freedom!

by alffilop

{freedom is something i think a lot about. i was free when i was born, and when i was growing up people told me i was free. i've been brokenhearted for many years now, because i've started to think i might not be free after all. i've given this many years of thought now, and for once in a long long time, i'm proud to be an american again, and i'm proud to be free.

america has given me a lot of good ideas about freedom. america you see, wasn't always free. freedom is something that comes and goes, and it lives in the heart. there have been many times that the freedom in our hearts just wasn't enough. the natives of this land were more free than our forefathers, and there were a lot of so called pioneers that took that freedom right from the natives of this land. of that i am truly ashamed.

there have been many attempts to take our freedom away- throughout history, and not only from foreign countries, whose freedom we have also attacked. hitler would have taken our freedom, had he been able to. stalin, napoleon, and even the natives of this land would have taken our freedom to preserve their own. if we had only shared our freedom, those natives wouldn't have been forced to fight us to live.

the government has spent decades, now centuries, limiting our freedom- and i think there could have been a way to try to write laws that balanced and protected freedom- that's what we've lost- we've lost the Protection of our freedom. i will get back to this.

you cannot look at me and shout of your freedom today. tell me you're free. i want you to be free. but tell me you're free, and the words fall short of my ear. shout that you're free, and your shouting falls short of conviction. you don't know you're free anymore. how could you possibly believe you are?

we wanted to be free, and we were told our freedom is protected. it's protected by the government, it's protected by the constitution, it's protected by god. it's protected, but where is it now? tell me you're free! do you Feel it though? if we are free, why do we feel trapped?

when this country was settled and founded, freedom came by declaration. your history books will say it was fought for, but our european forefathers were free the moment they declared it. it is true that the battle for freedom never ends, yet the ultimate battle for freedom is not in a war, but in this very life.

the freedom you believe is dead, is dormant in your very chest. the freedom our country promised to protect, is not being protected anymore. our government has been corrupted further and further to protect not the interests of mankind or of freedom, but the interests of upper classes and greed. you know as well as i that any corporation you go to work for has more rights as a fictional entity than you do as a living breathing human being. you know that sooner than this country will come to harm, you will. you know you are almost alone, and no one will save you- but know you are free.

you were given freedom at birth. canadians were given freedom at birth. russians were given freedom at birth, as every european and asian and australian and every man, woman, and child was free at birth. it is true that we still have more rights than many of these people do now, though only because we have in the past been able to work with a system that says it protects these rights for us- but freedom is a moral issue, and a moral entity. it never required legislation or a governing body in order to exist.

look around you, and look very closely, because these protected rights we supposedly have are dwindling too quickly. in the name of freedom, these protected rights are dissolving.

but though this is a cause for alarm, it needn't be a cause for despair. however discouraged our freedom may be, freedom never dies. let me remind you, it is dormant, in your chest. declare your freedom and you are as free as our forefathers. demonstrate your freedom and you are as free as the revolutionaries. let freedom live in your chest every day that you live, and it will not die for you until the day you die.

never let your freedom sleep. cry your freedom out in broad daylight, and let everyone know that freedom lives. don't rely on a corrupt anything to protect your freedom. nurse your freedom, grow it, demonstrate it. Live.

i want to take a minute to talk about the draft, and it should serve as an example.

when a government serves the government itself before serving it's people, there is no democracy. when a free man serves his needs it is because he is free to. we did hold such truths to be self evident. we were to, supposedly, exercise our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. there was no "...unless we go to war."

war has never met it's objective. it never will. war will never bring peace. war will never Solidify freedom. moreover, you cannot protect a free country by forcing it's citizens to fight. if we are free, we are here to protect our freedom, that much is true.

assuming we are free however, we are free to die. we are free to lay down our weapons. we are free to give up our freedom. we are free to give up our country. if a man be free, and his freedom protected by his government, he will not be forced to fight. if a man be free, he may fight for his country if he should choose. that is our responsibility, Should we Choose to accept it.

