Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay

Is freedom really all that "free"??

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Shuggy:
It's posts like yours that do a lot to break down the prejudice against all things American that is likely to infect us out here in the rest of the world. Sometimes you get the impression that Bush represents America, and then you hear from real Americans that he doesn't.
That patriotism thing... and it's infectious: see how many World Cup teams put their hands on their hearts for their National Anthems now. Even NZ, dammit.

maggiesmommy GayLee:
thanks for your insight, shuggy..it helps to remember we're not all there is....and far from it..it helps to see the path ahead when we can learn how other countries handle similar situations...i love my country, if not most of the people that run it...and i have admired many of our presidents, of both parties, but  the issue before us, equality for all people, is long overdue for change. i want my country to stand proud in the world, not for military might or how much money we can pour into wars and disasters across the world, but for being an example of mand HUMANITY to man...
its a good dream, and one i hope to see come to pass in my lifetime....
thanks for your support..
gay lee

delalluvia:
Freedom is never and has never been 'free'.

It has to be bought with blood and vigilantly watched and tended and cared for like the precious concept that it is.  It is a human concept and as such is interpreted freely by as many people as there are people.

Speaking from a relativistic POV, you get the govt/laws/rules you earned.  You want them changed?  Make them change.

Few things get changed because of 'fairness'.  The concepts of fairness and justice and equality for all have to be pushed and reinforced and brainwashed into our society and our kids because they are rarely concepts that anyone strives for.  Most people are tribal and ethnocentric and so the differences between people are scary and threatening so might makes right.

Freedom isn't free.  It has to be propped up, reinforced, protected and pushed pushed pushed.

ednbarby:
With all due respect, Del, I don't think Gay Lee's point is whether freedom is free or not - it's whether we even really have it in this country.  I vote no.

Jeff Wrangler:
Somebody needs to drop a house on the likes of Fred Phelps. And on Dubbya, too, while they're at it.

Ya know, I DO still love my country, which is why I'm so deeply hurt and depressed at the direction things have gone since the turn of the century. I was a little kid in the 1960s--11 years old when men first set foot on the moon. That means a couple of things. True, as a little kid, I wasn't really aware of what was going on in Vietnam, but I was aware of stuff like the Peace Corps, the War on Poverty, the Great Society, and the space program.

Hey, we're America! We're supposed to be the Good Guys! What happened? We've turned into the Evil Empire.  :'(

And I never thought I would see the day when people would be so uncivil as to turn the funerals, where parents are burying their children, into occasions for political protest, so that we'd have to pass laws against it.  :-\

If you folks will pardon a religious-type reference, I think a lot about a comment Thomas Jefferson once made: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

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