What Does Freedom Mean to You?

When I was in 4th grade we were assigned the, homework to write an essay "what does freedom mean to you?"
I am sure, based on the last 3 years of world exsposur, that my response probably had to do with ice cream flavor selection and summer breaks.
Only now, 27 years later, am I ready to write and submit my essay. Does anybody know how to get a hold of Mr. Jones and find out if I can still get credit?

Based largely on the KONY 2012 viral that is circulating and the potent cocktail that it makes when mixed with recent events of my own life's perceptions, I have boiled down the layered question to one word that would fit into a blank space on any grammar school quiz.....CHOICE!

From what I have seen, this is not to be taken for granted, yet is everyday by those of us fortunate enough to live in "the bubble". This bubble it the USA, then California, then The Bay Area, and finally (for me) Alamo, where I constantly stomp my feet for having to take the trash out and sleep with my doors unlocked....how dare I.

We have the choice to take our trash out to the curb to have another man pick it up while we sleep making it go away sight unseen seemingly by magic. Not take small handfuls off the top of our growing piles and burn it on the street.

We have the choice to enroll ourselves in any school and usually have the government pay for it eliminating the global norm of working in the fields behind your house because not only is there work to be done, but the school is too far, we can't afford shoes for the long walk, and you would probably get kidnapped on your way anyway.

We have the choice to publicly chastise our bosses on Facebook for the injustice of them making us work 9 whole hours a day as opposed to the millions of people that want nothing more in this life to work 12+ hours a day for a few dollars answering to a boss that will hold them accountable for the opportunities that they will offer to them and their families.

Enough said about specific choices...you get it. But as they say...with great power comes great responsibility.

We live in a bubble where our powers are cultivated then taken for granted and this is not the humanitarian way. What we need to do is plug in to power up with the sheer goal of infecting others through education and helping hands.

Imagine your time being spent at home or the office here in America as charging your body to a physical glow of power. Then remove yourself from your environment and go somewhere where the glow is dull and/or non-existent and physically hold the hand of another human being whose light is all but out. Envision that glow moving down your arm and onto your new friends invigorating a soul that can't get to a direct source of power and not giving, but sharing your power enough to inspire vision, drive, hope.

I believe that we shy away from our geographic power because we think it takes too much time to help others, that it takes a great plan, many hours, and too much physical endurance.
IT DOES NOT!
Sometimes...most times, all it takes is your presence. Your face. Your compassion. The blanks get filled in by those receiving.

We should because we can!