Liberty or Freedom: Is There a Difference?

In anticipation of another Fourth of July Holiday, and the discussions and celebrations that surround it, I posted my thankful thoughts in regard to the freedom and liberty we enjoy on my personal Facebook page. As I put the two words together in the same sentence -- just as I did here -- I started to wonder if there is a real difference in their respective definitions. Or, were these two words interchangeable like so many others in our English language.

So, I looked it up and found a great article or blog post called Liberty or Freedom? The Difference is Amazing, by Jed Waverly, in The Penultimate Word. Here's the difference as Jed describes it:

Freedom is a state of being capable of making decisions without external control.

Liberty, on the other hand, is freedom which has been granted to a people by an external control.

Although both have the same root, and an argument can be made for a same general meaning, as indicated by their respective definitions in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary; there really is an important distinction between what we can take -- freedom, and what we've been given -- liberty.

As Jed indicates, our Declaration of Independence was written to declare the right to be an independent nation and grant liberty to the citizens and inhabitants, allowing them to exercise their individual freedoms. Great Britain was increasingly and intolerably restricting the freedom of the colonists to the point that our founding fathers deemed it necessary to declare the intention to form a new government that could and would grant liberty to its inhabitants.

As we celebrate our nation's independence, we celebrate the liberty we've been given as business owners, entrepreneurs, and working professionals to have the freedom to pursue our dreams, our goals, and aspirations. We are thankful that the structure of our government, although imperfect, is designed to protect and promote this liberty and the associated freedoms we now enjoy.

I think of the Statue of Liberty and how she welcomed so many immigrants to a nation willing and able to grant the liberty that in some cases their homeland would not or could not do. And that how on that foundation of liberty they would exercise their individual freedom in the true pursuit of happiness and occupation, which in so many cases would culminate in business ownership.

I hope that you are using the liberty that has been given to you to explore the freedom you seek, to build the life you want, for the people you want to build it for, in the place you choose to build it. I hope you are using these gifts to help and empower others -- and in the end, make a difference. Let us never squander our precious liberty or surrender our true freedom.

Happy Independence Day! Let Freedom ring from the bells of Liberty!