Give me liberty or give me death

IN JUST over a year, we will celebrate our 50th anniversary of independence from the British Crown. I imagine no more than 40 per cent of adults will partake in the festivities. In a recent survey, 60 per cent responded that they would have been better off under British rule. I wonder if that misguided sum would fondly submit to slavery, indentured servitude, and other deprivations of human rights.

On July 2, 1776 - in the early days of America's Revolutionary War - the 13 American colonies voted to declare independence from Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the colonies formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, birthing the nation that would become the mightiest in the history of the planet and a universal beacon of freedom and liberty.

The decision to fight wasn't easy. Virginia - home of a number of America's founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - was especially critical to the effort. Yet, it wavered. On March 23, 1775, another founding father, Patrick Henry, who would become the first post-colonial governor of Virginia, delivered a rousing speech that persuaded his colony to join the battle. Several years and more than 50,000 lives later, the Treaty of Paris was signed - ending the war and establishing the United States of America as a sovereign nation before the British Crown.

The Cost of Liberty

On October 25, 1865, Paul Bogle was captured and hanged at the Morant Bay courthouse. His offence: leading the Morant Bay Rebellion - the bloody uprising provoked by the perverse discrimination and socio-economic marginalisation faced by black Jamaicans. Two days earlier, George William Gordon was summarily executed after being taken from Kingston to Morant Bay at the behest of the Queen's colonial governor. Gordon played no active role in the rebellion. He did, however, upset the British Crown and the plantocracy - the ruling landowners - by dedicating his public life to the noble cause of securing the natural rights of all Jamaicans.

Throughout history, brave men and women have traded life for liberty. Four of our own heroes - Nanny of the Maroons, Sam Sharpe, and the aforementioned Bogle and Gordon - paid the ultimate price in that struggle. Ironically, all four were killed - directly or indirectly - by the very same British Crown to which more than half of Jamaicans would apparently recommit their allegiance if given the chance. This is a shame.

Why would anyone freely return a prize for which the blood, sweat, and tears of so many have been shed? Further examination unveils a possible basis for this defeatist thinking: we supposedly gained independence in 1962, yet we are still captive - bound not by the oppressive rule of some colonial power, but by our own errant devices.

The 'gangs of Gordon House' are convenient targets of blame for our woes. But those gangs - indeed all of Jamaica's gangs - require the support of Jamaica's people in order to persist. Our endless stream of problems is the product of our collective will, highlighted by a political and socio-economic system that we have allowed to rot to its core.

True Liberty

The question, then, isn't: "Are we better off under British rule?" They wouldn't want us, anyway. The real question is: "Can we liberate ourselves from ourselves?" Will we fight for true liberty - against corrupt politicians and police; murderous and cowardly dons who routinely rape the future mothers of a nation; copper thieves who tear away the country's infrastructure; a mentality that values a BMW over a human life?

Can we inspire the youth to achieve their full potential while showing them that there is more to Jamaica than fantastical dreams of foreign rule? Who will show them that the true price of liberty isn't white flags of surrender but blood-soaked rags of perseverance? Who will stand firm and fight the good fight to save our one little rock in the vast expanse of humanity?

Part of Patrick Henry's speech - the one that inspired a colony to help forge a great nation - seems appropriate, given the current context:

"Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Din Duggan is an attorney working as a consultant with a global legal search firm. Email him at columns@gleanerjm.com or dinduggan@gmail.com, or view his past columns at facebook.com/dinduggan and twitter.com/YoungDuggan.