The dearth of responses to our discussion of freedom suggests in part why we are not free. The subject is painful. We are not a pain-seeking species. We want relief from the pain of slavery, but we cannot tolerate more pain in seeking our freedom. It is less painful to sit quietly in our chains.

I have written on the subject in three published books: Give Me Liberty, From Freedom to Slavery, and Seven Simple Steps to Personal Freedom. It must be clear to you that my own sense of enslavement has driven me to consider this issue over and over again. And here I am beginning my blog with this subject as if I cannot leave it for fresher fields.

Yet black slavery was tolerated in this nation for over two hundred years. Two hundred years! How long must we endure ours? And the horrors of that slavery that laid at the foundation of our nation still infects us with its unrelenting misery and hatred.

I had thought that together we might discover new insights. I would welcome yours. But we are not eager to pound against our chains hoping to break them—the pain. And I understand.

I should be writing about growing old, for that is an issue I need to explore with you as well. It is a different kind of servitude–one to Mother Nature who continually replaces us with mutations more likely to survive her tantrums.