Words From…Dwight D. Eisenhower

Words From Commentary“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower 

General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower wh...

General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower when a 4-star General (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here, one must question if Eisenhower truly meant to imply that to have true and complete security means to sacrifice freedom. To be secure is to be  “free from or not exposed to danger or harm” according the English dictionary. In today’s economy in America, people long for even just an inkling of security but if you’re any kind of realist, optimism for such a privilege is nothing but a dream. Initially, Eisenhower’s statement seems appalling, but let’s look at the scenarios. There’s a retail jewelry store with an armed guard on the premises. In exchange for a job that pays the bills, buys the groceries and, maybe, afford health care, this guard gives up his time freedom. Consider two parents who have come up from nothing. They are very wealth now and now have a teenage daughter. They shelter her to the point of social suffocation and she can’t stand it. She can’t really do what she wants because her parents make love overbearing. Then there’s the theater major who can barely make it without his mom’s money. He’s bound by his dreams but his mom won’t support him unless he goes to the law school she paid for. Where is his liberation? Truly Eisenhower had a revelation, but I think there may be ways to avoid prison and still have a sense of freedom!

Red Queen

@WGLARed

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