Freedom

This country has the most confused ideas of freedom imaginable. We shriek about freedom at every turn, at every holiday, and at every political gathering. We fought a revolution for “freedom” while holding one-sixth of our population in bondage. Throughout the Antebellum period freedom was shouted from every street corner in the South: The freedom to own slaves. We Southerners still mourn the loss of our freedoms (states rights), and what freedom were we talking about.

It is no different today. the people who scream the loudest about freedom and the Constitution are the same people ready to rewrite the Constitution to remove someone else’s freedom. Look at the examples, the Second Amendment advocates that I know are the first to want to do away with the First Amendment. We want the freedom to own guns. The same people, want to outlaw same sex marriage. That is a religious issue, not a governmental issue. What happened to the First Amendment here. Or, I have read three or four op/ed pieces lately that have decried the morality of the media. I don’t want porn on my TV or computer, but I choose not to go there. That’s not the governments responsibility. It’s mine. If the government gets into it, its censorship. What just happened to freedom of speech, another First Amendment right.

Businesses want the freedom to outsource. This is really what free trade has come to mean. It throws Americans out of work. They cannot pay taxes and they go on the welfare roles. Meanwhile the business that sent the work overseas brings the product back here to sell without paying a tariff. So freedom destroys the economy and the businesses get away clean. Hey, that’s the American way, enrich the rich.

We have had a responsibility problem as long as we have been a country. We don’t think what this stuff means. We are the people making the choices. We choose who we buy from. If you don’t like GM shipping jobs overseas, don’t buy GM products. I, personally think it is criminal for CEOs to be paid 400 to 500 times the wage of a worker while at the same time sabotaging the economy. Should the government step in? I don’t know. We can make the change though. We vote, and we buy. If you don’t want the government meddling in you lives, be responsible, handle it. Freedom without responsibility is worthless.