Category Archives: Freedom

What is the Fourth of July? Its a wonderful time. Were outdoors. Were with family and friends. Were playing golf or fishing. There are barbecues and baseball and fireworks and all that good stuff.

And beneath it all, supporting it all, there is freedom. Freedom. The Fourth of July is about freedom, if nothing else. Americas freedom, of course. But a freedom that extends to all people. One that leads to greatness and prosperity. A freedom that has become the backbone of the world.

I would like to take a moment this holiday to revisit the sources of that freedom. They were outlined so eloquently in perhaps the greatest document ever written, the Declaration of Independence. And theyre as crucial now as they were 241 years ago.

Its a well-known story. Back in 1776, the Continental Congress sought freedom from tyranny. They said, Were revolting against a British monarchy and parliament that doesnt represent us. Were rebelling against laws we dont control and are capricious to say the least.

To formalize this revolt, the congress formed a committee of five. Chosen were Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingstone (New Jersey), John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Roger Sherman (Connecticut). A pretty spiffy group of thinkers and writers.

Their task was to draft a statement of independence although what they came up with was so much more.

Their document, The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, was adopted on July 4, 1776, after days of debate and revision. The document begins:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Id like to underscore the civility of that opening. This document is an example of civility. The great American revolt was a defense of the right of discussion. Civil discourse. Respectful disagreement.

Then there are The Laws of Nature and Natures God. We derive our freedoms not from governments, but from God. It was a revolutionary thought at a time when dictatorial monarchs across Europe believed they were gods.

Then we have perhaps the most famous sentence in the English language, if any language:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That truly was revolutionary stuff. And it was beyond just the colonies.

The authors were saying, Were speaking about the people here, but also about oppressed peoples everywhere, those burdened with dictatorial, who-cares-about-the-little-people governments.

And they spoke of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Life. Our very existence.

Liberty. You cant take my freedom away.

The pursuit of happiness. To live the way we want to live, to do the work we want to do, to marry whom we want to marry; to have kids, accumulate property, and be prosperous.

Ive said this often: The most populist desire of the people of the United States and other free nations is long-lasting, deep-seated prosperity. Speaking of which, the long list of complaints against George IIIs Britain included: cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world (protectionism), imposing Taxes on us without our Consent (remedied with supply-side tax cuts), and (hat tip Seth Lipsky, New York Sun) a hint of stable money: the amount and payment of [judges] salaries.

But the Declaration, critically, goes on:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

Taking these statements together, we see a pecking order. There is God, a higher power or Natures God, who grants us the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And whatever government is formed around this works for the people. And if the government lacks the consent of the people, there must be great change.

From the Lord, to us, and then to government.

And when government breaks down, does poorly, or becomes corrupt, it needs to be replaced one way or another.

Theres a little bit of that going on today, is there not?

Its the Fourth of July. Its freedom day. The government works for us, not the other way around.

If it doesnt, the government gets kicked out on its keister.

Larry Kudlow is CNBCs senior contributor. His new book is JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity, written with Brian Domitrovic.

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Keeping Freedom, and Growth, in the Fourth - National Review

The story of Miller Grove, a small community of freed African-Americans who settled in Pope County in 1844, is slowly coming into focus through the work of the US Forest Service and students from the SIU Center for Archaeological Investigations.

According to CAI Director Mark Wagner, there are silences in history that can only be filled in through the excavation of their remains, and Miller Grove is one of those communities.

The vestiges of the Miller Grove community now lie deep within the Shawnee Forest about 20 miles from Vienna, off a path leading from a county road that can best be called a trace.

This summer, the SIU Center for Archaeological Investigations hosting its annual field school at the site. Wagner, along with about a dozen students, is in the process of sifting through layers of soil to uncover relics from this once thriving rural settlement.

Wagner said the silence surrounding Miller Grove may have been self-imposed.

Communities get silenced for different reasons, but the people out here appear to have silenced themselves, partially because they were most likely involved in the Underground Railroad, he said.

Wagner said the only direct proof they have of this is in the oral history collected from the descendants of the original community members. Those descendants live all over the U.S., and traveled to the site during 2004 and 2005 to share recollections and stories passed down through their families.

