What are the things you value most in life?
Your health, your family, your job, your money?
What are things that are worth dying for in order to protect?
What about freedom? We talk a lot as a nation about freedom
but what is freedom exactly?
According to Webster's Dictionary;
Freedom: The quality or state of being free. a) The absence of necessity,
coercion, or constraint in choice or action. b) Liberation from slavery or
restraint or from the power of another.
As I am reading these definitions I'm reminded of what it must have been like to be a slave in America and then suddenly to gain your freedom. It must have been so completely exhilarating! Or the feeling of someone who has served their prison term and is finally free to smell fresh air and go to a lake or take a walk, watch a sunset, swim in the ocean.
Our forefathers, despite all of their obvious flaws, had a vision of a free society. They planted the seed of this vision into our constitution and throughout our history that seed has grown into a stronger and stronger reality. But the cost of reaching the goal of a free society has not come without great cost. The Civil War was fought to FREE the slaves from their masters. The cost was 1.5 Million casualties. WW2 was fought to free the Jews from Nazi captivity and annihilation. The cost? 70-85 Million lives lost.
Every country has their own brand of Freedom.
In America those freedoms were meticulously laid out in the Constitution.
Let's look at a few of them just to jog our memory.
BILL OF RIGHTS (first 10 amendments)
Freedom of Religion and the exercise thereof. (even during a pandemic)
Freedom of Speech (in all situations)
Freedom of the Press
Right of the People to Peaceably Assemble to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.
The right to bear arms. (to hold at bay future tyrannical governments)
The 9th amendment states that we are not limited only to
the rights spelled out in the Constitution.
The 10th amendment states the the federal government ONLY has
those powers delegated specifically in the constitution.
(All other powers belong to the States or the People)
That's a lot of freedom. Especially when you consider the broad scope of the 10th
amendment. It's basically saying, if there isn't a law against it, you can do it.
I added a few notes to these in parentheses.
Freedom of Religion
Let's talk about Religion. We are free to exercise our religion the way we see fit.
For some of us that means that we believe that God is a healer and protector from viruses and sickness. Telling Churches in California that you cannot sing during a Church service is a direct violation of this freedom. Period.
Telling churches that they cannot meet is a violation of the Constitution. Period.
Telling churches that they can't teach what the Bible says because it doesn't fit their worldview is illegal and a violation of the Constitution. Period.
Free means free.
Freedom of Speech
The constitution just says 'Freedom of Speech'. That's it. It doesn't say freedom of speech in government buildings or in a park or on the streets during protest. It says that as American citizens we have Freedom to speak what is on our minds without 'abridging' this right. To abridge mean to deny, to block, to cancel. We have the right to speak freely in this nation. The constitution does not define what kind of speech or how many words or what kinds of words or the quality of those words. The constitution does not say 'you have the freedom to speak kindly and politically correct and say all the things that won't upset other people.' It simply says the 'freedom of speech'.
We live in a culture called 'CANCEL'. Because of the rise of social media in our every day lives, it has become the marketplace, the street corner, the public venue of modern Society. There is almost no avoiding it. And therefore it is my belief that just because these public venues happen to be run by private companies that our rights to freedom of speech should not simply be cancelled. It's happened to all of us. Someone doesn't like you or what you stand for...BLOCKED. You try to make amends with an ex or your estranged child, Ghosted, Blocked, Canceled. There is little room for reconciliation, forgiveness and healing when blocking and canceling is our #1 method of conflict resolution.
Look, if you don't like what someone has to say just unfollow them. You don't have to take away their freedom of speech because you don't agree with them. In fact it is illegal to take away their freedom of speech. The President recently made some tweets about how unfair he feels the election was and that we should peacefully march to put pressure on the government to redress these grievances. It is NOT ILLEGAL to say that you think the election was rigged or unfair. Every politician does this! Nancy Pelosi did it in 2017 and not only that, the democrats set up an entire collusion investigation to prove it was rigged (which proved to be a bunch of lies). She tweeted about it! On May 16th, 2017 she said "Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to protect our democracy." She wasn't blocked for this, flagged or anything. The tweet is still up!
This kind of choosing sides, allowing one person to talk freely and then blocking others is EXACTLY what the founders were fighting to end. They believed that EVERY PERSON HAS A VOICE.
The patriots in 1776 desired to be free from the tyranny of the King of England. They wanted representation in parliament and when this was denied they desired freedom from the lack of representation and paying taxes to a government where they had no voice. The founders believed that the freedom to be heard was a freedom worth dying for. Many 'rebels' gave their lives in the American Revolution so that their voices could be heard. In our 250 year history we have sent millions and millions of American soldiers into battle to protect our right to HAVE A VOICE. So then we should not let it be so easily taken away form us! What will we do with our health and money if we have no freedom? What will be the quality of our American lives if we have no true representation? If every voice is silenced who is in opposition to the reigning power then what kind of country do we have. I'll tell you. That is a Facist and Bigoted nation. This was not the vision of freedom that our forefathers fought and died for and have continued to fight to defend. In the past, these rights have been threatened by mostly outside forces (save the civil war) but right now these freedoms are being threatened by forces inside of our great nation.
The Right To Bear Arms
The cancel culture wants to cancel your right to bear arms. Some of them actually believe that this right was solely given so that we could hunt for food. This was not the intention of the writers of the Constitution. They knew that someday a tyrant may rise to power in America and threaten to take away our freedom. So they had the foresight to add the 2nd Amendment. They knew that it would be much harder to become a dictator of a populace that could fight back. I personally don't believe in violence as a solution to any conflict. However, I sure am glad that the armies who fought to free us from the British, to free us from Slavery, to free us from Hitler, had guns. And I am thankful for this right we were given in the Constitution. I think that it helps to maintain accountability for our leaders. A small reminder. Our government is supposed to be run by We The People. In case you didn't know or are misinformed. We The People are the government. The government isn't autonomous from the governed. They don't just have unchecked unlimited power. The framers certainly deserve credit for setting up a system of checks and balances.
The way I see it, and you may disagree, there are 4 branches of government.
The Executive, Legislative, Judicial and The People. We HAVE a voice America.
Don't let it be silenced. Not by anyone. That is your right. And your freedom is so very, very valuable. Don't be tricked into giving it away. Future generations will thank you.
Samm Musick, Jan. 13, 2021
P.S. (An after thought)
When studying historical documents it is important to understand context.
When the fight for freedom began in 1776 the 'rebels' wrote their sentiments to paper in what they titled 'The Declaration of Independence.' Let the words of this document shed some light on the provisions of security later etched and enshrined onto the U.S. Constitution. Then you will understand why protecting these freedoms for future generations was so vitally important to our forefathers.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world....