What do those words mean to you? Especially Liberty, personal liberty was very important to those that laid the foundation for this nation. Lets be truthful and admit that our “founding father’s” didn’t get it all right, or even mostly right. They did make some pretty glaring mistakes, we know that now, and have righted a few of the wrongs, at least as far as the ideas go. We have removed slavery, women can vote in every state, strides have been made to integrate minorities into our society, not without shedding blood, and violence but the fight is far from over.
Equality before the law is a wonderful principle it has in no wise been attained. Probably never will be, and yet it is worth striving towards. Equality of opportunity is also a principle that is batted around when we American’s discuss the land of the free and the home of the brave. Nice to think about but difficult for all to attain, some have a much easier road than do others. These are the ideas of the enlightenment, they are ideas that fired the imaginations of those founders. Realizing that couldn’t bring a United States together and hold it together by freeing all men, there was considerable animus towards freeing the slaves, giving the right to vote to women, placing limits on certain immigrants etc. The founders were willing to set aside for future generations to solve the problems that would prevent the founding of one nation out of many states.
The problems proved nearly intractable. But alas we managed to make great headway in personal liberty or so it would seem. So that we have a working understanding of liberty I am using the following to define it.
liberty ~ noun common
1. immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence
2. freedom of choice
liberty of opinion; liberty of worship; liberty–perfect liberty–to think or feel or do just as one pleases; at liberty to choose whatever occupation one wishes
3. personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression
4. leave granted to a sailor or naval officer
5. an act of undue intimacy
Artha 1.0.3
A handy off-line thesaurus based on WordNet Copyright © 2009 – 2012 Sundaram Ramaswamy, WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 – 2012 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
Numbers 4, and 5, are not applicable to this discussion but the others are spot on. True enough different dictionaries will have similar but not exactly the same definition. So when saw this news story I was taken aback at the stupidity of the speaker, pastor Allen Joyner of the Sweet Home Alabama Baptist Church. Willful stupidity, I assume here is the text of his remarks:
“If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, you can line up over there by the fence and let our military personnel take a few shots at you since they’re taking shots for you,”
It appears that Joyner is calling for the execution of people that he disagrees with. Kind of like we are told the North Korean dictator Kim Jung un, does to people that he doesn’t like. Unsurprisingly the drones in his Sweet Home Alabama echo chamber also reacted this way. Truly this people hate our freedoms or that we are able to exercise the liberty in a way that they cannot control which is antithetical to any understanding of the concept of liberty as defined above. Perhaps they stupidly think that liberty is the right to kill people that you cannot exert control over. Joyner and his slow witted congregates have the right to say dumb things, they have that liberty. After making this statement he was obliged to resign from his avocation, he was the announcer for the football games.
One Air Force veteran, Mark Bender, with 22 years of service was quick to point out that he and others fight (serve) so that we can maintain our hard won freedoms. Here is his take on Joyner’s comments:
“We fight so that all Americans retain their rights and freedoms to protest,” Bender wrote. “I would never turn a weapon on my own countryman simply because they protest by remaining seated during the national anthem, by refusing to recite the pledge of allegiance, refusing to stand or pledge during any act. These things we do, these pledges, these songs, these are not compulsory acts. They are acts that we are all free to join or not.
“I am proud that we have that freedom whether or not I agree with someone’s non-violent protest,” he continued. “You, on the other hand are promoting extremist violence by way of state sanctioned executions. You are obviously standing for the compulsory actions by way of preaching hatred, jingoism,
American exceptionalism — all because people do not believe or think as you do. I am grateful that the majority of Americans do not thirst for their brother’s blood as you do. You are a disgrace, those who agree with you are a disgrace, and you are a black mark upon this great nation. You should certainly hang your heads in shame.”
Very well said Mr. Bender.
I’m so glad that I am no longer a bible believing Shitstain (Christian).
Out of the Shadows, Various Ruminations 