Today, the only physical reminder of the community that remains is the cemetery, which has more than 100 graves, and a series of home sites, now reduced to rubble and barely distinguishable from the natural variables of the landscape.

Shawnee National Forest Heritage Program Manager Mary McCorvie said the community settled in such a remote location intentionally.

The community is surrounded by branches of Hayes Creek, so it is surrounded by water on three sides," McCorvie said. "This means there is only one way in, and you know who is coming and going.

Wagner said this was important because in the 1840s and 1850s in Southern Illinois, leading up to the Civil War, slave catchers were common in the region, and it was not unheard of for freed slaves to be kidnapped under the pretense that they were runaway slaves.

Artifacts uncovered at the site, specifically a Union Army General Service button and a Union Army Revolver, showed McCorvie and Wagner that someone living in the community had been in the Colored Troops during the war, but that they could not tie it to a specific family in the settlement.

McCorvie said the community was founded by Harrison Miller, his wife Lucinda, and their three children, who traveled to the woodlands of Pope County from a Tennessee plantation.

In order to settle in the region, the former enslaved family was required to provide documents proving their freedom, and pay a bond of $1,000 to insure they would not become wards of the state.

During the 1840s and 1850s, the area where the Millers bought property and established a farm became the destination for other emancipated families from south-central Tennessee, who also bought land nearby.

As the community expanded, three additional families joined the Millers the Dabbs, the Singletons and the Sydes. Together they built homesteads, a church and a school.

Wagner said in all likelihood the Miller Grove community did participate in the Underground Railroad. Oral histories suggest that Crow Knob, a sandstone bluff that overlooks the community to the south, was used to light signal fires to guide freedom seekers to Millers Grove.

Additionally, Sand Cave, located a few miles west of Crow Knob and north of Miller Grove, appears in stories and local myths as a place to hide runaway slaves. It all makes sense in the bigger picture of whats going on, Wagner said.

Wagner said free communities were in the region near the Ohio Rivers division between the slave states of the south and the free states of the north, and the Ohio River became an important boundary line after 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted.

McCorvie said her fascination with the excavation came in the form of the small things found there a button, pieces of pottery and food remains.

These things represent the first things these people ever got to own," she said. "They represent the first choices someone ever made for themselves as an adult. That button, those dishes, what to eat and wear, these were all chosen for them until the time they were manumitted.

"These small relics are really very big symbols of freedom.

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'Symbols of freedom': Uncovering the history of Miller Grove in Pope County - The Southern

Freedom Is Not what many young people think it is. Younger Generations think that freedom means you can go to the movies when you choose to. They may think freedom is the ability to pick what restaurant you can eat at. They may also think freedom is the ability to get in a car and drive where you want.

It is true that in an extremely oppressive governmental regime, those things can be limited, but they're usually never fully taken away. Communists can go to the movies, so long as the government has approved those movies. Communist can pick what restaurant to eat at, so long as that restaurant is allowed to function.

True freedom comes from UnalienableRights that God has given us. This is what the Forefathers believed in. What does unalienable rights mean? Rights that are Incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred to another. The U.S. Declaration of Independence states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To ensure these freedoms; our forefathers gave us a Constitution which limits the government's ability to intrude on our rights. It does not limit your individual rights but only the government's ability to oppress them.

Freedom of speech is key to keeping these rights. You must have the freedom to politically disagree with one another through free speech.

"Hate Speech" is a tool of the left to destroy your freedoms in the future. They hope to convince you that Free Speech should not be free. They will try to use something most people can agree upon as hateful, in order to get you to allow them to limit free speech. Most people dislike racist speech, so it's easy to get people to say "yeah, we need to stop racist hate speech". The people that are for this do not know that they are being tricked into fascism.

If a "Hate Speech" bill was going to be passed in Congress, who gets the determine what is 'hate speech'? Is saying -White rich people are the cause of america's problems- hate speech? That statement offends rich white people. Is saying -abortion is murder- hate speech? It offends a woman who had an abortion. Is disagreeing with Obamacare hateful to people? It may just depend on who is writing the law. Even worse than that, it may just depend on who was interpreting the law.

