Reflections on Freedom, Service, and The New Warrior

Something in the news that day had made my blood boil. I don't even remember what it was now - just another headline about people doing things I fundamentally disagreed with, things that seemed so un-American. As we snuggled on the couch after his latest deployment, I ranted about how angry I was that he was out there protecting their freedom to do these things. 

The relief of having him home safely was still fresh; after all, every goodbye kiss during his Navy flying days had been one I'd tried to make memorable, just in case it was our last. Whether he was leaving for a day, a month, or six months, statistics about car accidents being more likely than plane crashes never stopped me from holding him a little longer at each departure. But now, here we were, together on our couch, and that's when we had one of those deep talks that stays with you forever - about what it truly means to serve something greater than ourselves.

"Freedom," he explained, "isn't just about protecting the rights of people who think like us. It's about protecting the freedoms of people we fundamentally disagree with. That's what makes it precious. That's what makes it hard."

He spoke about how defending freedom meant ensuring that people could hold opposing views, could live differently, could believe differently - even if those beliefs seemed wrong or misguided to us. It was a noble ideal, this notion that true liberty meant protecting the rights of all Americans, not just those who shared our values.

Today, my heart aches. The very people whose freedoms he and countless others defended - those who held different views, who disagreed with us - are now stripping away the freedoms of others and eager to strip away more. The same constitutional rights he swore to protect are being challenged by those who benefited from that protection.

The irony is bitter. Those who once enjoyed the blanket of freedom provided by service members like my husband - and supported by the families who made it possible for them to be at peak performance - now seek to deny those same freedoms to others. They celebrate liberty when it serves their interests but work to restrict it when others exercise their rights in ways they disapprove of.

What we need now are warriors of a different kind - ones who understand that the battle for freedom begins in the body. The world calls not just for defenders of borders, but healers of collective trauma. These modern warriors must fight not with weapons and might, but with wisdom and the deep understanding that authoritarianism and privilege are often trauma responses in disguise.

Their battlefield isn't on distant shores or in foreign skies but in the neural pathways of fear and the muscle memory of power. These new warriors must be strong enough to stand firm in their principles while remaining soft enough to sense the wounded hearts behind hardened positions. They must protect not just our physical borders but the boundaries of our bodies, fostering the kind of safety that makes civil discourse possible. They must understand what artificial intelligence is showing them about the capabilities of the real intelligence of their nervous systems.

Are we brave enough to look through history's lens and see how trauma shapes the desire for control? Are we courageous enough to build healing into our institutions, communities, and homes - creating systems that support recovery even for those who don't yet recognize their wounds?

The greatest test of our dedication to freedom isn't in protecting the rights we cherish for ourselves, but in rehabilitating the brains, bodies, and consciousness of those who would deny us ours. This is especially crucial now when our trajectory is fueled by an addiction to being right more than the reciprocal commitment it was meant to be. 

The revolution of resilience begins with each of us choosing to be these new kinds of warriors - fighting not with force, but with fortitude; not with anger, but with an understanding of our bodies; not with destruction, but with the determined construction of nervous system bridges between divided people. This is how we honor the sacrifices of those who served before, by serving now in a different way: protecting the precious gift of freedom by healing the collective body of our nation, even when - especially when - it's hard.

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