What have you done with your Freedom?

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. Eric Hoffer

The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawarely enslave themselves.
Dresden James

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear
George Orwell

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.
John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"


What have you done with YOUR freedom?

These very words posed as a question by the narrator of ‘Freedom Rising” have stuck with me since I first heard them uttered. The conditions were right for it. The setting? The cradle or our entire way of life here in the United States, Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Touring the Hall and seeing all it represented moved me even more than spending hours sitting on the plains of Valley Forge. Here is where it happened! Delegates from all walks of life sat and debated the very tenants of our country. They set up a system of government and a system of individual freedoms unlike the world had ever seen. It was not merely a revolution against a monarchy, it was a revolution of thought, a revolution of principal, and perhaps most importantly, a revolution of rights.

The preamble hinted at the greatness that was to follow:


We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


If the Constitution was revolutionary the Bill of Rights moved it beyond even that. Ten rights were incorporated into the fledgling nation. Part of a compromise to gain passage of the Constitution as a whole, it is without a doubt the single most important document in American history.

We used to go about our day to day lives confident in the fact that our rights, our freedoms, our very way of life is being protected by these very words. That changed September 11th, 2001. Our safe world was rocked by the horrors we all saw that day. Some in power saw an opportunity. I too was caught up in the need to defend our country, our very way of life from threats abroad. But soon it became apparent as part of perhaps a hidden agenda of control, it was not our cities, or buildings that were under attack, but rather our way of life. This time the attack was not carried out by fanatics from another country, it was done by neo conservatives who leveraged and manipulated the patriotic mood of the country to enact THEIR version of the United States. Laws were passed that directly violated the Bill of Rights. Taking away our rights for our own good. One a right is given up, nothing short of a revolution will get it back. We began down the slippery slope of ignoring, abdicating, and abolishing the very core rights that our country was founded on.

Each and every amendment to the Bill of Rights is important. The founding father made sure that any modification to the documents would not be easy but rather require a beyond a majority of the states and their respective populations to make changes. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, and thankfully rare, we get amendments like Prohibition. Fortunately we also can see the error of our ways and repeal such changes as well.

Since 911 the Bill of Rights has come under attack. Guised in a cloak of “Homeland’ security (The very name of that department is an appeal to the concept of a ‘Motherland” in an attempt to manipulate the post 911 patriotic mood) we have capitulated to a subtle yet insidious loss of these very rights we hold so important. Among the one I feel most damaged by the present administration and climate:

All the amendments are important, but perhaps the First is the most important of all:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Fourth amendment is perhaps just as important as the first

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Sixth and Seventh

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

The First, the Fourth, the Sixth, and the Seventh, all revolutionary ideas at the time of creation and no less now.

Our very right have been under attack by the administration since day one. One only has to look at some of the stories on this very site to see what is going on:

FBI Puts Antiwar Protesters on Criminal Database; Canada Uses It To Ban Protesters From Entry
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Under the guise of the so called Patriot Act and its successors these rights are being infringed upon. You are free to speak your mind, but we are going to deny you travel, or we will put you on a watch list. These are the tools of oppression my friends. Yes, the mindless patriots among us will call this an isolated incident and make other such excuses. BUT any violation of this fundemental right is too many.

The government can now look at your library records. Why you may ask? Is reading a book a crime? What if I want to look at the workd of an Osama Bin laden? What if I want to check out a Koran, a Talmud, or a book on Satanism. IT’S my right to do so and NOT be subject to government surrvelience. That simply not the case anymore. The government eneacted a program that basically allows them to spy on americans going about their daily lives without have to bother themselves with getting warrents. They government tells us they will only use it in select cases. Speaking for myself, would you really trust them to do the right thing?


[edit on 14/10/07 by Operation AJAX]

That brings us to the situation in Guantanamo Bay. Enimies of the state we have been told or better yet ennemy combatants being held without trial, without due process. Some could be held for the rest of their lives. I have no doubt that most if not all harbor ill will to thies country and are indeed terrorists. So charge them in our courts. Don’t feed us this tripe about secret tribunals that are meeting out justice. Try, convict, and sentance these hate filled animals using the system of law with which we live our daily lives. If the government IS that sure they are guilty, take them to trial in the time honored manner of our constitution. Even our own citizens are being denied these basic rights. From the most brutal murderer to the petty thief WE all should be tried under the same system of law.

How can we be any better than those we decry if we cannot live up to the ideals we hold so dear? How can we with good conscience call for the building up of democracies in other countries all the wile we support oppressive regimes AND ingnore our own basic laws and tennants. How can we in conscience preach our values, our way of life if we throw them along the side of the road like so much trash?


What have we done with our freedoms? What have you done with YOUR freedom

What kind of country do we leave for our children?

Will my son be able to enjoy the same rights of free expression, confident in the knowledge that his government for the people, by the people can ONLY invade his privacy after justifying their actions before a judge? Confident in the knowledge that if he is indeed charged with a crime he is guarranteed the right of habeous corpus, will actually be charged and be able to present his side in a jury of his peers?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness

Will my son go forth an be able to live in the same United States in which I and many of us were born? Or are we doomed to foreever known the gneration that let it slip away. Previous generations like my grandfather faught and died for those principals so at the very least we should give it a bit more than lip service. I am guilty as the next man as in regards to going with the flow as our revolotion was co opted.


If we fail to use our rights and defend them aginst enemies BOTH foreign and domestic then the revolution is lost. If we passivly allow the principals and ideals that this great nation was founded upon then the revolution is lost. If we as a nation decide to selectivly applty the principals of our Constitution and Bill of Rights to certain groups, only the most naive among us would think that those in power would not turn around and use them on us.

Republics do not sucumb to external pressures and forces untill they decay from within. If we can so casually discard parts of our constituion and bill of rights then that decay may already be under way.

What have you done with your freedom?

What have i done with my freedom?

Today I posted this on ATS
Today I bought tickets that allow me to cross state lines without restrictions (Going to Vegas baby)
Today despite being a lifelong republican looked at membership information for the ACLU
Today I went over my absentee ballot that arrived int he mail and prepared to vote in the primary elections comming up soon.
Today I declined to send the California GOP a donation this year.
Today my son and I walked to the 7-11 and bought a slurpee

THis is what I have done with my freedoms today.

EXCELLENT thread !!

what have i done with my freedom today?
well i got up and exercised my right to drive to work and strive to pay off bills with an ever depreciating currency

Settle down Ajax. I helped 1000's of kidney failure patients live to see another day for over 20 years. Other than lawless terrorism I don't see much alternative. I don't have any answers. Having written every damn senator and congressman in the state regarding current affairs has been fruitless and pathetic.

[edit on 15-10-2007 by jpm1602]

I do not condone nor would partake of lawless terrorism. I love America. I believe in America. I am at wits end to make some measurable change in our future. That is the duty of all Americans.