Freedom - what does it mean?
With tomorrow’s holiday and the “out with the trash” approach by the Bush administration in announcing the President’s decision to commute the sentence of former Vice Presidential staffer Scooter Libby, I’ve been wondering what freedom means.
I mean Libby will be spending the 4th of July with his family instead of sitting in a jail cell - that’s freedom (for Scooter Libby).
People that routinely try to sneak into our country without proper documentation (if caught) are quickly dispatched to their home country without concern for future retribution - that’s freedom (for illegal aliens).
In Iraq we “liberated” millions of people from a tyrannical dictator - that’s freedom (for all of those who were once oppressed by Saddam).
In this country which is so blessed with an abundance of natural resources that are easily consumed by industry and our citizenry - that’s freedom (for anybody who wants cheaper energy or the products which require that energy for distribution).
But where’s the freedom for you and me?
In a democratic country where the chief executive has the latitude (without the benefit of an exhaustive legal process) to overrule the judiciary when a sentence is reached, and arbitrarily decide what a convicted individual’s sentence should be - how does the law protect our freedom from a super-charged executive branch?
When that same president leads the charge on granting amnesty to invaders who knowingly break our laws in an effort to receive the benefits that we the people of this country worked so hard to create - how do his actions protect my freedom or those of the two border agents rotting in jail for enforcing the law?
When that president uses ginned up information to put our country into a war to liberate people incapable of understanding the volatile responsibility of nurturing a free society - who’s going to return the freedom to all of those Americans who’ve lost their lives liberating non-Americans?
As our reliance on foreign oil increases and our environmental quality decreases - who’s looking out for our freedom to be a self-sufficient country with air we can breathe and water we can drink?
Can someone tell me what freedom is?
