I've Gone to Look for America

The benchmark of freedom has long been and still is the United States of America. Everyday we enjoy, and often take for granted, the expansive liberty that citizenship affords. Freedom is an American's inalienable right, even though some must kill for theirs and still others wage wars against it.

We are granted these rights by the government because we consent to obey their rules. It is simple and fair; checked and balanced. the American system of government; checked and balanced; perfect; none can or ever could corrupt it; unspoiled by influence of ulterior motives; an invention borne of true genius, Humanity as its cornerstone, holding true Life's groundwork and the supports of Liberty. Consummated in Revolutionary blood, its existence protects existence itself, and shelters every person born inside it or born of it, and all those who from elsewhere come. Under such a shelter is freedom, and in that security can Happiness be Pursued.

Such a thing could never be hijacked. It could not be bent, shaped, suited, or used for anything save America's and American's benefit. Never. Our enemies will come from foreign places, well outside our borders. Their wanting to end Freedom will be pathetic next to our love for it. Our government is America, and the government is the people. The government will protect freedom and the people will protect themselves. That will never change in this great nation. And even if it were to change, well, ...

I do believe America is the greatest nationstate in the world and all of history. I do not, however, believe in America's security. When asked whether they took their right to freedom for granted, most would say they do not. Perhaps, but I say we lie when we claim to be grateful. It seems society at large, (the American psyche, if you will) has taken possession of its rights. Freedom is no longer something that may or may not exist; now it just does, simply and concretely. We have grown so used to its taste that we don't bother tasting anymore; we just swallow it and get on with our day.

I often hope my conclusions are drawn by my own disillusionment and are not as correct as they seem. But most days, I see poor treatment and abuse of freedom. I'm not much by way of support for the government, and I've never been called a patriot or a "Real American," of any of that nonsense propaganda. I do, though, love the idea of America: that is, my interpretation of that idea. I love that citizens can have their own ideas about a very simple idea: we are free people. We should not be subject legislation that is based in somebody else's interpretation. The interpretation we are subjected to by the government is, I think, way off.

My thoughts on the current bureaucracy are, however, neither here nor there. I wish to cover the concept and spirit of freedom. I think it is a wholly beautiful thing. To quote a phrase, I'm proud to be an American. But as I said, most days I see poor treatment of rights and privileges. Maybe I'm too harsh a judge, but people, my peers especially, just don't seem to get it. They are just free, no doubt about it. Always have been, always will be. Freedom is everyday and all the time, and that familiarity has pushed it out of our thoughts. It's sort of a 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality, but in this case, it's always in sight. Because, why waste time on apperception if you're certain the thing hasn't changed or even moved? Our right to freedom has become trite and its practice turned habitual; its presence doesn't merit acknowledgment.

But are we really free if we deny the relativity of freedom's definition? What would freedom be if not for its opposite? Can we understand the beauty of our freedom without accepting its fragility? Shall we be dumbly assured of our unabated continuation until that security is shattered? Are we so used to such security that we are blinded by it? Has that security, that free and unthreatened existence, become so common that it feels eternal? Are we so sure of our freedom's permanence that we cannot realize when, bit by bit, it is taken from us?

Why, when we are being robbed, are we sitting quietly? Is the concept of freedom's death so wildly impossible that we can watch the concept in practice without recognition or even reaction? Are we too free? That is, having been free for so long; many of us free since birth, completely and carelessly and effortlessly free,... Does our certainty that we are, and always will be, free, imprison us? Will our children have the capacity to fight for, and secure their freedom? Or will they suffer the loss unknowingly because our certainty is too deeply infused?

Will they be quiet and compliant, as we are, when their freedom is being disassembled, as ours is? Or will they be their fathers' sons? Bound and gagged by their self-assurances and possessed by an unshakeable faith in their government. So used to their freedom that they do not and cannot perceive the theft of it.

But even if they realized the crime, so trusting are they that hundreds of things might point out their beloved government as guilty, but they would not believe it. Government could so obviously be responsible for freedom's annulment, but the news will fall on deaf ears; ears that only hear what they want to hear. They're too stubborn to be convinced by anyone save themselves and, of course, their elected leaders. "We'll have none of that," they'll say, "just conspiracy theorists trying to sully our nation's good name, that's all that is..."

But then the government will find some ethnic group, doesn't seem to matter which, on the other side of the world. They'll say those people with the silly hats and strange customs are the thieves.
They've been slowly ebbing away at America, not us!
Never us.
Ok? Ok.
Let's stick a boot up their ass and assimilate whoever's left!

Wars keep people busy.