some day we may not have reserves. our government may Not handle our resources- even our living, breathing, supposedly Free resources in a manner that is wise. vietnam was not a war that the american people wanted, and a great number of americans were not sure why we were fighting it. a great number of young, Free men were sent off against their wishes, to die. this could happen again, and i want to say, in case we are ever in a similar situation, something that i hope will be remembered.

if we should choose to die, If we should choose to be invaded, that is our right- we are free. the draft is not only the death of the constitution, but the death of the free man. if the right of america to exist as a country, is greater than the right of a man to exist and Not bear arms- if a man's freedom is only intact until his government claims to require him- if a man against his wishes be forced into battle by his own government- then he has no freedom. he Has Nothing left to defend, except the dictatorship that says freedom is only important when the dictatorship says so. Only by giving a man a choice is he free. whether it be the 'i will fight you, so you must fight me' of a foreign country or terrorist group, whether it be the 'they will fight us, so you must fight them' of the draft board- they spell the same and total death to democracy.

the first accusation made in response to such words is an accusation of apathy, if not an accusation of treason. to not fight for your country is to betray it. i do not believe this however.

i am a man who loves freedom with all his heart- but a man who loves freedom must stand, Alive, Erect, and Confident of his Every Freedom and right. a man who loves freedom must oppose any draft. this is what the american way swore upon god it was. i intend as long as i can exercise my freedom, to live free- as every human being was meant to live.

let me tell you what i believe first and foremost, with regards to the preservation of freedom. it is indeed our responsibility to preserve our freedom. we must be free to decide how we preserve it.

i do not want to die for freedom. i needn't. no one does. i do not want to be sent to die for freedom. i have already said such a thing is not possible. dying for freedom, against my will, is utter nonsense.

die for freedom, die for freedom- i want to Live for it! i will live every day of my life a free man in my heart and my actions. i will live a free man until they rip my soul from my body. i will live a free man until the germans or the japanese or the russians or the terrorists gas me, bomb me, nuke me, or crash into me. join the armed forces, it is your choice as free men and women to do so! choose fighting a war for your country- that is, violence as an intended means of preserving freedom- if you are so inclined. some people believe this is inevitable. the only thing that matters to Your freedom is that you be able to choose. personally, i am not inclined to think violence is the only way to preserve freedom. personally, i do not think war will ever preserve anything except war.

I am, as our forefathers might have been, interested in freedom spreading from my chest and my constitution to the chest and constitution of every man and woman on earth. i do not think war is the ultimate answer, and i choose to protect freedom my own way, as a free man, free to do so. i am here to tell you what we are supposedly fighting for, and i am free.

i am here to live for freedom, and if i choose to fight a war i choose to fight a war. if i choose to lay down my weapons and preserve freedom my own way it is because i believe it possible. i want there to be something left to fight for, and i'm fighting for it right now.

and i will stand as tall as i can see ahead- i will declare the freedom that will live in me until it is ripped out- the freedom that will live in me until i die. when i do die- as an old man with a heart that ceases to tick- or with a wound from a bullet- every ounce of my blood will die free. if poison gas floods my lungs, or a manufactured virus invades me, my last gasps will be taken with freedom. if i am set aflame or bombed or crash- if terrorists or iraq or north korea, or even our own government drops a nuke close enough to me, i will burn into ashes or gasses, but ashes or gasses that are free. if i am imprisoned or starved i will rot in my cell- but in life- as in death- my soul will be free.

i am not willing to live any other way, and you don't have to be either. you needn't wait to die to be free, you are free- and if we as americans declare our freedom again, we can have what we had in the 1700's. we can have what we had when we won the wars we did. we can have what we had when we came home from the wars we lost. we can have again the freedom we were Born with, and if we spend our lives declaring and demonstrating our freedom, we may even one day have a government that is really willing to help us protect that freedom.

i don't deny our responsibility. it began when we were born. we have a chance to take it up again. respect and support the freedom of every man, woman and child. respect and support the freedoms of other people, even if they are freedoms you don't wish to exercise. do not forget to respect and nourish your own freedom- it did always belong to you.

every day of your life, live free.}