Freedom at the Barrel of a Gun

[Bjorn Against]

We hear the word “freedom” a lot these days. We hear the word spill from the mouths of right-wingers who tell us that freedom means the freedom to drop bombs on nations which have never attacked us. They tell us that freedom means the freedom to tap people’s phones without warrants, the freedom to suspend habeas corpus and deny people the right to legal council, the freedom to imprison people without charges, the freedom to torture, the freedom to deny a group of people equal rights solely because of their sexual orientation, and the freedom to steal elections by forcing people to vote on machines which can not be audited for accuracy.

They tell us they have brought freedom to the people of Iraq, and they certainly may be able to point out some new freedoms a lot of Iraqi’s have today. Many of them now have freedom from life, they have freedom from their arms and legs which have blown off by the bombs we dropped on them, and they certainly have freedom from peace. But if this is freedom, then I don’t think most people would ever want to be free.

Why do so many accept the definition of freedom that has been handed to us by the right-wing? It is time to reject their definition, and to fight for the true freedom which allows us to free ourselves from the chains that hold us down.

Freedom should mean that we all have the right to stand up in front of our so-called representatives and say, “Enough. We are not going to accept your illegal wars of aggression. We are not going to submit to your warrantless spying program. We are not going to submit to corporate rule. We are not going to allow you to give our tax dollars away to Halliburton. We are not going to let criminals to run our White House. We are not going to accept discrimination by our government. We are not going to sit by silently while they try to drag us into another war, but instead we are going to march in the streets with our fists in the air calling for a day when the gears of the military machine finally grind to a halt.”

If the right-wing wants to talk about freedom then let us talk about freedom. Let us talk about the freedom of a young child to escape poverty, not by defying the laws gravity and picking themselves up by their bootstraps but by using our resources to provide a better future. Let us talk about the freedom to give the finger to the insurance companies and say “enough, we have seen too many people die without health care and we are not going to let you run the system anymore.” Let us talk about the freedom to be able to live a life where don’t need to worry about the government monitoring us because of our political views. Let us talk about the freedom to take back our airwaves, and tell the corporate barons that they can no longer control our information.

Yes I want to talk about freedom, not the freedom at the barrel of a gun that the right-wing promotes but instead the freedom to live free of the threat of corporate malfeasance in our daily lives.

Freedom is not won by guns and bombs, it is won by the people who stand up and lead a peaceful fight for an America where we can express our views in the streets without being sprayed with tear gas. Freedom is not one by denying equal rights to minorities, but by allowing all people the right to raise the type of family they want to raise without being forced to abide by the standards the religious right tries placing on them.

I want freedom, and no matter how much they may use the word the supporters of this brutal regime are destroying our freedom.

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Have you read Mao on this topic?

[Bjorn Against]

2. Mao?

Mao was not exactly a person who was fighting for freedom. I suppose sometimes some extremely telling quotes can be dug up from the tyrants, but I certainly hope you are not suggesting that we take Mao as an authority on what freedom is.