The left is well aware of this. It is the sole reason why they keep pounding the term 'hate speech'. Don't believe me? The left in America has always battled to take away your freedoms.

What party is for the government to control your health care? What party pushes to regulate how much soda you can drink? What party wants to regulate how much money a CEO can earn? What party wants to regulate how much you can drive through CO2 emission regulations? What party wants to regulate hate speech, which would include any movie that produces a political speech that is considered hateful? What party encourages Facebook to regulate hate speech on the internet as much as possible? What party tries to stop Christians from expressing their beliefs in public areas? What party says you have to accept homosexuality as normal or else you're considered a bigot? What party forces you to pay for abortions through taxpayer funding? What party believes in forcing you to pay for other people's college tuition's?

I could go on and on. It is the left who destroys the freedoms of American citizens. The more government regulation over your life, the less Freedom you have automatically.

It is the conservatives who fight for your freedoms by demanding smaller government and less regulations. Ironically, as we demand smaller government, we are called the Fascists by the left.

God has given us our an inalienable rights. But Liberals have given us the reasons why those rights are too dangerous for us, and we must not be allowed to have them.

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Freedom - What Is It - WSAU (blog)

(Where have we seen that sort of thing before Russia maybe?)

Or when the White House plays so many games with its press briefings, taking them off camera and placing conditions on how and when they can run or, in the case of its rare, unrestricted live briefings, using them to falsely accuse the news media of dishonesty?

For those who cherish a robust free press, its hard to feel much like partying after witnessing how some cheered Representative Greg Gianforte, Republican of Montana, for body slamming a reporter for The Guardian, Ben Jacobs. His sin: asking unwelcome questions.

The he had it coming camps celebration of the violence against a reporter seemed out of step with Mr. Gianfortes own response. He ultimately apologized, pleaded guilty to assault and pledged a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Then again, it wasnt out of step with President Trump, whose weekend tweet appeared to promote violence against CNN which, some argued, violated Twitters harassment policies certainly undercut Mr. Gianfortes message of contrition.

Yes, America, all of the attacks against something so central to your identity must have you in quite the birthday funk.

The likely reaction in anti-press precincts to a column like this one will be that mainstream journalists think theyre above reproach, which is nonsense.

When a real news organization makes a mistake, it takes action, as CNN recently did when it retracted an article about the Russia investigation, saying the article had not received the proper vetting. Three people lost their jobs.

The Trump administration torqued it into supposed proof that CNN and much of the rest of the news media including The New York Times and The Washington Post are fake news.

It was a powerful reminder to journalists everywhere to take the extra time to get it right, to make sure that the processes that ensure editorial quality and accuracy remain intact and strong.

The stakes are higher now, as the anti-press sentiment veers into calls for more action against journalists, if not against journalism itself.

Look no further than the new National Rifle Association advertisement. In it, the conservative radio and television star Dana Loesch angrily describes how they whoever they are use their media to assassinate real news, contributing to a violence of lies that needs to be combated with the clenched fist of truth.

Given that the ad was for a pro-gun group, this sort of thing tends toward incitement, Charles P. Pierce wrote in Esquire. (Added context: The N.R.A. chief Wayne LaPierre recently called academic elites, political elites and media elites Americas greatest domestic threats.)

The Fox News host Sean Hannity has urged the Trump administration to force reporters to submit written requests in advance of the daily White House press briefing, which, he said, should be narrowly tailored to specific topics the administration wants to talk about.

Mr. Hannitys good buddy Newt Gingrich went one better, suggesting that administration officials fully close the briefing room to the news media, which he has called a danger to the country right now.

Whats most extraordinary in all of this is how many people calling for curtailments on the free press are such professed constitutionalists and admirers of the founders.

The founders didnt view the press as particularly enlightened, and from the earliest days of the republic it certainly wasnt. (To wit, a passage in The Aurora, an early publication, described George Washington as the source of all the misfortunes of our country.)

But they drafted the founding documents to enshrine press freedom for good reason. As the Stanford University history professor Jack Rakove said in an interview last week, James Madison was most concerned about a misinformed publics acting on misplaced passions, and saw the press as an antidote. Were he alive now, Mr. Rakove said, Madison would be worried by the idea of government whipping up or exploiting what he called badly formed passions.

