Freedom

We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us!

It seems, in this world, that there is no such thing as freedom any more. To go anywhere in this world, you need a passport, and to stay there you need the right visas, to work there you also need the appropriate visas. You need a license for practically everything you would want to do. Everything costs so much money, and it seems that even working full time jobs doesn't always pay the bills. Each country preaches that it is free, and then puts people in prison or charges them immense fines because they couldn't afford to pay their bills or taxes. People go to prison or pay fines for defending themselves against an attacker, or because they smoked something "illegal" or drank alcohol simply because they are not old enough to, and yet these people are often old enough to fight for their country. In a war, citizens are drafted or conscripted and forced to fight an enemy that they have never met, and often caused them no insult. Countries are occupied and told that the way they want to live is wrong, and that they have to change. Most of the time the only explanation given to someone being arrested or fined for a "crime" is that "it's against the law." Well, why is it? "I don't know, it just is." That's not good enough. Why was government formed? To get the people everything that they needed. I see homeless starving on the streets, begging for money, people living in poverty, and women raising children alone because their father died in some war... and yet people are not free. It seems to me that government has abused its power, and is no longer performing its job, but instead is attempting to control the masses. Some day, maybe not today, maybe not for 100 years, the people will say that they've had enough. I will be among them, in this life or the next. Perhaps you do not agree with what I have said, and perhaps we share very different ideologies about life, spirituality, and that sort of thing. Perhaps we disagree on a lot of things, but I shall lay down my life so that you have the freedom to disagree! Cheers.