What True Freedom Means

​​People who think there is no reason for war do not understand what freedom means.  We can’t be truly free by ignoring the past and hoping things will get better.  Freedom isn’t free, it has cost the lives of those good people who have gone before us, willing to visit violence upon those that wish to do us harm.  Those people that think there is never a reason to go to war can never be trusted to stand up for what is right, for they have neither the spine nor the wisdom to realize that the precious freedom which they hold so dear, cannot be held indefinitely without defending and protecting it.  If our enemies see that we will not fight for anything then we are no longer safe.  John Stuart Mill (writing on the U.S. Civil War in 1862) said: 
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
Being unwilling to fight for anything shows that you have neither the intelligence nor the wisdom to know when your freedoms that you hold so dear are in jeopardy.  Only by exercising the right of a sovereign nation to protect itself from threats both foreign and domestic can a nation remain free and its citizens happy.  The constant threat that harm may fall upon the citizen allows the terrorist’s wishes to be imposed upon society with
cunning.  Many are willing to give up some freedoms to be safe.  Benjamin Franklin stated:  “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Only by maintaining our freedoms and liberties can we prevent the terrorist from forcing his will upon us by eroding those rights which make our nation great, namely the Bill of Rights, and The Constitution.  In a way the terrorist wins when we change our laws and restrict our freedoms in the name of safety (such as the Patriot Act).  Thomas Jefferson said:  “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.”  Which means that we as a nation should be free to do what we want as long as we don’t impose upon the rights of others.  All our laws are essentially set up to protect us, and give us a course of action for those who wish to violate the rights of others.  Some laws succeed, others fail.  Robert F. Kennedy stated: 
“Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws - but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Each time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted - when we tolerate what we know to be wrong - when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened - when we fail to speak up and speak out - we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”
Ronald Reagan also stated: 
“There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution.”
 
The main difference between a conservative and a liberal, in my perspective, is that the liberals want us to rely on the government for all our needs and safety.  Whereas the conservative wishes for us to rely on ourselves for most things. It’s a dying thing called personal responsibility. Our society is trying to change the way people see the world.  Society is trying to take the responsibility for an individual’s actions and place them anywhere but where it should be: squarely on the shoulders of the person!  It’s easier for our society to blame the neighborhood they grew up in, or violent video games, or music, or violent movies, or alcohol, or a gun, for the problem instead of the person that committed the actions.  Violent media can influence people’s actions, but it is ultimately up to the person to actually do something.  Millions of people watch violent movies and play violent video games, and they don’t commit any crimes.  Equally important is the fact that a gun is a piece of metal and plastic, and has no will of it’s own, yet it’s common to see the news stations blame a gun for a death and not the person who pulled the trigger.  The gun can not force it’s trigger back on it’s own, it takes a living, breathing human being to do that.  You can fantasize that if there were no guns then it would be so much harder to kill someone, but remember this statement from Jeffery R Snyder:
“The handgun is the only weapon that would give a lone female jogger a chance of prevailing against a gang of thugs intent on rape, a teacher a chance of protecting children at recess from a madman intent on massacring them, a family of tourists waiting at a mid-town subway station the means to protect themselves from a gang of teens armed with razors and knives.”
 
The gun control crowd wants us to rely on the government for our safety and well being, as though dialing 911 will immediately allow us protection from an aggressor.  The pro gun groups wish to allow the common citizen the choice to defend themselves, if they wish, or to sit back and hope that the police are faster than the criminal is.  John F. Kennedy stated:  “Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.”
 
In Professor John Lott’s groundbreaking book “More Guns, Less Crime,” he found that “Research consistently shows that having a gun (and usually just showing it) is the safest way to respond to any type of criminal assault.”  Some other interesting data collected during his research indicate:

• Concealed handgun carry by private citizens reduces violent crimes, including rape, murder, aggravated assault and robbery, throughout the entire community and in surrounding communities.
• When a state passes a right-to-carry law, crime reduction is immediate and substantial, and crime-reduction benefits continue to grow the longer the law is in effect.
• The greater the number of concealed handgun permits issued, the greater the reduction in crime.

 
Something that the average person loses sight of is the fact that there are people in every society who do not care about laws, rules, or anyone else but themselves.
“The odds are, any criminal who is intent on killing you has probably killed men before, knows how to do it, knows how it feels and likes it. You’re not going to talk him out of it, scare him out of it, or wound him out of it. You’re going to have to kill him.”  (Robert Boatman)
I will reiterate that you can’t talk him out of it!  We will ALWAYS need guns, police, laws, courts and prisons.  While most people can “evolve” to the point that they don’t need those things, there will always be 1-3% of the population that will need those things to be kept in line.  And because of that criminal 1-3%, the rest of the population will need guns, police, laws, courts and prisons, to protect themselves and their loved ones.
 
If we choose to do nothing to preserve and protect our freedoms and our country, then we will eventually lose all of it. The only way to preserve and protect freedom is by taking upon ourselves the responsibility to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities. Once we give up that responsibility to the government, we will never get it back.
 
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"  - Samuel Adams
 
Especially in our current national and world situation we need to be ever vigilant. May we guard freedom closely!