Freedom Refrain
There’s a refrain being sung in the world that I hear wherever I travel… whether that’s Nicaragua preparing for a pinnacle election, or South Africa recovering from Apartheid more than a decade later, or everyday struggles in the ghettos of Boston. There is something fundamental about the human condition that longs to be free. Freedom is a concept that you can’t recognize until it’s absent. I know that I’m not the first to think these thoughts, but it’s only recently that I have understood them.
More so, it’s only recently that I have challenged the belief that America is free. We’re taught in our schools that America is free, so you don’t think about the absence of any freedoms in America. It’s easy, though far few do, to look at corporate behavior, politician behavior, or any other larger entity’s behavior as anti-freedom. But when do we start to question whether our own behavior is simply conditioned submission to a definition of freedom that’s incomplete?
The photo for this entry is the Equality section of the South African Constitution that protects against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, a protection the United States federal government still does not recognize.
If you’re not offended by the direction of the United States, you’re not paying attention.
Posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 22:19.
Your politcal posts are getting better every time! :)
I’m getting more disgusted by this country all the time. The rest of the world is becoming more enlightened but we’re moving further towards the dark ages. Same sex marriage is legal in several other countries, including Canada, but this country wants to make it even more illegal than it already is. I’ve been thinking very seriously of moving to Vancouver, where my company is based.
South Africa puts us to shame. Their new constitution is the model of freedom for the rest of the world.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m still a conservative libertarian. I don’t want a larger government, just a government that protects the people who allow it to exist.