FREEDOM

Isn’t it silly to spend a non-replaceable resource like time to worry about what other people’s idea of us is, especially when in most circumstances they (those other people) have no real control or input into our lives, how we live them or whatever?

In fact, the only input other people have in your life is what you give them. This is not an exception, it is the rule, in all cases, full stop. Other people’s input into your life is a voluntary surrender of your freedom.

We remember back in the 60s when the hippies went all natural and stopped shaving, bathing, and practicing basic hygiene (both sexes). Our parents, the jocks, the geeks, and all the other left-outs thought they were foolish, and yet it was their right to be smelly, dirty people (not drug-addled, but that’s a different article), and the rest of society’s solution would reasonably be to leave them alone and far enough away to not smell them. We can tell you from personal experience that Haight-Asbury was really ripe in a lot of ways in those days. But we digress.

The same goes today for those who believe in God and those who don’t – not my problem if your choice is to spend eternity in Hell (according to my beliefs) or if my choice is to live the one life I have under false pretenses that keep it from being the most fun it can be (according to your beliefs).

As a believer, it is reasonable and rational to have discussions with the other side in disagreements like this, but don’t count on a high conversion rate in any sort of short time. The same goes for non-believers; you cannot change a lifetime of belief with a single, strategic, astoundingly germane quote. It only works that way in fiction, the movies, and, temporarily when guys are looking for dates (joke…).

Change takes time, no matter which way you are going. The problem is, most people don’t want to wait. When we’ve given up our freedom, no matter how it has happened, we want it back immediately. That’s any freedom, all freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, and it should be ours.

Well, someone gave up their freedom or someone took it away, and that becomes the new normal. You want it back, but it’s not so easy to restore a freedom that’s lost. Do you realize there are many people who are happy when you lose your guaranteed freedoms and consider you having those freedoms to be a threat to their life and freedom?

Gun ownership and carrying is the easy example. We believe the Second Amendment is the one that protects all the others and keeping and bearing arms is foundational to our freedom. That doesn’t mean there aren’t those who don’t like guns, want them removed or confiscated, and don’t care what the Constitution says. It will take time to restore lost gun rights and to protect them as well.

How about wearing seat belts or motorcycle helmets? There is certainly irrefutable proof that these items save lives. The question is, whose life, and at what cost to their freedom?

Is it not my freedom to ride with the wind in my hair and bugs in my teeth? Don’t I have the right to sit wherever I want to in my car, unencumbered by a lap and shoulder belt? It’s easy to say that saving your life overrides your personal freedom, but that’s a slippery slope. There are other inducements to wear helmets and seat belts, like higher insurance rates or not paying benefits to those not secured. That makes it a choice, not an order, and the individual can make the decision based on their own criteria and not the government’s. Or you could just not insure yourself for injury or death when you’re at fault. You freedom is intact although your head might not be. That’s the point of personal responsibility, because responsibility comes with each freedom.

Ask a pot-head to tell you why THC is illegal and beer is legal. We’ve heard the entry drug routine about pot leading to hard drugs. Can the same be said for beer leading to hard liquor? What’s the comparison of pot smokers who are so stoned out of their mind that they can’t drive versus beer drinkers who have a few too many and let the alcohol muscles drive the car? Yet your freedom to drink is there and THC is a (foolishly) scheduled drug.

One last rabbit hole and then we’ll stop. Remember taxation without representation? Remember one of the big issues that caused our Revolution? Remember people didn’t like getting taxed without knowing why or for what?

Yet today, we are taxed on things that have already been taxed, taxed on things that were not supposed to be taxed, taxed on things that some people consider sinful, and taxed in an unfair manner when we are taxed on income.

Were you ever asked about these taxes? We sure weren’t. We weren’t asked if the Federal government should exceed its mandated powers in the Constitution, an excess that automatically results in federal overreach with a side effect of higher budgets to support the overreach and more taxes or debt. None of it is Constitutional, yet here we are.

So what’s the freedom connection with all this? Each time the feds overreach their constitutional authority it costs money, and taxes and borrowing are how things are paid. Taxes are a restriction on freedom, your money is being spent for something you may not need or want and certainly can’t control.

There’s always the mantra “for the common good” and there are times when it’s true and needed. National defense is a good example, as is border control and currency regulation, as well as relationships with foreign countries. Other than these functions the feds should close shop and go back to the swamp. We can think of nothing additional to these listed functions that are mandated by the Constitution.

We don’t need a federal Education Department that has a single solution for the fifty unique states.

We don’t need an IRS the size it is when the states can collect income taxes, take a piece for processing, and forward the proceeds to the feds as they do now with other taxes. And by the way, we don’t need a progressive tax system. Flat Tax or Fair Tax will insure everyone pays their “fair share” – not less than 10% of the population paying all of it, as is the present case.

We’ll probably deep dive into most of these categories, but this is the intro to how we feel about personal freedom. To put it as succinctly as possible, the feds have constitutional authority over the “Three D’s – Dollars, Defense, and Diplomacy. Anything else is overreach

Your comments are welcome, as always.