We are led to believe that, through legislations such as The Real ID act, Patriot Act and Protect America Act as well as President Bush's claims that Iran is a threat to our security is supposed to keep us safe. We are led to believe that these legislations and claims are patriotic (hence the names). However, you will never be safe, the security you feel you have is only an illusion. Yet, in light of this, it doesn't make any sense to give up your liberty and freedom under the illusion of security. Liberty can, was, and will remain a truth - a tangible fact. Fight for Liberty and stop giving it up for false security.

In this week's episode I attempt to illustrate how Liberty and freedom are not easy to live with. It forces men and women to constantly be on their toes, to fight hard and to be self-sufficient. After all, Liberty is the essence of privacy and self-sufficiency.

I'm sure that we have all met that sheltered child sometime in our life thus far. You know the one. His/her mother dresses him, makes him go to bed at 8:00 PM every night, doesn't let him watch the TV shows or movies everyone else gets to watch, doesn't get to cross the street, doesn't get to go Trick or Treating, doesn't get to drive a car, doesn't get to eat candy or fast food, doesn't get to go to parties or get-togethers,

That child is usually not a happy one and his/her parents are often referred to as "over protective". They are afraid that their child will become corrupt, become injured or become killed and the fear consumes them.

Why let the government do these same things to us? Better yet, why ask for it?

Life is full of danger - Liberty is dangerous. You will never be safe. You are always in danger of terrorism either from abroad or from within. You are always in danger of dying at any time - nothing on earth will be able to save you from that - not your nice neighbors or neighborhood watch, not gun control, not police, not microchip trackers or Real IDs or the War on Terror, not tags, not security cameras, not jails, not police, not your gated houses - nothing.

You can eat all of the right foods and stay away from drinking and smoking, but you'll never live forever and will always be under the threat of sickness virus and cancer. You can be raped, murdered, robbed and tortured - nothing will ever change that.

The only security you have is the faith in the illusion thereof. Just like your money has no value except for people's belief in what its value is, so it is with your false hope of security.

It makes no sense to give up our freedoms while we are alive so that we can enjoy this false sense that security is protecting us. You may be less assessable to attack if you are tagged and caged and monitored - it's true - but you'll still be tagged and caged nonetheless.

The primary thing that makes life worth living is our ability to live through it freely and to struggle to maintain that freedom. It is our ability to be private, to have rights and to exercise the use thereof. It is the freedom to protect ourselves and remain self-sufficient - it is Liberty.

I am reminded of a quote from the book of Job in the Bible - chapter 3 verse 25 - when Job laments,

"For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me".

Job lived his life fearing only one thing - that his children would die. It was the only thing he was afraid of. And yet, what he feared the most was thrust upon him.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe this to be a universal fact - that which we greatly fear will always come upon us. So... fear nothing and be free in the peace that the lack of fear brings.

Thomas Jefferson, in my opinion, was one of the wisest and most grounded of all the founding fathers of his time. I quote him often because I believe his words to be timeless and applicable in a variety of current situations. Here are a few thoughts Jefferson had on Liberty, quoted from various letters he sent over the years:

"The natural progress of things is for Liberty to yield, and government to gain ground"

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much Liberty than those attending too small a degree of it"

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of Liberty"

I would also like to provide some Jefferson quotes regarding the Bush administration's fuck-ups with foreign relations, especially concerning his unfounded threats and warnings on Iran whilst he entangles himself with other even less favorable alliances throughout the globe:

"We certainly cannot deny other nations that principle whereon our own government is founded, that every nation has the right to govern itself internally under what form it pleases, and to change these forms at its own will: and externally to transact business with other nations through whatever organ it chooses, whether that be a king, convention, assembly, committee, president, or whatever it be. The only thing essential is the will of the nation"

"As to everything except commerce, we ought to divorce ourselves from them [nations] all"

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none should be our motto"

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none"

"Unmeddlling with the affairs of other nations, we presume not to prescribe or censure their course. Happy, could we be permitted to pursue our own in peace, and to employ all our means in improving the condition of our citizens"

"Not in our day, but at no distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power, the greater it will be"

"The boisterous sea of Liberty indeed is never without a wave"

Original URL location: http://www.william-mac.com/thisweekintime/liberty-not-security/.htm

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Liberty Does Not Mean Security

William_Mac

Buford, GA

November 2007

JAN 17, 2008 02:32 PM