Sure, there were the occasional stumbles, like the short-lived Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which banned false, scandalous and malicious writing about the government, but they led to stronger free speech protections.

So this, our 241st birthday, seems just the time to invite some of our forebears to remind us including those at the top of the government why a free press is so important.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Benjamin Franklin, 1722

There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press. Samuel Adams, 1768

The freedom of speech may be taken away and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter. George Washington, to officers of the Army, 1783

Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. James Madison, 1822

There is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didnt write it, and even though we disapprove, there still isnt any doubt that we couldnt do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press. John F. Kennedy, 1962

Since the founding of this nation, freedom of the press has been a fundamental tenet of American life. There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our noble experiment in self-government. Ronald Reagan, 1983

Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And its important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere. George W. Bush, 2017

Jaclyn Peiser contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on July 3, 2017, on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Celebrating Independence As Free Press Is Besieged.

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Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings - New York Times

Dr. Leif Nelson, who worked on the development of the LUKE arm, said that the number of people who had lost arms relative to those who had lost legs was too small to spur private research and development. Thats when Darpa, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, funded studies to develop the latest prosthesis. They in turn were able to enlist private companies, working with Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway.

Sensors, similar to the ones found in smartphones that automatically sense when the screen has been flipped, were strapped to a persons feet, enabling arm control by moving the foot side to side or back and forth. And for those who had lost an entire arm, motors at shoulder level enabled people to lift their arms above their head. The next step, Dr. Nelson said, was to develop on-skin sensors that would detect nerve signals and translate them into specific movements.

This is the first device that intuitively moves multiple joints at one time, he said. With other technology, you had to use the hand, then stop. Use the wrist, then stop. It wasnt fluid.

The arm, which will be commercially available through the manufacturer Mobius and sold to civilians too, will cost in the low six figures, though pricing is being worked out, officials said. An initial order of 10 has been placed for veterans.

Mr. Downs and Mr. McAuley were chosen as recipients based on medical necessity and because they participated in the research that led to the LUKE arms development.

Mr. McAuley, 70, who lives in Richmond Hill, Queens, where he cares for his mother, spent most of his post-military life without a prosthetic arm. I did one-armed stuff, he said. I tied my tie with one arm. I tied sneakers with one arm. I typed with one finger. I was strictly a one-sided person.

He participated in Darpas research project, he said, not so much for himself but to help others. Its given me hope for the future, he said. Its not that I want to be remembered, but I would like this to be an inspiration for people down the road.

Mr. Downs, a former Veterans Affairs official who lives in Maryland and is now a consultant to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, had long used a hook arm. But his new prosthesis will finally let him do tasks that require greater dexterity or the ability to hold his hand close to his face.

The symbolism of getting his new arm this weekend was not lost on him.

When you lose an upper extremity, you lose your independence, your ability to take care of yourself, he said. When you lose your independence, you lose somewhat of your dignity as a human being because you have to depend on others to comb your hair, go to the bathroom. With a prosthetic limb, your independence and dignity are returned to you. This is freedom, let me tell you. When I dont have my arm on, I think I am disabled. But when I have this arm on, I dont think Im disabled.

A version of this article appears in print on July 3, 2017, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day.

Excerpt from:

For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day - New York Times

U.S. President Donald Trump waves at the Celebrate Freedom Rally in Washington, U.S. July 1, 2017. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump vowed to support and defend religious liberty, telling a gathering of evangelical Christians that the threat of terrorism is one of the most grave and dire threats to religious freedom in the world today.

We cannot allow this terrorism and extremism to spread in our country, or to find sanctuary on our shores or in our cities, Trump said Saturday night at a Celebrate Freedom concert honoring veterans. We want to make sure that anyone who seeks to join our country shares our values and has the capacity to love our people.

The evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group sponsored the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.

The event at times felt like one of Trumps signature campaign rallies, with the president promising an adoring crowd that America would win again and prompting cheers with attacks on the news media.

The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but Im president and theyre not, he said.

READ NEXT: Trump vows to repeal political limits on churches

Trump appeared on a stage decorated with a massive American flag. Choirs performed The Battle Hymn of the Republic and other hymns and debuted a song with the lyrics make America great again Trumps campaign slogan.

