What are you going to do for Someone else's Freedom?

I am skinny and I don't like cold. My lips quiver, my speech seizes, my nose shoots out mucus with every sneeze and I think my metabolism stops too, except my kidneys. It starts to produce urine like a liquor factory. The toilet must be within few paces away.

Where there's no toilet, I can't handle myself when you put me in a cool room. My feet grow numb, I may have to postpone my presence at a meeting or a discussion to use the bath or the bush.

I can cope with no fan or air conditioner all year long. Just give me a damn sweater and a wooly duvet, I'll be good for all seasons!

But there is another type of cold I've grown used to. It's the place my unconventional ideas push me when I ever open my mouth. It's a damn cold feeling to be ostracised by people who once used to give you a warm hallelujah when you said something they agreed with.

Now, no chants of acceptance, no chorus of praise, no little short speeches telling you how wonderful you are. You are a pariah word, a name like Judas, out all alone in the field of what you believe to be right and your only company is you — brave but busted you!

You didn't set out to be controversial. But it turns out you stand conventional wisdom on its head. You poke at established facts and dismantle them so quickly, so easily; almost thoughtlessly.

Just when you want to quit, remember my story.

It is one where my many joys are private but my few sorrows are public. One where scores of people find answers in the forsaken, unpopular truth I hold dear; people who feel failed by the church, by friends, by clergymen and counsellors and even by themselves.

You don't always get a banner of eulogy for setting people free by challenging the institution that profits from keeping them bound. If you won't speak up or inspire; if you fear what people think or say, who is going to free those who need your courage so unwittingly?

Those who live for the freedom of others; notwithstanding the grim price to pay are truly the most free of all men. I speak up because in Abraham Lincoln's words, "those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

Today's an opportunity to speak up for another. What are you going to do for someone else's freedom?

By: Olulade Ebenezer