Amy Heidbreder

The 4^th of July carries so many connotations for an American. It celebrates the birth of the American nation and symbolizes a collective declaration of freedom from monarch rule; declaration of freedom from religious persecution; declaration of freedom for the American people to own property, own businesses, own their lives and dream.

In the 2020, COVID-19, racial injustice, protesting, rioting, women getting killed for outing their assaulter era, I’m sure a lot of people are questioning that term “freedom.” This reminds me of a song I really like, one of my all-time favorites—Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp. It subtly questions the American Dream and what we know as “freedom.” While as Americans, we all share the same rights, we don’t necessarily share the same freedoms. Restrictions on people manifest in many ways—budget, skin color, gender, family. I’d hardly consider a life in which a mother is having to decide between paying her electric bill or paying to feed her child a life of freedom. A person without a car can’t just decide to go out and meet up with friends across town. A family with a sick child can’t need to “get away from this place” and hop on their jet to hang out in Cabo for a while. What does it mean to be free?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd have brought to light a plethora of issues many people have living in this “free” country. Two trending topics that come to mind are racial injustice and face masks. While these topics aren’t even on the same level of the freedom spectrum, both generate arguments that stem from the feeling of oppression. In the great mask debate for example, the anti-maskers feel their freedom to wear what they want and to express themselves is being infringed upon. They use the slippery slope argument to assume the worst in government and claim that the masks are the start of all our rights eventually being taken away. I get it, but those that could get sick and die from COVID-19 have rights too, mainly the right to live. Wouldn’t wearing a mask be protecting their rights? Food for thought. That’s the thing, in the words of JFK, “freedom has many difficulties and democracy isn’t perfect.” Freedom is beautifully flawed where all our rights, wants and needs overlap, contributing sometimes to a group of people feeling oppressed.

Now mask oppression and racial oppression are two very different things. I don’t know how qualified I am to talk about racial injustice. In the debates about racism, I’m listening, supporting, and trying to acknowledge those that feel invisible where I can. At first, I don’t know that I completely understood the Black Lives Matter movement. Being white, I didn’t know how widespread racial discrimination still was, and I still didn’t quite understand how discrimination was making black people feel until I read this article put out by Chronicle of the Horse: CLICK HERE. It’s about inequality in horse sports, and it put racial discrimination in a way I understood. There is a gross amount of wealth and privilege in the horse world. It feels next to impossible for a small rider with modest means like myself to get noticed in a sport that favors people with money. I feel invisible in the horse world. Many black people feel invisible in everyday life, and you can’t walk away from everyday life.

Needless to say, this concept of freedom probably feels pretty distant to some people. Fairness and equality in real life doesn’t actually exist. We put systems in place to try and make life a little fairer, but being born blind, or with a disability, or poor, or a minority still puts you behind the eight ball statistically. I imagine people this 4^th of July are questioning that term “freedom.” I do every day when I look at my budget, gifted with a passion for riding and working with animals, but no means.

In 2012, I won a $10,000 classic at a horse show. It was the biggest thing I ever won, even to this day. I beat a young boy by the tiniest fractions of a second. It was just a 1.05M class. The post the show wrote on social media, congratulating all classic winners got my name completely wrong. I became an afterthought correction in the comments only after pointing it out to them, but the young boy I beat has gone on to do amazing things, winning FEI international grand prixs, and even representing the US on a Nations Cup team as a reserve rider. As I’ve watched him develop into the amazing rider he is now, I can’t help but naturally wonder; with the same resources and same support, could I have done the same thing? I of course was not blessed with his same fortune. Chances are I’ll never have someone invest in me like he has been, or even like some of my peers have been, but if the opportunity did befall me, could I do the same thing? I guess we’ll just never know, but it’s fun to dream. Dreaming is where I feel most free.

I hope everyone has the best 4^th of July cooped up and masked. We’ll all be trying our darndest to feel free.

Happy birthday America!