I'm here to talk about freedom and I'm
very excited about it do you remember
the first time you realize that you are
free that you're really free the first
time I even knew what freedom was I got
lost in a library and I was reading
stories about Harriet Tubman and
Sojourner Truth and and freedom was so
clear and so easy to understand and then
I grew up and I got complicated like
everything else and I started to look
for freedom and everything I saw I tried
to listen for it and one day I was
driving in the car and I heard on the
radio Janis Joplin and she's saying that
famous lyric freedom is nothing left to
lose and I thought to myself is that how
I have to experience freedom do I have
to get to the edge lose everything give
everything up to really experience
freedom see freedom had become this
esoteric cerebral idea they couldn't
quite touch it was like love right you
can feel it but you can't touch it you
can't hold it in your hands and I read
this the great agnostic Robert Greene
Nigar Saul's he wrote it beautifully
when he said what light is to the eyes
what air is to the lungs what love is to
the heart liberties to the soul of man
this is amazing I cannot get enough of
this freedom stuff right and I kept
looking for it and looking for and
everything I did and so I went to law
school and when other people met their
partners
I met the Constitution and I got to know
the Constitution and I flirted with it
and I tried it on and I explored the
freedom of religion I tried on the
freedom of speech and my family would
say too much I assembled I petitioned I
wrote to the press I even shot a gun I
loved it I loved everything about
freedom and what I came to find
was that freedom in the Constitution was
very personal very intimate something
different than what they had taught me
it wasn't the Constitution didn't just
set up the power of government it didn't
just set up the structure of the
architecture of government it spoke to
me personally it spoke to all of us
personally it was our guardian
it was our bedfellow but it wasn't until
I started teaching at an open enrollment
College where students are anywhere from
anywhere from 15 to 75 years of age and
even older and they they come to a
sanctuary of sorts it's where everyone
has access to education it's an amazing
idea right and it was really through my
students that I understood this new
emerging idea of freedom and what would
I would come to understand what freedom
is now let me tell you about my students
because they're absolutely fantastic
they're gritty
they're self determined they're
intellectually curious they're
self-reliant they're absolutely
beautiful they also carry the weight of
the world on their shoulders they are
husbands they are wives they are sons
their daughters they are caregivers and
they are seeking education carrying all
that with them and they come to me and
we start to talk about freedom and we
start to explore the Constitution and
they distance themselves from freedom
and at first I couldn't quite tell what
was happening and it started to reveal
itself that that freedom is a few
generations away from my students that
hunger for freedom to what that feels
like and that they also connected
freedom with some of the ugliness and
divisive nosov modern politics that they
related the two and so they were shy
with freedom so I introduced them to the
Constitution and they came to understand
what I had come to understand
that it was very personal to them very
intimate and that the Constitution
didn't grant them their rights it gave
them a shield it protected them that
they had been free all along and that
they didn't have to look that hard I
didn't have to look that hard you don't
have to look that hard for freedom that
it's inside of us and they came to know
that truth that every single person in
this room knows that deep inside of us
each one of us so magnificent so
valuable so you need that we don't need
a constitution to give us freedom we
have it as our birthright not just as
Americans but as the human race and so
as students come to know that freedom
and they try that freedom on they did it
in unique and different ways but they
had to come to a realization first that
inherent and freedom is responsibility
that's pretty heavy especially for these
students are already carrying the weight
of the world around and responsibility
has gotten a bad rap we think of
responsibility as this weight and that
somehow what Janis Joplin said that we
got to get rid of all the duties and get
rid of all the encumbrances in our lives
to really experience freedom and that's
absolutely not true and any one of us
that traffic's and responsibility knows
that to embrace responsibility is
probably the most freeing thing that any
one of us can do because then you can
chart your own course you can set your
own sail you can choose a life that
speaks to you and so students once they
discover their freedom once they define
freedom they have to embrace
responsibility and that responsibility
first means to themselves to love and
respect themselves and then freedom
directs them to respect others to
tolerate and to be kind and to exalt
civility because freedom no matter what
we define it
no matter how it comes out has never
meant to be less than those tenants of
humanity and so once they embrace
freedom and they feel the responsibility
it leads them to the most amazing places
it leads them to service and I I just
want to say that these students know and
I know that the Constitution is flawed
and it's flawed in its design and its
application but there's a tenderness and
grace that it offers each of us and when
