Freedom

No checkpoints to pass through on the way across town. Seldom a significant change in the pavement as we rush along at 70 mph across state lines. Arizona may still try to keep infested produce out, but has no authority to do so with the people. Pack your belongings in San Diego and transport them to a new home in Bangor. There is no risk that somewhere along the way authorities will deny you progress for lack of proper paperwork permitting the move.

But so often we cheapen the word when we apply it to actions that carry responsibility. We say we have freedom to drink, but take no responsibility for our actions due to intoxication. We want everyone to be tolerant of our behavior, but are intolerant of those who speak out concerning that behavior.

It is in these times that we demand our “rights.” We want our right to free speech. Our right to assembly. But what about those who would speak in a manner that is contrary to our “rights” or that group meeting down the street that speaks differently — that opposes what you hold dear?

Then we expand our rights. We claim the right to an education. The right to a better job. There are no such rights. Access to schools is limited by space and qualification. Being alive is not the minimum standard for a college education. Surely everyone who meets the qualifications can attempt to receive an education. But the outcome is still not a right. Only those who apply their intellect, time, effort, etc., to complete the coursework with adequate grades will receive diplomas and the right to call themselves graduates of some university. And with or without “no child left behind,” the same ultimately applies to high school. However, given the level of achievement that is required for a high school diploma, failure to graduate in most cases is due to lack of application of sufficient, existing abilities. (I am not discounting external factors that interfere, but do note that such factors can be overcome, albeit sometimes at great effort and cost.)

This country was founded on principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nothing is said about actually attaining happiness. Liberty is not a blank check to do as one pleases, but a freedom from interference in our lives in places that government has no business to interfere. Religion was the one thing that was mentioned so much in those early days. Today, we find the honor of such freedom as we observe the Amish continuing in their heavily backward ways in the shadow of tremendous commerce and industry. But even they are being infected by the new misuse of “rights” when they refuse to insure themselves, then demand that the public sector absorb the cost of medical treatments they cannot afford.

No. Freedom and rights come at a cost. Freedom is not free. Rights are not found without responsibilities. We want the freedom to simply get on any airplane without having our person or luggage checked, but we also want freedom from worry about hijacking or explosion. The two freedoms are at odds with one another. We must chose a mixture of how much risk of death due to foul play we are willing to accept in exchange for a more lenient access to air transportation. Still we cry out against the erosion of our freedoms.

But have we mislabeled privileges as freedoms and rights? Privileges are rights granted by someone with the authority to take such privileges away. In some cases, that authority is government. You have a privilege to drive if you have met the standards of driver education and have been granted a license for the operation of certain types of motor vehicles. That privilege carries the responsibility to observe all laws governing the operation of such motor vehicle.

Driving a car is an easy example. How many more of our rights and freedoms should be relabeled “privileges?” How many of even our most beloved freedoms are more correctly privileges, and even those that we argue to be freedoms and rights still carry responsibility.

Fictional president Andrew Shepherd in “The American President” gave a short speech at a press conference near the end of the movie which said, among other things,

“You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the ‘land of the free’.”

If you want freedom without responsibility, then anarchy is at the door. It is in exercising our responsibilities that we find true freedom.