Freedom requires that we pay attention to things near home as well as far and wide.Arms up, hands waving, start screaming—we are about to rocket into the last year of the first decade of the 21st century (or the first year of the second decade, depending on where you fall in that debate).It seems like yesterday we were all concerned about the computer glitches that would cripple us when we hit 2000. Little did we know what evil really lurked in our collective future.Sept. 11, 2001, changed us immeasurably. Wars ensued and continue.Sometimes in a world that routinely disturbs us with news of possible epidemics, bomb blasts and the infidelities of public figures, we forget that we live in the land of the free and that freedom requires that we pay attention to things near home as well as far and wide.