Limits to Freedom

When human beings inhabit adjacent space all Hell can break lose. Things happen. Thus rules were formed to maintain order. Some of these rules were common sense courtesies to be polite and pleasant. Orderly. Neat. Tidy, even!

As relationships grew beyond family and immediate neighborhood, social ties stretched and human nature pushed its limits. Rules were strengthened as laws, which came from authority entities that emerged as governments – large and small.

In this manner freedoms were lessened so that all may rely on the resulting order for peace of mind as well as body. Freedom thus has boundaries. Those boundaries are defined willingly for purposes of comity.

The “American Voice of Reason” is found on Facebook and shared this about President Theodore Roosevelt:

“I believe in strong federal regulations to protect the people from unethical  business practices.”

The AVR goes on to state:

“President Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which created the FDA to inspect food and medicines for safety. President Roosevelt, also known as the “Trust Buster”, took on the corporations who were anti-competitive and hurting the public.”

Such are limits to individual freedoms.

Now please turn your attention to women, American women to be more specific.

The Republican House of Representatives last week, June 19, 2013, passed legislation to restrict all abortions to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. No exceptions.

It is a good thing that the Senate will not approve the bill so it is dead on delivery. If for some weird reason the Senate did approve it, President Obama ha vowed not to sign it.

Women, pregnancy, abortion, freedom, gender politics, conservatism, liberalism, middle of the road-ism, -- you name it, whatever these terms mean, they are opposite of one another when they ought not to be.

Ann Richards of Texas gave us this to think about regarding conservatives:

“They blame the low income women for ruining the country because they are staying home with their children and not going out to work. They blame the middle income women for ruining the country because they go out to work and do not stay home to take care of their children.”

At some point individual freedom is inalienable. The Constitution says so. But law makers seemingly cannot keep their personal views out of this matter of abortion and women’s bodies. They frequently opine that women cannot possibly make these decisions on their own. They insist that men must somehow insert their influence in this issue. And thus make regulations and laws governing it.

Why should this be a public policy matter? Because it affects public education? Public safety? Public welfare costs? Public whatever?

Please. Each of us humans makes decisions. Some decisions have consequences for self and others. In the matter of reproduction, women make choices that brings new life into the world. They do that with the cooperation of a man and voila! A fetus results. One or the other – man or woman – takes responsibility for the consequences. Hopefully they do so together. However this turns out it is not the purview of legislators, either state or federal.

Freedom is the delineation here. Not the result of that freedom. Society must work with the results, the consequences of people living their lives of freedom. Sex exits. It is also an active verb. Babies are the result. Live with it.

Legislators must remain out of our bedrooms both figuratively and literally. That is the sacred ground of personal freedom. In the same way this is the sacred ground of gay relationships, too.

Now. Terrorism. Conservatives agreed that government spying on its citizens was OK a long as terrorist acts were averted. Liberals were uncomfortable with that, but they went along with it with the gloom and doom of 9-11 hanging over their recent memory.

That spying apparatus continues to operate. But now it is anti-American as a Democrat is in the White House executing the very laws a conservative president promulgated and conservatives avidly approved of at the time? Why is it wrong now and not back then?

Freedom. It is a responsibility and threat and a gift all at the same time. There are limits. Just as long as you leave mine alone!

June 24, 2013