Monday, July 16, 2012

Freedom of Speech

We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.

And that's it right there isn't it? Freedom, not much spoken of these days, like liberty, they seem to be antiquated ideas that are today replaced with a priority on safety, security, and other issues that aren't high-minded at all... Me? I'd choose liberty & freedom over security or safety any time. Very few people are as safe as those in solitary confinement behind prison walls... but I'm not interested in living in a prison of my own making or of my government building one around us to keep everyone they don't like out without realizing they're keeping us in as well.

I don't like the way the things are going right now. I don't like the drones. I don't like the Carnivore that snoops all your e-mails. I don't like the police's "right" to serve a warrant after the search has been completed. I don't like the lifting of habeus corpus. I don't like the government, a bigger pack of criminals and thieves you'd be hard pressed to find, thinking they have some sort of right to restrict our freedoms & our liberty for our own good.

Telling me I have nothing to worry about if I have nothing to hide is ridiculous. I have nothing to worry about when I shower either, but I don't do it outside in the rain. I should be able to decide what information is public and what isn't. And once a government agency has it, it's public. Who do you think makes up the government? Public officials. Yeah. I'm not a fan.

I heard someone say the other day, and he was being melodramatic, that he wants to watch the world burn. I don't. I like the world I live in. I love the potential it has for greatness and progress like we've never seen. I don't want it to burn, but I do want the top 5 layers of government dismantled and started over again before it's too late. The government we have now has so little to do with what we had before the towers fell...

Today I can still say this, but God knows what sort of flag is going up in a computer some where. An LED lights up and a notation is made in my file somewhere that I spoke out against the government. I'm able to say it today. But I wouldn't bet money I'll be able to say it as freely in 40 years.

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