There are frequent discussions through the tubes on any number of chat boards about the war in Iraq, and you will hear the same thing from the pro war crowd… “freedom isn’t free” . same thing goes when people talk about the “war on terror” they keep talking about how the patriot act is not a loss of freedom, the terrorists want to take our freedom, freedom this, freedom that…. everyone focusing on the concept of freedom.
what gets lost in this with me is this… our founding fathers didn’t really talk that much about freedom… but they did talk a whole bunch about LIBERTY.
look at our founding documents. the constitution mentions liberty 3 times all of them referencing the government not encroaching upon a persons liberties, and freedom is only referenced one time… in context of the 1st amendment. also, liberty is a key principle of declaration of independence, yet freedom is never mentioned.
so, what does this mean?and why am I even talking about it?
well,I have been thinking about this a lot lately, as I notice items in the news wherein the government continues to encroach upon our personal liberties, but not necessarily our freedom. we are not being incarsarated, so our freedom is in tact, but we no longer have the LIBERTY to actually pursue what our hearts may desire… I.E.–happiness… under what the fathers of our country envisioned, I should be able to do what ever I want, as long as i am not preventing someone else from doing what they want. THAT, is liberty.
yet, how many prohibitions do we have going on right now? I am not a drug user, frankly not a fan, but I SHOULD have the LIBERTY to do them if I wanted to. there are any number of subjects that have the same issue, and i am leaving the moral arguments out of this. liberty is liberty irregardless of any moral argument. liberty looks at morality and giggles, because it knows that my moral code may differ from yours and vice versa. but our liberty is exactly the same.
and after all —-
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
—– right?
maybe we need to start reading more of that document and look at what exactly is prescribed in such a situation-
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
I am no seditionist, I LOVE my country, I just think that the language has been co-opted, the concepts by which we were established have been destroyed, and we need to start looking toward how we really reach that true American Ideal … it isn’t about freedom. it is about LIBERTY.
