"Freedom! Friend or Foe?"
by Jack Mann
Many Americans have fought and died for the freedom we have. However, when you have this freedom, and make bad choices, then you are in danger of losing the very freedom you have fought for. This is somewhat of a paradox. We have the right to chose abortion but even if no one chooses to have one, the very fact that we have this option undermines family values and causes the decline of the family unit. We also have the freedom to choose an alternate lifestyle if we wish. There again, the very existence of this freedom undermines the family. The reason this is true is because it shows public acceptance of these reprehensible acts even if no one actually does them. No freedom should exist that can affect the quality or the longevity of this country. If each person had true, total freedom, then there would be no laws at all. One person’s freedom has to end at the nose of the next person or no one has any real freedom. We also have to have freedom limitations for the public as a whole. If you live in a big city and want to build a building behind your house then you have to get a permit and somebody else will tell you if you can or not and how to do it. Is this freedom? Actually, it’s like the person next door has to approve it to make sure it is not an eyesore or create a potential danger to the neighborhood. We give up this type of freedom because it keeps others from infringing on us. Everything we do, good or bad, has an effect on others in some way. There are thousands of laws on the books that try to enforce the Ten Commandments. The only way you can really have freedom is to live out in the wilderness all alone. If anyone else can see are hear you then your freedom starts to take on limitations. As our moral attitudes change, so do the laws that govern us. That is why there are so many more laws now than there was a hundred years ago. Moral decay breads suffering and the imposition of one person’s will on others. We have more freedom than ever before yet we live behind locked doors with a gun under our pillow. What kind of freedom have we gained? If we continue to gain this type of freedom, we will be in a prison from which there is no escape!
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October 3,1999