FREEDOM

FREEDOM: 

WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

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We in the United States are very good when it comes to TALKING about freedom...but for many of us freedom is an abstract. Not something we have ever felt was being threatened and we more or less take ALL of our freedoms for granted because of that. We don't know and certainly don't remember what it was like in the beginning. 

WE DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY 
the price for freedom, 
but paid it was.

Much of the rest of the world has known threats to its freedoms far more recently than our American Revolutionary War or even the two World Wars of the early and middle 20th Century.

So, what IS freedom?

FREEDOM IS THE ABSENCE OF
FEAR, TYRANNY, REPRISALS FOR BEING WHO YOU ARE 
AND LIVING AS YOU HAVE BEEN CREATED TO BE.

THE FREEDOMS WE ALL CHERISH IN AMERICA INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO SPEAK OUR MINDS, LOVE WHOM WE WILL, AND EXERCISE ALL OF THE RIGHTS WE HAVE BEEN AFFORDED FROM THE BEGINNING IN OUR CONSTITUTION AND OUR BILL OF RIGHTS...THE FOUNDING DOCUMENTS OF OUR DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.

WE CAN WORSHIP AS AND WHERE AND HOW WE CHOOSE...& WHOM, or not. That is a choice as well. 
NO state religion. 
No mandated one.

Basically freedom is the ability of individuals or groups to live without constraints...especially when it comes to religion, speech, and general lifestyle. In a democracy for example, one should be able to reasonably expect to live free from tyranny and exercise ones right to choose ones own religion and to  practice it as one chooses.

The same goes for speech. One needs to be able to express their opinion without fear of reprisal.

The same for love. 

In a free society, everyone gets to love whom they choose, when they choose, and how...and nobody gets to condemn, ridicule, or project their own internal hatred/bigotry & discrimination or prejudice upon you just because 
of who you love.

At least that is the way 
it SHOULD BE. BUT...
 that is NOT always the way it is. 
Even in supposedly free countries such as The United States.

We have a constitution and a Bill of Rights that originated at the very founding of this country...the law of the land and the by-laws or road map or bible or guide as to how American society should function as a free democracy. But in truth we talk a good line but usually don't practice what we preach until people as individuals or usually groups force the issue.

Women, African-Americans, LGBT, Unions, Voters, etc. All have had to fight to get laws passed to protect them and their rights when to me that is or should be at least redundant. We were GUARANTEED
equal protection UNDER THE LAW, and yet. Additional laws have had to be enacted to UNDERSCORE those rights by codifying them.

As human beings we tend to splinter off into our own little sub-groups and then snub 
everyone else. We are the 
CHOSEN ones and YOU AREN'T and...

 Eventually that snubbing turns more overt and that is how conflicts which can lead to virtual war start.

Gender has been an issue for centuries. Women legally are protected from blatant discrimination, but in practice 
many CONTINUE to be discriminated against.

Same with African-Americans. Same with LGBT. & on & on.

What turns a society from believing so intently on the principle of personal freedom as our founding fathers were into people who discount the idea that people DESERVE to live AS THEY WERE CREATED. TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO...
A life of personal freedom...
as long as the execution of that freedom DOES NOT HURT 
anyone else.

Shooting or stabbing people, yelling fire in a crowded theatre are NOT the kinds of things that human beings should protect or practice. Abuse of ANY kind against ANYONE should NEVER be tolerated.

You canNOT murder another human being just cause you want to out of prejudice or whatever and then claim you had a right to. 

BUT that is EXACTLY what happened in the case of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and all the other stand-your-ground cases.

ALL MEN are/were created 
EQUAL.

EVERYONE. 

Men, women. White, black, red, yellow, brown. Hetero OR homosexual or Bi or Transgender. 
Old, young. Tall or short. Hair color or eye color or Jew or Gentile or Muslim or Christian. 

None of that matters. 
Only one thing does. 
EQUALITY...and equality is at the heart of FREEDOM.

Sadly, freedom came with a VERY heavy price which was paid by our forebears...but now there are people who would deprive Americans of their rights and they are working hard to do just that. 

Most of the people in the Republican party in the United States are about one thing. Power. THEIR power, and taking from everyone else to give to the elites. Companies like Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil and Wal-Mart...while the rest of the country struggles or at least cannot really afford to give to people who have SO much, and to individuals like Art Pope and the Walton kids etc. It is disgusting to watch these people trying to destroy America for their own selfish gain but destroy is what they are about.

They are against education 
because an educated society is harder to manipulate and control. Of course, they try to camouflage their actions by blaming teachers unions etc., but that is only a cover. They are against unions for the same reason they are against education. A unionized work force is also harder to manipulate and control. We have had the BEST education system IN THE WORLD, and the Republicans are trying desperately to destroy it.
If they get their way we will have the WORST in the world.

 Sadly, in many states they are succeeding. But if they dumb America down it is all a matter of time until they try to do that elsewhere for the same reason and the irony is they will eventually run out of people to turn STUPID.

They align with haters. Old white mostly southern Men primarily 
who hate.
Many who purport to be Christian conservatives...BUT FOLKS. JESUS NEVER preached hate. Or bigotry, or prejudice. That is YOUR thing not His and YOU WILL pay the price for that.

They hate (still) blacks, gays, unions, voters, etc. and they want to make women once again subservient to them. Again, power is their game. NOT ideology, for some yes but not most.

THEY are the stupid. Ignorance is stupid when it doesn't have to be.
Ignorance is merely the absence of knowledge and/or information. Stupid is KNOWING and doing it anyway.

They sit and listen to the lies, distortion, and bigotry of Fox News (which is NOT news but propaganda) and suck it up like a sponge on steroids. (I keep listening for that squawk that means they hit the bottom of the glass but not so far).

They refuse to listen to facts, and they are so corrupted by almost 40 years of hate spewed by the likes of Reagan, Bush, Limbaugh, Savage, and their ilk...they are frozen in a time warp that bears NO relation 
to reality.

Sad, but true.
That is America today. In a death match for the future of this country, and so far...the MINORITY, the Republicans are winning. Via Gerrymandering, dirty tricks, and arrogance that is STUNNING in its lunatic fringe idiocy.

TBC 

COMING UP:
FREEDOM: 
WHAT IT IS & WHAT IT ISN'T

Pakistan & Afghanistan