Besides speaking to the events religious theme, Trump renewed his campaign promise to always take care of Americas veterans.

Not only has God bestowed on us the gift of freedom, hes also given us the gift of heroes willing to give their lives to defend that freedom, he said.

Overwhelming support from evangelical voters helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Since he took office, Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trumps appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his executive order ordering the IRS to ease up on a rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.

Trump was spending the pre-Independence Day weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but traveled back to Washington for the event.

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Trump vows to support and defend religious freedom in US - PBS NewsHour

More than 200 years ago, the young United States was learning to walk in its freshly won freedom and the Constitution born of it. Our experiment in self-governance, based on the idea that our Creator endowed all of us with certain inalienable rights as reflected in our Declaration of Independence, was unique in the history of the world.

Among these rightswhich we recognize are not given by government but granted by Godis our right to religious freedom. Its importance is signified by the fact that it precedes all the other rights listed in the amendments to our Constitution.

In our early years, imperfect to be sure, as a nation we nevertheless persisted and advanced to embrace the ideal of religious freedom articulated in the First Amendment to our Constitution. That we are still governed by the same Constitution after more than 200 years is itself a miracle, and speaks to the vigilance Americans have exercised and must continue to exercise to guard our freedom.

Generations later, hostility to religion in the public square of the United States has grown significantly. The changes may seem incremental until one compares the social situation at the time of our founding with our present state. Religion was embraced then, and is censored now. It was esteemed at that time; these days it is often disparaged.

From militant atheist hostility to the presence of religious symbols in public and expressions of religious belief by government actors, to government hostility to religious beliefs regarding sexuality, the overall climate for the religious believer is one of apprehension at best. Indeed, some have lost their jobs or been financially penalized due to their beliefsright here in the United States.

To track and address these troubling developments, Family Research Council released a report in 2014 titled Hostility to Religion: The Growing Threat to Religious Liberty in the United States. It documented accounts of hostility toward faith in the United States today, defined in four areas: (1) Suppression of Religious Expression in the Public Square; (2) Suppression of Religious Expression in Schools and Universities; (3) Censure of Religious Viewpoints Regarding Sexuality; and (4) Suppression of Religious Expression on Sexuality Using Nondiscrimination Laws. That catalogue of violations, spanning over ten years, contained 90 incidents.

Many would likely suspect that religious freedom troubles have grown worse during the past three years. They would be correct. Just this past week, we released the updated 2017 report, which showsconservatively estimateda 76 percent increase in overall religious freedom violations documented over the past three years.

The last two sections, dealing with human sexuality, have seen a 114 percent surge. These types of incidents were already on the rise, and the Supreme Courts decision in Obergefell v. Hodges only accelerated the trend. If one reads through the last two sections, many cases will be familiar from the news and cultural discussion. Among those featured is the story of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who was sued after he obeyed his conscience and politely declined to create a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony. The Supreme Court accepted his case for review just several days ago, and will decide it during the next term.

The first step toward action is information. We hope this report will serve as a resource for those who wonder about the state of religious freedom in America. It can also be useful to those who wonder where the evidence is when others cite a trend of religious freedom violations. With this information, our representatives can respond appropriately. Concerned citizens can engage with the media and in their communities. Certainly, our religious freedom problems could be much worse. But our goal is not to get to that much worse place.

When Communism began to spread during the beginning of the twentieth century, many ignored or brushed off concerns as relatively mild, especially in light of other concerns at the time. Only when it was too late and the grip of authoritarian regimes was strong did many realize the horror and carnage that the ideology had wrought worldwide. This is clear in hindsight but was not so apparent at the time.

Our country has been blessed with a long history of freedom. On its birthday, it is appropriate to be thankful and reflect on how we can guard against the suppression of religious freedom we do see now before it is too late. If we Americans can acknowledge the troubling trends now, and work to reverse them while we still have the freedom to do so, we will have a future America that embraces liberty and remains free for all.

