Rene Ywes Uwayo

Freedom is the right and power to be who one wants to be, it is the unwavering belief, guided by the

wisdom of the natural law, that no one can determine the destiny of another person but themselves.

Freedom is that wind of independence that swept across my continent, Africa, few decades ago with our forefather Kwame N’krumah declaring to Ghanaians: “our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”

It is that whispering voice in Mandela after 27 years of wrongful imprisonment that “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”.

Freedom is compassion at its best, it is the empathetic Ich bin ein Berliner or the enraged and sick and tired “tear down this wall”, that will traverse generations and hold testimony that none of us is free until all of us are.

It is the refusal of subjugation and oppression of the blood, toil and sweat of Winston Churchill, “we shall fight and never surrender”, for surrendering meant to waiver their most valuable possession, freedom!

Freedom is that breaking free of chains. Freedom is stonewall, it is Selma, and Seneca falls. Freedom is the “liberty, equality, fraternity” of the French revolution, inspired by the conviction that all men are born equal in rights and dignity and the inalienability of those rights.

Freedom is that courage of a young Pakistani girl who stood up to the guns of the Taliban for her right to education, for the future is literate and equal, and a decade later, we are all Malala!

Freedom is the activism, the passion that led Tom Palmer to condemn cronyism in the strongest terms, which he calls a disease, for it undermines his beloved free market system, and will displace to Sri Lanka if it will at least mean a conversation!

Freedom is that Michelle Obama’s abiding belief that each of the 7.8 billion lives on this planet has meaning and worth.

Freedom is that promise that tomorrow will be better than today because there is nothing stopping you but yourself.
That at the age of 62 you can franchise KFC, and that you can still become a billionaire after a brutal childhood marred with rape and pregnancy, or the promise that you can still father the world’s most powerful person even after you tended goats and walked barefooted to school in Kenya (but this time round raise him/her).

At last, Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted (Ocean Vuong). Project Arizona is different and revolutionary. It doesn’t put the distance in miles but in time by creating freedom fighters for tomorrow before tomorrow comes!

Thus fellow libertarian, I am humbly pleading with you to help “raise me to the top” and increase my chances to be admitted into this program for the next custodians of liberty and freedoms.