Truth and Freedom

I found this painting in my Government textbook. It's called "Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences," and was commissioned by an abolitionist society in the late 1700's, and shows the personification of Liberty displaying books to freed slaves.

This painting struck a chain reactions of associations with me. It reminded me of "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." This, in turn, reminded me of my Chemistry teacher on the first day of class, who quoted Mormon Scientist, the biography of Henry Eyring. "We are required to believe every true thing," said my teacher. And this made me think of the Darwin Week posters plastered all over the Marb, advertising lectures titled "An Approach to Understanding the Creation" and "The Legacy of Charles Darwin: Seeking Grandeur in the View of Life." Then I remembered my rural Mississippi high school, filled with noise and the built-up resentment of four-hundred students.

Then I realized I strayed far from the topic of slavery in post-Revolution America, which was what my reading was actually about and what I had to take a quiz on. I wish I could better articulate the significance all those linked words and images have to me. Suffice it to say, I believe in fighting tooth and nail for an education. And I believe (or maybe I say it because it sounds nice, I'm not sure) that truth and liberty are inextricably connected, and that people need them both like water.