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Independence day

By thescian on August 15, 2006.

Today is India's Independence day. I was born long after that day. Because my people had the courage and fortitude, I was born in a society that was free. I was born in a society that controlled its own destiny. Freedom is the breath of a society. It is the heartbeat of a country. Freedom is life.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore.

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>>Because my people had the courage and fortitude,
That they did, and we should be thankful for it
>>I was born in a society that was free.
This is where I think you're wrong. Free to shoot someone in the head and not worry about the consequences? Free to twist a democracy to your own agenda? Free to prevent someone from expressing their personal views publicly? Free to pirate software and music people worked all their lives on? Free to bomb innocent people? Free to rip them limb to limb because they belong to a different religion?
>>I was born in a society that controlled its own destiny.
And a great destiny it's turning out to be.
>>Freedom is the breath of a society.
By that token, this one is suffocating.

Kshitij, breath deeply. I may not be able to talk about Freedom in a way that a young person like you can relate too (You are 15, I understand from your website). By exercising your freedom to express, you have begun your own understanding of freedom.