"All we have of freedomall we use or know This our fathers bought for us, long and long ago."
Rudyard Kipling
This collage by New York artist Fred Otnes was especially commissioned by Brown & Williamson for its permanent collection of fine art works.
The freedom to choose our livelihood was provided to us long ago. And it was typified by the struggle of immigrants to America in the early 1800's. People like Adam Gimbel, a humble Jewish peddler from Germany, who later founded the country's first department store. And individuals who became industrial giants, like Andrew Carnegie from Scotland, who built one of the largest steel producing businesses in the United States. America had given both of them the freedom. The freedom to choose.
A free individual does not live without choice. A free society does not prosper without it. Consider, if you will, the personal
choices we make every day without intervention from others. Now consider how many we take for granted.
The right to choose is the basis of all freedom political, social, artistic, economic, religiousfor all people. But this right must be protected from those who would chip away at it...either deliberately for personal gain, or innocently for the "betterment" of humanity. It must be protected from those who would make their choice, your choice. These personal freedoms are our legacy as well as our responsibility...to protect and to pass on to those who follow.
Freedom. It's a matter of choice.
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation