LIBERTY!!!! LIBERTY FOR ALL!!!

What is Liberty?  How can we quantify it?  How do we explain what it means?  How do we teach our children what Liberty is?  How can we ensure we pass Liberty to our posterity?

These are all excellent questions.  So lets see if we can answer them.  In order to do so we much take out something, we’ll call it a book of numerous words in very, very small print, or just a dictionary.

In 1994 the word Liberty was defined as (thanks Mr. Webster):

Noun, 1.  freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.  2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence.  3. freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, etc.;  power or right of acting according to choice.  4.  freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint.  5.  permission granted to a Sailor to go ashore, usu. for less than 24 hours, b.  time spent ashore.  6.  freedom or right to frequent or use a place:  The visitors were given the liberty of the city.  7.  unwarranted or impertinent freedom in action or speech, or a form or instance of it:  to take liberties.  8.  a female figure personifying freedom from despotism.  —-Idiom  9.  at liberty.  a. free from captivity or restraint.  b.  unemployed; out of work.  c. free to do or be as specified. [1325-75; ME liberte < MF < L. libertas = liber free +tas -TY]

Well I did my best to transcribe to a punctilious degree, but since it is a book and doesn’t have a zoom I may have missed some thing here or there, its called getting older.  My intent is not to slant this statement one way or the other by doing so, merely to display from a dictionary the meaning of the word, and therefore answer the first of a list of questions presented.

So now it can be explained that Liberty is, unless you are a Sailor, the ability to do what you want, when you want, where you want, how you want, with whom you chose, without interference, obligation, restriction or control.  As in I have taken the liberty to invest in myself and attempt to create something that can possibly have or create value.  The value to me is an outlet for my thoughts, value to others has yet to be determined.  Honestly does the dictionary definition not fully answer the first four questions?  As in, what, how, its meaning, and teaching our children what it means (verbatim, through repetition)?

The last question remains unanswered, not too sure if there is or ever could be a cookie cutter response.  I guess it depends on what Liberty means to you, in your own mind, of your own body, and within your soul and inner spirit.  To some it only means certain things, to others it means do what you want, don’t harm anyone or their stuff, (among the examples would be, do not kill, do not maim, do not hurt kids in anyway, do not steal from others, do not damage others property, do not destroy others property, etc) and since we live in a “Free Society” we are and must able to do so.  For if we are not able to do so are we actually “Free People”?  Or are we “Rented People”, or worse owned by others?  The answer to that question depends on your views of the world, government, society, religious beliefs, economic standing, education, and other life experiences, all of those influence how we interpret the information we are continuously bombarded with on a minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day basis.

In the author’s humble opinion, the very use of our Liberty has been masterfully commanded by the ruling class.  We are free to associate as long as the BIG D and BIG R are there.  We are free to express ourselves, as long as everything we say does not offend someone, that could be interpreted as bullying, or intimidating.  Never knew ideas and thoughts could bully, odd always thought of bullying as terrorizing, caused by action(s) and then used to instill fear in others in order to accomplish a certain task.  Or is that war?  Or is that competition?  Or is that the monetary system?  Or is that just dictators?  Or is that the mean business world?  Or is that politics?  Or is that government?  Or is it all of them?

The lone question I have that bothers me so much is this.  “Are we domesticating our children, through an indoctrination process in our Public Education System to the point where they will fear to step out of the line at the last stop prior to getting on the next Long Black Train (insert your dissent here) operated by our rulers, or are we as a society saying give up, there is no use, its too big already, its best just to get along and don’t start waves, since you will never be considered worthy enough of the knowledge of what your government is doing to others, or to you, EVER?”

You see when that happens in our country, this great American experiment of OURS, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, well then, sadly, it would be all over wouldn’t it?  But, that could never happen here in America, or could it?  Taps is starting to play in the background folks, if you listen closely you can here it, it grows louder with every note played,  they are burying OUR LIBERTIES beneath mountains of laws, regulations, codes, revised codes, and many other ways, all with the force of The Rule of Law!!  You see politics when it is broken down to the bare bones of it is having a very small, perhaps even a minute portion of the citizens (winners), actively effect and affect (usually negatively) others lives and property (losers) through the use of The Governmental Systems in place.  Since in order for us to lose our property, in this case our money, someone must then win it, make sense?  If we don’t start digging soon we really would have failed at accomplishing at providing the answer to the last question, wouldn’t we?

That would be such a sad day to be a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, son or daughter wouldn’t it?

In a sad twist of events it is sort of like watching The Ohio State Buckeyes play and masterfully dominate every aspect of the game against The Team Up North, but WE ARE ALL the Wolverines!!  I guess I can now say that I can imagine how it must honestly feel like to live and breathe in Ann Arbor and the sad state of desperation, misery, and indeed tyranny, that it must entail.