I’m a little non-plussed at all the talk lately about freedom and liberty being infringed upon. We’re all for limiting the freedom of the other guy, but when those limits step on our toes we cry foul.
You can’t have it both ways, people!
This country was founded on principals, the loftiest of which is individual freedom. With that freedom comes responsibility and that responsibility includes tolerance of other views. Just mentioning a handful of these individual rights:
- If we have free speech, then someone is going to say something that offends. Deal with it.
- Freedom of Religion? Someone’s gonna say you’re going to hell. Deal with it.
- Freedom of the Press? Well, we’ve allowed that one to go right down the toilet, but we’ve offered it up on the alter of apathy and cowardice, by not standing up and demanding journalistic integrity and objectivity of those providing our news to us. So, now we’re dealing with those consequences.
- The right to bear arms means that accidents are going to happen. It also means that someone who looked/acted like a responsible gun owner, might not be. Deal with it.
- Rights to a trial by jury, to a speedy trial, to face your accusor, etc, all make it more difficult for the state to convict the innocent…and the guilty. Deal with it.
But because we don’t want to “deal with it,” we’ve allowed the government to define what’s acceptable. Because we are fearful of that person we don’t understand, we’ve allowed the government to define who is worthy and who is not worthy of understanding. We have gone from self-governing to the thought-police.
What happens when we give up our freedoms due to fear?
Now we have TSA Agents, molesting their “customers” who refuse to allow naked pictures to be taken of themselves.
We have responsible parents threatened with losing custody of their children because they prefer not to trust their child’s education to a government school.
We have types and levels of taxation that are unconstitutional.
We have chivalrous men being accused of gender bias and even sexual harrassment because they treated their female co-worker differently than the male one.
We have Big Brother monitoring our driving habits, our parking lot habits, defining where we can imbibe, etc.
He defines what type of speech is acceptable now. Hate speech is a punishable offense. I don’t like hate speech either, but guess what? Speech is no longer free and it’s only a matter of time before what your church teaches is defined as hate speech. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds offensive that favorite T-shirt your kid wears to school.
Once the government gets involved, the squeeky wheels start to define what’s acceptable. Before you know it, nothing is.
I’m sorry, people, but you asked for this.
We live in a Brave New World, where only the cowardly can be comfortable.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. –Benjamin Franklin
SebbieDue