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Report: Attacks On America's First Freedom Increased 76 Percent In Three Years - The Federalist

BBC News

Press freedom 'under threat' in new Myanmar - BBC News BBC News Under the military junta that ruled Myanmar for nearly 50 years, the media were tightly controlled. But after a quasi-civilian government took over in 2011, many ... Journalists call for media freedomMyanmar Times all 7 news articles »

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Press freedom 'under threat' in new Myanmar - BBC News - BBC News

Linden, Va. About an hour and a half away from the White House, a cloistered nun tells me from behind the grille that separates her physically from the world (even from a friendly visitor like me) about what freedom she lives.

Outside, above the Shenandoah Valley, fog envelops St. Dominics Monastery as I talk to her downstairs in a meeting room made for encounters with family and friends and inquisitors (usually young women who are discerning a vocation to this way of life).

She explains to me how you can live externally free but internally bound. In the monastery, these contemplative nuns live in utter transparency to God and one another, even in their many hours of silence each day. Their vocal chords are used the most for the set prayers of their life together, although there also is designated time for recreation and addressing the needs of community life.

Her comment brings to mind a favorite devotion of Pope Franciss (before he was Pope Francis) to Mary, Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. I think, too, of a sentence in Robert Royals Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: Willingness to die liberates.

The nun in the cloister has chosen a kind of death to the world, certainly the world in which most of us operate. She does so quite radically. Her choice provides a spotlight on the kind of lives Christians true to the name choose to live, as they believe they are called to live.

At the monastery, were not all that far from Dulles airport. So my thoughts wander. That can happen in an unusually pleasant way when you discover that the WiFi doesnt work as it does not in the basement of the monastery where my guest quarters are. I think about Avery Dulles, the Catholic cardinal who was the son of former secretary of state John Foster Dulles, and about an article he wrote on freedom and truth. He quoted Pope John Paul II, a saint who not only knew about freedom but fought for it in his personal life and in history-changing ways on the world stage: For freedom on the one hand is for the sake of truth and on the other hand it cannot be perfected except by means of truth. Hence the words of our Lord, which speak so clearly to everyone: The truth will make you free (John 8:32). There is no freedom without truth.

Just days before the Independence Day holiday, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word post-truth to its mix an entry to put us on guard about freedom.

Royal also writes about truth in his book about 20th-century martyrs. In part by way of explaining his remark about death and liberation, he writes: Martyrs do more than entertain various possibilities; they put their lives behind the truth. He goes on to quote from Bishop James Edward Walsh, a Maryknoll missionary in China who spent nearly two decades in captivity. Walsh asserted:

Christianity is not a private way of salvation and a guide to a pious life; it is a way of world salvation and a philosophy of total life. This makes it a sort of dynamite. So when you send missioners out to preach it, it is well to get ready for some explosions.

The word martyr, like religion itself, has had its manipulations. During a week that marked the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul and other early Church martyrs, Pope Francis told his weekly Wednesday crowd at St. Peters Square that the martyrs are icons of hope. They imitate Christs self-sacrifice and love. They are what this world needs, a witness to the sure hope that faith inspires.

The martyrs who even today lay down their lives for the faith do so out of love, he said. By their example and intercession, may we become ever more convincing witnesses, above all in the events of our daily lives, to our undying hope in the promises of Christ.

Royal wrote the book so that the lives of so many would not go unnoticed and so that we would see Christianity at its truest, most liberating. The monastery in Linden may not be the best spot for viewing Fourth of July fireworks youre not going to find a TV to watch, even in the priests apartment. But it is a place to take a few hours away from the constant headline bombardment, including headlines about religious freedom, to consider what it is about religion that we need, and why its worth giving a life for it in so many different, radical ways.

It was just about a year ago that Pope Francis was in John Paul IIs native land. In the days before, I went to Auschwitz, accompanied by other religious sisters, the Sisters of Life, some of New Yorks finest. They were walking, praying contrasts to the brutality still in the air there, a community of women dedicated to helping all know that they are loved and can live that love and give it to others. Thats why religious freedom matters its the greatest gift that does the greatest honor to humanity: restoring its dignity, like fireworks. An explosion of the kind we need for respite from the kind that plagues us.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and an editor-at-large of National Review. Sign up for her weekly NRI newsletter here. This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universals Newspaper Enterprise Association.

