If we in this nation are not free to say what we think no matter how asinine that may be then we are no longer free at all. If we cannot listen to those who disagree with us no matter how we feel about the disagreement we have failed as a nation and should allow progressives such as Obama feed us to the future one civil liberty at a time. I do not feel that this country has come to that yet but our news agencies seem to think so and promote the idea that a lack of freedom is still freedom, it is not. I will say that again it is not.
Every person in this nation has been born with specific rights, such as freedom of religion, meaning we can practice any religion as long as it does not harm others or take away their rights. Freedom of speech, which means we can talk about religion, even if you do not want to hear about it. That’s what freedom is. We have a freedom of the Press, which first lady big bird decided did not have the right to be on a public street, they do and they have the right to film whatever they want and report about it, freedom again.
We have a right to personal privacy of our papers and within our homes and yet the government seems to think the constitution is more of a follow what you want kind of document when it comes to privacy. The government has no right to have access to anything within the confines of your personal property without a specific warrant, which includes reasonable suspicion. A conversation on a phone is not specific enough and a third grader knows that but somehow this was missed by the NSA.
We have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which means we have a right to read the bible if we so choose, no matter where we are, as much a right as someone who wants to read the Koran or Torah. We have a right to discuss politics or religion and we have a right to ignore those who are doing the same but we do not have a right to stop someone from doing any of these things.
A man in Texas was told to take down an American flag off his home because it might offend nearby Arabs. Freedom people, just do not look at it, he has a right to fly what he likes off his own home, even if it offends you. We have a right not to engage someone in conversation or as a friend and if someone was flying a Nazi flag at their home I would exercise that right but he has the right to do what he pleases on his property as long as it does not harm others or take away others civil liberties or I might add break specific laws within local governments such as butchering goats on your front porch, health requirements may frown on that.
Freedom is the concept in which we may and often do offend each other but we are allowed to so that we each may explore our thoughts and beliefs in any fashion we choose and in that exploration we become better human beings. We can choose to fill our world with only ideas we agree with but we cannot stop others from having differing viewpoints nor under any circumstance should we, without these basic freedoms, freedom itself means nothing. We as a nation seem to be currently at war with the idea of freedom, an idea that not to long ago defined us, so I ask again what have we become and where are we going?