Yesterday White Beard and I put on our packs and went “hiking” along the San Francisco Bay Trail, which follows the waterfront in the area of the Golden Gate Bridge.   It was a very warm day (unusual for San Francisco in June!!) and I wanted to hike where I could enjoy the sea breezes and watch all the sailboats and ships.  There were a couple of sailboat races on, and it was gorgeous.

After about an hour of walking, we began to see a very long line of people up ahead, who were carrying green banners and placards.  “Some sort of save-the-environment folks?” we wondered.   But not at all.  Turned out it was a LOT (at least a couple of hundred)  of Iranian folks who were calling for FREEDOM for political prisoners in Iran, and not just the prisoners, but all the people of Iran.  The green banners were filled with hundreds of signatures of people who agree with the cry “Set the prisoners free!”.   

We started thinking about how grateful we are for the freedom we have–freedom to hike the PCT through 3 states plus Canada,  freedom to post stuff on this blog about what we think,  freedom for the women who want to hike the PCT to be able to do it,  freedom to talk to other hikers, trail angels, etc. about why knowing God is so awesome,  freedom even to take the risks of the trail without being told “you can’t do this!”    There are a lot of people out there who make noise about freedom, but when the rubber meets the road, suddenly they want lots of government control and restrictions.   Look at the 16 year old gal who was trying to sail around the world alone–some people are saying her parents should be accused of child endangerment for letting her go.   We say, “Go, gal, go!  We wish ALL 16 year olds had the guts and maturity to do what you did!”    (Hey, maybe she could try hiking the PCT next!)

We owe a BIG thankyou to all those who sacrifice to make our freedom possible!