What Freedom Means to Me

This being the first post on my lovely new blog, I thought that my definition of freedom should be known. Please note that patriotic music probably is not quite the proper backdrop for this definition. First and foremost, lets clear up some misnomers about freedom. If you are living in the country of America while reading this, you are NOT free. Many people realize this, but surprisingly, many people do not seem to mind.

Whether its a lack of interest in the political system (which I personally share) or the belief that this life is better than the alternative in other countries, it seems as though the majority of slaves, er, uh, citizens are happy to stay just as they are. They are not willing to turn down the John Phillip Sousa music, take their eyes off the stars and stripes in the pulpit of their church, and admit to themselves that freedom cannot coexist in a society with taxes, eminent domain, morality laws, and required documents to make it legal for one to live and work within a certain border.

In a system where one man or woman is elected by the majority of voters, and then enacts legislation over everyone who lives in this particular district, freedom is far from free. Representation is a farce. Law makers cannot possibly represent more than their own interest; whether that is a personal interest or a campaign contributor's interest.

Freedom is the ability to live your own personal life as you wish, and the act of allowing others to do the same.

This is not to say that one will necessarily be able live as one wishes, their will still be the same financial constraints as well as others as their are today, but simply that the government nor law enforcement will have the ability to stop one from doing what one wishes, as long as it is not jeopardizing the freedom of another. In order for this system to work one thing is neccessary;

If YOU want the be free YOU MUST allow others to be free, whether you agree with what they are doing or not.

You may be offened by what you see, and you may wish to stop people from partaking in activities which you deem harmful. Whether or not these activities are harmful or not, it is not up to you to stop them; it is soley up to individual who is partaking in these activites. You may decide to confront them about an activity which is harmful to themselves, but this will be up to you to do, not an intrusive government.

On a final note, whether you are atheist, christian, buhdist, deist, jew, gentile, roman, or any sort human, remember this quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller "about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group"( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...). "First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." Who are they coming for now, and will you speak up? Next time... Your online identity; is it considered an alias by police, and what would that mean for you?