you can find your beat of freedom in the
Constitution you can find that intimacy
it leads you to the most amazing places
one night I couldn't sleep and I did
what all the literature says not to do I
open my email in the middle of the night
thinking that was gonna help me sleep
right and I received a an email from a
student I had had a few semesters ago
and and the email was both an apology of
sorts and a manifesto of sorts and in
the note he revealed to me that he had
not been sober much of my class but that
he was on his 30th day of sobriety and
that he was reconnecting with a son as a
man as a father and that he was using
the one piece of my class that he
remembered about freedom to claim his
life back to make his life his own and I
realized it was that unique expression
of freedom that was really emerging it
wasn't the stuff of government it was
the stuff that was inside of us he was
taking his freedom and claiming a new
life he was not just breaking the bonds
of government
he was breaking the narrative that all
of us have of past hurts past abuses
societal cues disenfranchisement
whatever comes with us he was using his
intimate relationship with freedom to
express himself to claim his life but
then he ended with a piece that is
really the piece that speaks to me
that's really the piece that I want to
share with you today he had used his
free will to claim a sobriety if you
used his free will to connect with his
son and then he asked in closing where
he could serve others where could he
dedicate his life so as exhausted as he
was he was seeking to serve others and
that diversity of freedom is seen in
almost all my students that when they
come to find freedom it could be the
artist that seeks to express themselves
and celebrate or heal using their art it
could be the entrepreneur that see
connect economic Liberty it comes out in
all different ways but it always leads
to the same thing when we define freedom
however we define it it embraces
responsibility and it leads to service
and that is the transformative nature of
the Constitution and it's a much
different story that any one of us have
ever told them told in civics class so I
see my students when they come in and
they define their own freedom for
themselves and they embrace
responsibility and they serve others in
the community and they serve in our
community that freedom of expression
adds to a national murmur that we all
are listening to right now that our
institutions are gracefully trying to to
navigate where we have to take these
freedoms that are individual to each of
us and they compete and we have to
figure out how to resolve that conflict
and so those freedoms of expression are
meeting that national murmur and their
coming together and they're part of this
great movement of change that we're all
living through that freedom doesn't just
belong in the books it doesn't just
belong in the parade that it belongs to
each of us individually and that it
always drives us to responsibility and
always drives us to service and that is
beautiful and transformative and it's
not just an American idea it's a
universal and shared idea so next time
when we hear the debate about other
countries and other individuals seeking
their liberties perhaps we can open
ourselves that that's not just the stuff
of economic crises that that is the
making of human rights can I know that
we like to see grand gestures of change
and that we look for these big pictures
of how the world is changing and how
freedom should look but I think that we
see the most beautiful expressions of
Liberty in the quiet everyday
expressions of service and that those
service changed the world and I'm
excited and turned on to see where the
whispers of the Constitution speak to
you how they reveal your freedom and
your service
thank you
did you stay just a second so tarah I
would imagine that you get asked a lot
of questions about the Constitution do
you mind if I ask of course so um I'm
wondering how free are we in America
this is actually a question that a lot
of my students ask because we think
we're the barometer of freedom that were
the gold standard yeah but there's a
number of indexes that we know of that
actually indicate that in terms of
economic Liberty which is the basis of a
lot of our freedoms were actually twelve
in the world and when it comes to civil
liberties those are the liberties that
we really like that we're really close
to we're actually 21st in the world you
know and that's because this idea of
freedom that we're talking about that
we're defining other countries have
picked it up where we started and they
ran and they learn from those weaknesses
and those errors of our ways and they
exalt it so to answer your question
Elizabeth we are free but are our
colleagues and other countries are
actually developing freedom in a much
different way one more question for Tara
does the Supreme Court decision
regarding marriage mean that the First
Amendment of freedom of religion isn't
important so you all been watching the
news yeah we've got a Kentucky clerk
that is sitting in jail and we have a
lot of rhetoric right about the freedom
of religion that somehow the
Constitution belongs to conservatives or
belongs to liberals and what our Supreme
Court has said in June is that it
belongs liberty belongs to you but that
no liberties are above each other so
that the freedom of religion
does not Trump equality and one brand of
freedom of religion does not Trump the
other so I think what we're discovering
is that equality is paramount with
liberty right and that we don't have to
compete those liberties we just have to
exalt equality