Freedom?

Yes, freedom. America uses that term a lot. "Land of the Free." "Let Freedom Ring." "Leader of the Free World." And yet...

Let's face it. America is the one of the less free of the free world. For all our talk of freedom, the government loves to place more and more rules, and make less and less things free. Hell, look at gay marriage, right now. There is no good reason at all why this should be any sort of issue, and yet it's one of the hottest debated topics. Actually, ANYTHING dealing with sex is a huge deal in America, where we aren't even allowing our soldiers the freedom to love who they want.

Let me focus there for a mo'. Take, for example, the case of Army Specialist Jeff Howe. He's done two tours of Iraq now, serving his country well, but was recently discharged because they found an online personal ad, showing he was gay. Why does this make any difference? Who he fucks has zero connection to how he serves. I'm really fucking tired of America apparent assertion that death, gore, and aggressive violence is A-OK, but sex, affection, and intimacy are not...but that's another rant altogether.

So, because of someone's personal choice of sexual partner, they lose some basic freedoms, such as marriage and military service (and, with the situation the way it is, you'd think the military would take anyone they could!). One's choice of religion results in the same. Even though the Bill of Rights guarantees one's freedom to practice the religion of their choice, even though the country was FOUNDED by people getting away from religious persecution, still if one is not Christian, one has to put up with the place having laws made and attitudes practised with Christian mores in mind, and no real recourse against it. Do we ever thank Allah at a baseball game? Ever ask Thor to watch over our meetings? Thank Buddha at the Academy Awards? Fuck, man, there's exactly ZERO proof of any religion being any more likely to be real than any other, and yet still 70-75% of Americans seem to believe something other than themselves is responsible for their actions...and may even be willing to die rather than just admit they they have no basis for this belief and could be wrong. Well, I'm shifting into another rant again, more on that another time.

So, we have religion and sexual partners now that stop you having the freedom to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", as the phrase goes. I'm sure I don't have to continue, you're not stupid, you see where I'm going with this. This country is slowly but surely sliding from being free to being quite the opposite. I hesitate to call out outright fascist epithets, but, damn, we're starting to see some scary things happening. Why it is happening and why is no one speaking against it? Well, that could be ANOTHER rant, so I'll hang back for the moment, but money, partisanship, and religion (again) seem to be major factors.

Anyway, what this all started out to say is that I really hate hearing the term "freedom' applied to America anymore. I'm not saying that we aren't still a very free country, because we are, but I still think we have a lot to learn and a long way to go; I just hate hearing about "the enemies of freedom" and how we're promoting "freedom" in any other country, etc. The terrorists that hate us are not "freedom haters", they are "America haters", and most of their hate comes from religion and from wanting us out of their country and out of their business. We are not promoting freedom, we're promoting oil use (which is expensive, dirty, and non-renewable...but because it's big money, alternates are hard to get researched and used).

For all our freedoms, we've got a long way to go. After all, Lenny Bruce once said "Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government", and they've already made it so you cannot openly and frankly express yourself (so much for Freedom of Speech). Well, I STILL say "Fuck The Government", and I'll continue to do so until it gets out of my personal life.

Lemme leave you with a couple quotes/thoughts:

"There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them."
-- Clare Boothe Luce, American Diplomat and Writer

I'm doing my best NOT to become hopeless about this country. I still have hope that we will get people who aren't insane, uptight, religious zealots in control, and maybe we can start to make this place the true Land of the Free.

"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
-- H.L. Mencken

Remember this the next time some asshole uses a phrase like "America: Love It Or Leave It." Fuck you buddy, I'm more of an American than you'll ever be, simply because I DO understand freedom, including the fact that freedom means freedom for everyone, and that I'll have to accept that the other guy is free to feel/think/do as his will bids him, too. The fact that I fight the government, trying to change things to make them better for the population is the most truly American thing you could do.