After reading John’s great post Judge Napolitano: What if we only THINK We’re free? I had to really think about whether or not we are really free as Americans living in the United States of America. Or, do we just think that the term freedom excludes the possibility that Americans are free but that it is necessary for us to live with certain essential laws required for our safety? I believe that we as Americans are still free but less free than we were forty years ago. We are still much freer than other nations in Africa and the Middle East in which people of different ethnic and/or religious affiliations are waging civil wars with one another. On the one hand I believe that we shouldn’t have to deal with certain safety measures but on the other hand my alter ego says making some small sacrifices to ensure the safety of our country is a small price for us to pay compared to the sacrifices that our men and women serving overseas are making.
If Americans can volunteer to join the military to go overseas to fight for our freedom and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice why aren’t Americans back home willing to make some sacrifices which could affect the safety of our nation? Freedom doesn’t mean that we have carte blanche say over whatever we want to do without having responsibilities or their being consequences for our actions. Do all of the security measures taken since 9/11 to prevent another attack on our nation really constitute us sacrificing our freedoms or is it the idea that “this or that should not have happened” that forms our brain to think that we aren’t as free as we once were because of the security measures taken after 9/11? In my thinking I came up with this question: how can we expect our soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice while we aren’t willing to make some adjustments to the way we live, like every time we choose to take a plane from place to place? I am not saying that we should have to endure the groping of the TSA at the airports but we did experience the 9/11 attacks as a nation and other terrorist attacks have been attempted afterward which spurred the so-called need for these pat downs and x-ray scanners. But how can we as Americans who are living safely and comfortably with our families actually justify complaining about walking through an x-ray machine before we enter a plane while soldiers are dying to ensure our freedoms? If walking through an x-ray scanner ensures that every person will be safe when flying an airplane what is so wrong with it? We have cars with seatbelts that we must wear to ensure our safety and if we don’t and get caught then we will get a ticket by the police. Are we really free when we are required to wear seatbelts so that we are The fact that Americans are required to walk through scanners, given a pat down before being able to board the plane and being required to follow the law and buckle your seatbelt seems trivial when you think about the fact that we have soldiers who have served overseas, have given their lives and others who are still serving overseas who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so as to defend our nation from our enemies. Is our military fighting for our freedom to not walk through x-ray scanners, not have pat downs, or not wear seat belts? Or are they really fighting for our freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to pursue happiness? But that was alter ego talking. My first instinct tells me that all of these restrictions violate our freedom. Against the part of me that craves safety and security at the cost of liberty there remains a core conviction within me that our freedom is worth a great deal of risk, and indeed, that’s why our men in the military are overseas fighting. Should frequent flyers really be required to expose themselves to excessive amounts of radiation which is harmful to their health? Should the measures taken to ensure our country’s safety conflict with our freedoms? Do the safety measures really conflict with one another or are there gray areas where our freedoms and safety meet and there is give and take?
Unfortunately our freedoms have been under attack from the inside for decades. One example of this is of freedom of speech in places of higher learning. While this country prides itself on the fact that we have freedom of speech but do we really have freedom of speech at universities? Many universities are progressive propaganda machines which want their students to simply follow the progressive way without thinking critically about the issues or doing research on the issues because God forbid, that might prove that progressives “facts” are really flawed or false. When conservatives offer a different point of view their professors penalize them just because they have refused to follow the progressive mantra. If the person can back up their viewpoints with facts they should not be penalized because their argument doesn’t fit into their professor’s political philosophy. Does this really sound like freedom of speech?
Freedom of religion has been under assault for many, many years also. As Americans we have a right to pray in public and this includes praying at government events. Atheists and non-religious types have perverted the meaning of “separation of Church and State” and the meaning of “freedom of religion” and have interpreted these as “freedom from religion” and anything to do with God or religion has no place within our government”. When atheist radicals are vying to tear down crosses that have been on government land for decades in remembrance of fallen soldiers our culture has gone awry and this shows the vindictive hatred that atheists have for both religion, the freedom of religion, our constitution, and our country.
Catholibertarian 