Lately I have read the Declaration of Independance and the Bill of Rights and learned that many of us including myself take for granted the freedom of this nation. You can literally verbally abuse our president without being killed or jailed, you can watch anything and read anything you wish without, "Big Brother," or the, "thought police" hunting you down, and you can have faith in any religion you wish.
Reading these important documents (Declaration and Bill of Rts.) was not what grasped me about our freedom, but rather a letter to the Soviet Writers Union in 1969 from Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, in which he attacks Russia for being so afraid of freedom/revolt.
Alexsandr criticized Joseph Stalin's conduct of WWII. This was labeled a crime for which he served 8 years in prison. Eventually he found his way to the United States where he won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. Crazy that a man this smart had to spend 8 years in jail, what a sad waste of potential by Stalin.
Anyways, he mentions in the letter, "It is a high time to remember that we belong first and foremost to humanity. And that man has distinguished himself from the animal world by THOUGHT and SPEECH. And these, naturally, should be FREE. IF they are put in chains, we shall return to the state of animals."
The foundiung fathers realized this over 200 years ago and held illegal meetings for the benefit of themselves and a greater good. The point is respecting freedom needs to be something we need think about everyday.
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2 comments:
I think your right that most people do not see how free they really are. If you compare the United States today. . even though some of our freedoms in my opinion are being taken such as the Patriot Act. I still feel that we live in a free nation. If one wants to compare post WWII Germany and Italin Fascism where most of the media was under government control, it is obvious that we are better off. I came across a quote that I believe ties into this theme.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and vever will be. ... When the press is free and every man can read, all is safe." (Thomas Jefferson, 1743 - 1826)
This relates to the media we have today. We no longer have individuals like Thomas Paine that give us the truth out right. Most of television news either is not news or is bias in some way. If we are ignorant to believe everything that is streamed to us then we will be free, but ignorant.
It is funny how leaders react in the world. What I mean is, President Bush gave a speech at Furman Univ. last week. 14 teachers wore "WE OBJECT" t-shirts and stood the entire time. Bush said jokingly, "I too am a believer in free speech, to prove it I'm about to give you one."
Good or bad president, thats funny and that is the kind of person that is a leader. No 1 person would have worn their "WE OBJECT" t-shirt, they needed a group to feel proud.
As dumb as many think our president is and can be, he seems to understand the value of freedom more than 14 professors in this situation.
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