Duty to Be Free

Benjamin Martin: May I sit with you?
Charlotte Selton: It's a free country. Or at least it will be.
--The Patriot

William Faulkner suggests that freedom is a duty and requires hard work. Although our founding ancestors understood this well, we do not. He quotes Irish statesman John Curran:

"God hath vouchsafed man liberty only on condition of eternal vigilance; which condition if he break it, servitude is the consequence of the crime and the punishment of his guilt."

We are still capable of living freely. But first, we must recognize the responsibility involved with doing so.