Freedom's Cost

I'm taking a break from posting portions of Ridin for the Boss and the Brand. I'm invited to speak next week at the Center for American Values and thought I'd share this. Some say not all the facts can be verified, but that never stopped a Cowboy Poet. I heard someone say that if you can't improve on something, don't say it.

Freedom’s Cost

56 men signed a sheet of paper;
they’d had it up to here.
They would stand for no more tyranny,
and wanted to be clear.
56 men said enough’s enough,
they pledged to fight or die.
But sometimes we forget the cost
when Old Glory passes by.

Nearly half of them were lawyers
whose income would be lost.
There were businessmen and farmers
who heeded not the cost
but pledged their sacred honor,
their fortunes and their lives.
Some lost all they’d worked for,
some lost children; some lost wives.

Five of them were captured,
they were beaten and were killed.
Another nine fought hand to hand
before their blood was spilled.
A dozen had their homes burned down,
four saw children die.
But none of them were ever heard
to stop and question why.

We remember Boston harbor
where the patriots dumped tea
and the bell that cracked while ringing out
our new won liberty.
We remember Thomas Jefferson,
Ben Franklin and a few
who went on to shape the framework
for a country that was new.

But no one seems to talk about
the ones who fought and fell;
the ones who gave up everything,
the ones who went through hell.
56 names on a declaration
demanding liberty.
56 names remind us all
that Freedom’s Never Free.

Jeff Hildebrandt © 2010

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