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Freedom in a Cloister - National Review

The grotesque betrayal of the generation that most detests Brexit is like some lost Restoration comedy. The Country Wife at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Nothing is more important to the creative industries than innovation. Without it, well quickly lose our international pre-eminence and a sector that in 2014 was worth 84bn, and is growing at twice the rate of the wider economy, will shrivel and die.

New ideas, contrary to romantic myth, dont emerge fully formed from the imagination of a lone genius. By and large, theyre the result of the kind of creative ferment that feeds off direct exposure to whatever and whoever is breaking new ground, wherever it is happening. In the 19th century, when Britain really was the country the Brexit nostalgists want back, you could work anywhere without a passport. Isambard Kingdom Brunel studied in Paris before he came home and revolutionised engineering. John Ruskin developed his thinking on architecture in Italy. George Eliot lived for eight formative months in Germany; three years later she published her first novel.

The young are still ground-breakers, and theyve been the chief beneficiaries of the freedom of movement that has come with EU membership. It cuts both ways: creatives from the rest of Europe come here because they want to be part of a thriving creative economy. They bring new energy to architecture, fashion, design, music, film.

Its no surprise, then, that before the EU referendum, a survey of members of the Creative Industries Federation showed 96% support for remaining in the EU. Arts world groupthink, sneered the Brexit operative who was sent into the TV studios by the leave campaign to urge us to subscribe to alternative groupthink about taking back control. And if groupthink is the consequence of the individual experience of everyone in the group, maybe it was.

Starting out in the theatre, I worked in France, Germany and the Netherlands. More recently, Ive employed artists from all over Europe, and I felt nothing but shame when the National Theatres head of wigs, hair and makeup reminded me recently that he has yet to be assured he can continue to live his life here. Hes Italian, but he has worked and paid taxes in the UK for 15 years.

Young British theatre-makers hit the road and bring back what they discover from living and working in Berlin and Paris

Meanwhile, young British theatre-makers, impatient with the theatre establishment, hit the road and bring back to our theatre what they discover from living and working in Berlin and Paris. Theyre inspired by what can be achieved with European levels of public subsidy, which accounts for as much as 95% of the income of some German theatres. Its not all upside. With lavish subsidy comes political control: government paymasters have recently turfed out admired directors of theatres in Germany, Poland and France. Our own system of arms-length funding via the Arts Council protects artists from political interference. This system is not the European norm, but at no point during the past decades has the EU tried to bring it into line. In the arts, we cant take back control because it was never given away in the first place.

In any event, the freedom to work and learn in the rest of the EU has been every bit as crucial to British creative success as the freedom to hire talented Europeans to work in Britain. During the election campaign, freedom of movement was presented as a one-way street: unrestricted immigration from the EU is the problem; border control is the solution. Continued membership of the single market is off the table, even for the Labour party, which continues to equivocate about a deal that would genuinely protect the interests not just of the economy but of the young people who voted for it in such numbers.

The students who delivered Canterbury for Labour deserve the right that their predecessors enjoyed to work and live without visas outside this country, if only to be able to come back and turn its failing economy around. In our brave new self-controlled world, the not-for-profit arts sector may miss the modest EU subsidies that it could once apply for. The commercial theatre, of which I am now part, may struggle with a doubled immigration skills charge. But far scarier is the prospect of a generation of creative talent crabbed by insularity and stunted by the delusion that our native genius, once unfettered, will be enough to see off the opposition.

The grotesque betrayal of the generation that most detests Brexit is like some lost Restoration comedy. The Restoration playwrights, their eyes wide open to the worlds lust and avarice, show young people with names such as Heartfree, Constant and Worthy doing battle for the future with their self-regarding seniors. Imagine a creaky burlesque called Lady Woodens Stratagem. Like so many old comedies, its not funny. Lady Wooden thinks herself extremely clever but turns out to be dense, and is held hostage by characters whose names announce their hypocrisy and malevolence: Backstab, Brute, Bullingdon, Gove. They scheme to cheat the young of their inheritance. The play ends badly, but theres no reason why it cant be rewritten.

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Freedom of movement helped British creativity thrive. Its loss will diminish us - The Guardian