As we sit here in relative safety and comparative comfort as citizens of the United States celebrating Independence, the word “Freedom” is thrown around as if we still knew what it meant. Today’s definition has little to do with the definition understood by the founders. Today we use freedom as if it relates to free stuff. Women can’t be free unless other people pay for their birth control pills. And, not just any birth control pills but the exact kind of birth control pills they desire. Men and women can’t be free if their health care isn’t paid for by the masses. We have lost our ability to discuss freedom rationally because we have lost the understanding of what freedom really is.

The most important distinction we have lost is the one that makes us look the smallest. We only define freedom in the U.S. today by how it affects us personally. The single most important aspect of freedom is that it is not now, nor has ever been, a “me” thing. It is a “we” thing. If your freedom is reliant on others to pay for it whether they care to or not then you are not a free person, you are a member of the tyrannical class. I don’t mean the sacrifice of others who have dedicated their lives to serving in ways like, for instance, the military. I mean the every-day member of society whose goods or services are taken to pay for your this or that or the other without their consent. I mean the kid who wants to be an accountant who is forced to study chemistry because society needs doctors and pharmacists to supply your “free” health care. I mean the small business owner who works eighty hours per week who is forced to give up his earnings and future because he must pay the teenager who was willing to work for him for nine dollars an hour last week fifteen dollars an hour tomorrow without being one bit more productive or valuable to the business. If your freedom to achieve your stuff rests on the backs of others who have not freely chosen to sacrifice for you then you aren’t a free person. You are just another bully stealing the lunch money of others to pay your way through life.

If the lessons of history have taught us nothing else then it should have taught us this; freedom relies on each and every one of us putting the freedom of those around us paramount to our own. When Kennedy cautioned us to “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” he wasn’t calling us to live in servitude to our government. He was reminding us that protecting the freedom of your neighbor is the critical component to protecting your own. Looking out for only yourself is a trap. It weakens your business. It weakens your relationships. It weakens your sense of self-worth. It weakens the very fabric of freedom. Looking out for the freedom of others strengthens us all. Taking responsibility for your own actions and achievement strengthens your standing in society in business, community and self. Being a guardian of others freedoms whether it be their economic freedom or their freedom to fail strengthens us all. Telling the takers of this country that forcing others to pay for their joys in life is unacceptable lets those others achieve joy on their own and teaches the takers a valuable lesson.

On this Independence Day please rededicate yourself to the cause of Freedom. Please remember that personal independence is the only path to freedom for yourself and for the rest of us. Please remember that when we force others into servitude either through taxation or regulation that freedom is strained and weakened.

On this Independence Day and every day remember that if we are not all free then none of us are.