Vigilance is just a fancy word for paying attention and being on the look out. Normally, when you hear this phrase we think of our servicemen and women providing our defense and extending our protection worldwide. But that’s only a part of what it means.
Truth is, the US is such a ridiculously difficult military target that conventional invasion may as well be impossible. America has only been invaded once (the British, 1812) unless you want to count the Revolutionary War. For all the many battles in our history, actually bringing troops in from other countries to the United States rarely numbered among them. In modern times, only militaries that have a distinct death wish would even try it. Geography and an enormous home team will do that.
While we’ll never get to the point that we don’t need a military, we are the most secure nation on Earth and likely to remain so for decades if not centuries to come. Yay, us.
Don’t get cocky. This is where that ‘eternal vigilance’ and the hard part come in.
We’re only one generation away from extinction. I first heard that phrase in the late Nineties in regards to Christianity. I am happy to report Christianity remains alive and well. However, that phrase can also describe a nation-state – and even freedom as we know it now.
The geography and military might are great but they aren’t what makes America free. They aren’t even what makes America America. Geography changes with borders and occasional natural disasters. Congress has made a sport of bouncing around military budgets and cutting them to the bone when they could, or overinflating them to the point of rot when it suited.
No, it’s those pesky American values and that antiquated Constitution that make the United States of America really tick. Rule of law meaning that no man, or president, is above the law. The Constitution which carefully balances powers against each other both laterally and vertically so that no one person or organization gets too powerful.
What keeps all those plates spinning are those American values, instilled in each successive generation. We fuss, fight and do stupid stuff but at the end of the day, we do not tolerate those who would deny others their rights and freedoms. We mess up, fess up and clean the mess up. We defend the First Amendment and the idea of the freedom to speak freely as if they were our own children.
You can call us all manner of names and we’ll take it. You can slap us in the face and we’ll tolerate it. But if you dare denigrate, deride or speak ill of our Freedom of Speech, you are in for the fight of your life.
A lot of corporations are waking up to the fact that there are some lines Americans will not tolerate being crossed. A lot of people on social media are finding out that their freedom to speak depends on everyone’s freedom to speak. A lot of political elites are learning the hard way that Americans do still care and care enough to act.
We are an ornery yet oddly tolerant people. That tolerance ends when our rights are threatened. This is that eternal vigilance in action.
If we fail to pass on those American values. If we fail to teach our children what freedom cost and why to love it. If we fail to raise the next generation so that they can hold onto those precious freedoms. If we fail just once generation, all is lost.
Eternal vigilance is a hard thing. It’s being politically responsible while we have our moment in the sun. It’s training up the next generation for their turn. It’s holding onto and passing on those values that make us more than just America, but just, governed by the rule of law and most of all, free.
Eternal vigilance is both a high calling and high price to pay. But it buys us liberty the like of which the world has never seen before. The security of the rule of law and the freedom to express ourselves are the tickets our forefathers and ourselves have used to make something special into something truly great. Our wealth, our lives and our nation depend on them.
Somehow, eternal vigilance seems a small price to pay compared to the freedoms we enjoy. Freedom isn’t free. It costs more than we will ever know in the blood, sweat and tears of our esteemed veterans and the countless lives laid down for this great nation. We the People also bear our part of that cost as we exercise our right to vote and do our civic duties – our eternal vigilance is to watch over the values and ideals of our nation and to keep them in good working order, to be passed down to the next generation.
Eternal vigilance sounds so impressive and it is, but it is also the mundane, humdrum stuff like paying attention to the news, sending an email to a congressman, talking to others about the issues of the day – all that little stuff that adds up to something much bigger than itself.
It’s the price we pay for what we could never buy – freedom.
