their starting point.

I met some of the guys when he hosted work parties, and more when they showed up for the after-party. As the neighbor, I got invited over.

Were they a different sort of group?

One party was a football gathering, but instead of a game they all dropped a hand to the ground a played ‘lineman’ to see who could drive the other one on one.

I watched the guys fire out on each other and wondered if they did that in prison. I had The Longest Yard playing in his house. I was a sideline cheerleader when they asked me to join in.

When I said no, they asked why? None of them looked like football players, but they were having a rowdy time.

“I don’t want to ruin the fun,” I said.

That opened up words like, “You think you’re better than us?”

No, I just didn’t want to spoil a good time.

“Are you afraid?” they asked.

Eventually, I caved and joined the fun, except it wasn’t fun anymore. I’m a North Bend Bulldog letterman, for crying out loud, and Bulldog Pride never goes away.

So I took my spot and they put one of the guys in front of me. Since the winner kept going until they got pushed out, and they figured me for a fat suburban daddy, I didn’t face their best right off.

I took the first guy, the second guy, and started getting into it. The group cheered for their buddies and I got more into it. I don’t remember when the shirts came off, but things got rowdier every time a new guy came up.

I thought we were all having the same good time together while I pounded every opponent into the wall behind them.

Apparently there were rules I didn’t know. After the last guy things got quiet and I decided it was time to go home.

Luckily my neighbor was held in great respect by everyone, me included. He was a kingpin and my street was the safest street in town, or else, so no hurt feelings.

Family Words

The guys next door were just that. Guys, not parents.

In a recent post I wrote about jail and freedom, and my brush with the constraints of the army.

A mom with the sort of experience no one signs up for took a chance and commented. Her words are important for those planning to go to the state capitols in armed protest.

Why? Because she knows what freedom is. She knows it’s more than just another word for nothing left to lose.

Your post 1/12 touched me deeply.

Most of us have truly no idea what it means to be ‘freedomless’. Yeah yeah, we’re all doing some kind of time – debt, jobs we don’t like, to name a couple.

But really it’s not until freedom is gone that the reality of captivity, imprisonment, detainment and their control and demands, takes your breath away, takes your humanness away.

And the fear so gripping it’s almost impossible to go on, to breath, to think. Ask anyone of the 2.4 million incarcerated in our country, just one example of where freedom is lost, they will describe it.

Then ask their families. 

Nothing is flipping worth it!

So it is agreed – freedom must remain in our own hands not the hands of others. Peacefully hold it close, respect it, understand it, offer it, encourage it.

Once freedom begins to unravel, ones life will never be the same. Freedom has often been lost in a heartbeat – here today then gone the next, in an instant.

It’s devastating, it’s destructive and it’s the last thing you ever thought you’d be without. It cannot be understood until it is. 

Keep your power, stay home, be brave, be free. Non-violence is the way.

One Comment Carries The Most Weight On This Blog

Experience, the good and the bad, create a new lens in life.

The words above choked me up.

If you, your brother or sister, mom or dad, are spun up enough to gather at a state capitols with bad intent, think of the time you may well spend doing the time for a crime instigated by the wrong ideology.

Make up your mind to use peace as a tool. You don’t need to give your family a new theme song:

Smile an everlasting smile
A smile can bring you near to me
Don’t ever let me find you gone
Cause that would bring a tear to me

This world has lost it’s glory
Let’s start a brand new story
Now my love, right now
There’ll be no other time
And I can show you how, my love

Talk in everlasting words
And dedicate them all to me
And I will give you all my life
I’m here if you should call to me

You think that I don’t even mean
A single word I say

It’s only words, and words are all I have
To take your heart away

Make the right decision with your time while you’ve got it.