I’m Free

Freedom begins the moment you stop believing the lies

Heather Cox Richardson, who teaches history at Boston College and writes the fantastic Letters from an American, posts stories almost nightly. If you read them on Facebook, she often includes a warning in the first comment: whether or not the contents might disturb your sleep. Thanks for the heads-up, professor.

But today’s post had me ugly crying before 6 a.m.

In her usual calm clarity, she laid out the lowlights of the horribly misnamed “Big Beautiful Bill.” As I read, I became fully wrecked by the sheer inhumanity of what we’re doing as a nation.

“And freedom tastes of reality.”

I’m guessing my definition of freedom doesn’t quite square with the regime we live under. Because if you don’t fully conform to the whims of the orange leader, you just might be violently punished. Or maybe just lucky enough to watch your rights (or your nephew’s) stripped away piece by piece.

I believe budgets are moral documents. And what hit me so hard was this:

The new measure allocates $45 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That’s on top of billions more for removals, detentions, new ICE hires, and transport operations. In fact, ICE now gets more money for detaining people than the entire U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

You, too, could be snagged off the street by masked agents and tossed out like yesterday’s trash. Or you might get warehoused into a cage (affordable housing?).

We live in a country where money flows freely toward punishment and control as it’s most obvious feature. The bug is that care, relief, and community are unaffordable. Can’t help people that don’t deserve it, right?

Days like this strip away the veneer. They show us exactly what kind of system we live in. They dare us to look. They even dare us to believe. To hope.

“I’m Free” might not seem like the song for a day like this. It’s not loud. It’s not angry. It’s not even very long. But maybe that’s exactly what makes it right.

I’m free / And I’m waiting for you to follow me.

It’s not a boast. It’s an invitation.

Pete Townshend wrote “I’m Free” as part of the rock opera Tommy. In it, our hero (who’s been deaf, dumb, and blind) suddenly sees. He wakes up. Not just to his own power, but to the pain around him. Not only to the systems that shaped him, but the cost of disconnection.

Tommy was cut off by trauma or design, but he does reenter the world with open eyes. He becomes the teacher here because he shows you the clarity of someone who can finally feel.

I’m free to say what I feel / to think what I like / if it’s all the same to you baby

And once you’ve awakened like that, there’s no turning back.

Because real freedom doesn’t come from elections or slogans. It comes from awakening. From refusing to play along with a story you didn’t write.

Why let someone else define what woke is? What will you do with that dangerous power?

I feel gutted. But I also awake. I’m free. And no budget, no political entity, no party, and no bully can take that from me.

And freedom tastes like truth … even when it hurts.