What Freedom Means to Me

What most people do not realize is that the freedoms they appreciate most are worthless unless the opposites hold true as well. The freedom to believe whatever you want means nothing without the freedom to choose what not to believe. Freedom of speech must always go hand in hand with the freedom to leave. No single freedom stands alone unless it is in balance with the others.

Today freedom is attacked every time someone maintains that one freedom is more important than the others are. In doing this, the freedom they support becomes a weapon of enslavement rather than tool of liberty. Any of the freedoms Americans take for granted can be perverted when it is used with the belief that it grants the user the right to deny others their freedoms. For example, freedom of speech does not give one the right to force others to listen. This makes it a tyranny instead of a freedom.

This type of tyranny wears many faces, disguises itself in well-meaning causes and hides in superior places. It twists well intentions to its own ends with no regard for anything but its own purpose. In schools, freedom of religion has become a tyranny of no-religion. In politics and cultural conflicts, the freedom of speech is now used to slander and shutdown others of conflicting ideas. The freedom to live without discrimination has been twisted into a weapon to discriminate with. Why debate your opponent, when assassinating his character is so much easier?

Where freedom has become distorted was not caused by the system nor the democracy that gave it birth, but in the hearts of the people who forget the price that was paid for it. Few things in life ever are appreciated when they are not earned, nor sacrifices made to attain them. Just as freedom and privilege without restraint or discipline will spoil a child, America has given the privilege of freedom without demanding its price. In many ways, we have become like that spoiled child, not realizing the value of what we have. Freedom was never intended for the selfish. When one fails to realize that by attacking or disrespecting another’s freedom that endanger his or her own, everyone loses.

The original intent of freedom in America was to create an environment where ideas could be challenged, debated and made stronger from the process. From this starting point, America has become the great power it is today. If freedom is to last, our culture must recognize that the foundation of freedom will only stand when people realize its price tag is the will to always protect it for others first—whether one agrees with them or not. Without an understanding or this responsibility, no one will be free. There will only be tyrants and victims…victims of their own selfish ambitions and desires that caused them to pervert the rights that set our country free.