During StoneBridge’s Liberty Day celebration this year, keynote speaker Col. Jesse Enfield, U.S. Air Force, challenged students and those gathered to think more deeply about a word they often hear but rarely examine: liberty.
Colonel Enfield, who flies Combat Search and Rescue missions for the U.S. Air Force, explained that liberty is not the same as freedom. While freedom is the ability to do what you want, liberty, he argued, is the discipline to do what you ought. That distinction, he said, is not just philosophical—it shapes families, classrooms, nations, and individual lives.
Enfield described freedom as eating ice cream for breakfast or having no curfew, while liberty requires restraint, responsibility, and self-governance. Without those qualities, freedom quickly leads to chaos.
“If you cannot govern yourself,” he warned, “someone else will.”
Enfield traced America’s understanding of liberty back to the nation’s founders, who believed that rights do not come from governments but are inherent to human beings. Those rights, he said, must be protected, not invented.
Drawing from both history and Scripture, he emphasized that human dignity comes from being created in the image of God—not from grades, trophies, popularity, or success. Dignity is given, not earned; liberty carries expectations as well as rights.
That responsibility, he explained, shows up long before moments of crisis. Sharing a personal story from his military career, Col. Enfield described years of intense survival and discipline training that once seemed unnecessary—until a real-world mission in Africa resulted in his crew being captured at gunpoint. In that moment, courage did not suddenly appear; it was revealed. Their ability to remain calm and resolute was built through years of unseen preparation.
This lesson, he noted, applies far beyond the military. Excellence in athletics, music, academics, and character is forged in early mornings, quiet practice, and faithful choices made when no one is watching.
“You never rise to the occasion,” he said. “You fall to your training.”
Enfield urged audience members to recognize that liberty is preserved not only in government buildings or on distant battlefields, but in everyday decisions, telling the truth when it costs something, choosing integrity over convenience, and showing kindness when it would be easier to remain silent. These small acts of self-governance, he argued, are the building blocks of a free society.
He concluded by reminding students in the audience that liberty does not survive by accident. It survives when ordinary people accept extraordinary responsibility. One day, each student will face a moment when character matters—whether in leadership, work, service, or standing up for others. When that moment comes, Enfield encouraged them to choose the path of liberty: steady, disciplined, and rooted in responsibility.
In a world that often celebrates self-expression above self-control, the message was clear. True liberty is not loud or impulsive. It is built quietly, faithfully, and daily—one choice at a time.
