Koolau: The Leper

Koolau: The Leper by Jack London
I first read this story when I was ten or eleven years old. I had bought a bulk package of comics, and in there was one from a publisher I had never heard of fore or since, it was the entire story, exactly as London wrote it, published in a comic-book like format, but without the "text bubbles" for characters, blocks of text and illustrations - complete text of the story. I fell in love with it immediately.
I've long since lost the comic, but I read the story again tonight for the first time in several years, and it stirred something within me, as always, and brought out a realization.

I believe, strongly, in freedom. I will kill, and I will die, before I become no longer a free-man. I believe in all freedom, from freedom of the press and freedom of expression, to sexual, emotional, and theological freedom. But I believe strongly that, at that hard cold place that is the last barrier between freedom and tyranny and opression, there is one freedom above all that protects all free men, women and children, and all the freedoms they hold dear - the freedom to be armed, and to defend ourselves.
Yes, for me, guns and freedom are very closely tied. I do not believe in freedom without arms, because what kind of freedom is it where you cannot guarantee your own safety, and where you have no final recourse to tyranny?
I realized tonight that it was the story of Koolau The Leper that taught me that lesson - that opened my eyes to that bit of "common" sense.

And if you disagree with me - thats fine - you are FREE to do so. But dont ever, ever, forget how those freedoms were won, how they have been protected since and how they always have been. And dont lie to yourself about the truth of that matter - you cannot shuck the truth that freedom, and the animating contest thereof, often has a great price, and still demand freedom. It is not free.
But it is worth it. It is worth any price.

I will die a free man - that is my vow, my pledge, my oath. Damn you if you try to stop me.