Freedoms

Curious things have been happening for several years. Most are based on unique American values and freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. Examples:

1.      Freedom of Religion: our nation got its start as an escape from religious discrimination in England. Protestants did not want to follow the edicts of the Church of England – be it Catholic or Protestant-Episcopalian. Yet today, we have people persecuting our Jewish brothers and sisters. We even have people who claim that some of our laws discriminate against religious freedom. That isn’t true, but claimants persist with their argument on an ideological basis, thus politicizing religion. In the next breath they avow their religion ought to rule state or national policy. This then precipitates an argument over separation of church and state. The result: we have come full circle and freedom of religion rekindles as an issue.

2.      Freedom of Speech: our nation was created to be a bastion of individual freedom and initiative. Having free thought and expression of same, was believed to be the bedrock of community discourse and understanding. Indeed, freedom of speech leads through the chaos of all education to produce workable understandings common to many. However, today we have many people and commercial interests controlling and manipulating what gets said or printed and when and where. Huh? Freedom of speech negates that control. What gives? Is money speech? Is control speech? Is commerce speech? Interestingly, access to speech is increasingly controlled by subscription pricing and contracts. How is this free speech?

3.      Freedom of Press: this is an echo of the Freedom of Speech paragraph shown above. The press may have freedoms, but access to what they have written is not free. It costs each and every one of us a lot of money. In the battle for ratings (print or electronic) prices and subscriptions are high. Along the way corporate control of the message came with ownership of the news outlet. Thus speech is not free in content or purse. Another result: journalists are a vanishing breed. They are underpaid and overedited. Their messages are thus out of their control.

4.      Freedom of Assembly: most communities require permits to gather and speak in groups of any size. The permit is supposed to provide the community the time and thought needed to prepare for the ‘event’ and safeguard public health and safety. In many communities, however, the permitting process is not easy or equally accessible. Assembly of citizens is thus curtailed.

5.      Right to Bear Arms: we have this right aplenty today. Many would say the right is overwhelming us and creating chaos. A clear and present danger to the right of the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness is now the result. I believe this is so and would appreciate a better means of governing the right to bear arms. I find arms to be prohibitively expensive. I prefer society to maintain order without me having to own a gun for any purpose. That is a freedom I cherish more than the right to own a gun.

There are other freedoms but these are the main ones we attend to most commonly. The curious thing about each of the freedoms is who is doing the talking and who is feeling aggrieved. Opinions quickly change sides depending on who feels hurt. We should be able to do better with these five freedoms.


Who takes the first step with this? Where do we even discuss this in freedom?


January 3, 2020