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The Meaning of Freedom

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The Meaning of Freedom The meaning of freedom in the United States has come into such controversy. Everyone has a different ideology on how they perceive their personal freedoms and what it really is to be free. As a society some would say we do not possess the ability to speak, act, and think openly without fear of persecution. We must ask ourselves if we are slaves to our government and other authority figures or are we our own masters. I would say that we can only be slaves to our own limited experiences. If we choose to be enslaved no matter our treatment then that is what we are. If we choose to speak our minds and follow our hearts we will always be free.
What Is The Meaning Of Freedom
There are many definitions of the word freedom, but the word slave is usually tied into that phrase. Although in another time there was real live slavery, in today’s age it is reflected more by a person’s mind than actual bonds. People can just as easily be enslaved by oppressive rules and governing officials as they can by bonds. To be forced to abide by rules and regulations that are not honorable or in good taste is equally a sign of our lost freedom. Martin Luther King said it best “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” King, Jr., M. L. (1963). When we see injustice in any of its forms we must be willing to act on behalf of ourselves and people who do not have the means to act on their own behalves. It does not matter what some other people think is right. If we know something to be wrong (even if it is the law) then we must break those chains of bondage and make the difficult choice to be heard. Where would we be today if we hadn’t stood up to people who believed women shouldn’t have the right to vote or that our young African American people could not go to the same schools?
While great men and women like Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt saw the preservation of our freedom as almost an individual choice others like Langston Hughs and David Thoreau believed that we didn’t have the freedoms we thought we had because of the government and the tyranny of power driven civil leaders. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote “"We the people of the United Nations determined...to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and...to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom." This reflects the basic premise of the Charter that the peace and security of mankind are dependent on mutual respect for the rights and freedoms of all.” Roosevelt, E. (1948). She so simply explains that without each individual person taking time to respect the rights and personal freedoms of others that we are already failing. To look at the larger picture of what our government is trying to do for the majority of people is set guidelines, but our own human liberties must be guided by our own hearts. I may not be of the same religion as another person, but I cannot persecute them for their faith. We must respect their choices and only act when they harm someone.
Other authors have speculated that as a community the less government there is the more personal freedom we have. As a society in essence if we do not have the government to make corrupt legislature then we can make up our own minds what we choose to believe in and what we do not. The flaw I see in this type of thinking is that in a large society we have to have certain laws that bind us together for the greater good. In a city the size of New York for instance would be in utter chaos if there was no government to help enforce the most important laws that keep the populace safe. Henry David Thoreau said “It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves.” Thoreau, H. D. (1849). He believed that the government was not the will of the people, and could be influenced negatively by one corrupt person in power. That the simple thought of authority made people obey laws and rules that should never exist and removed our civil liberties. That is one thing that may be true today. Corruption can come in many forms and our society has come to a point where they do not ask the hard questions they follow. We even teach our children that people in authority are right. How many parents tell their children to question authority? Without questioning it are we truly free? These authors and leaders make very good points, but again I believe that pieces of each melded together give us the bigger picture of true freedom.
Conclusion
Freedom is a subjective term. We may be enslaved by someone or something, but when we choose to give away our happiness, lives, or free will to them only then do we truly lose our freedom. When we do not stand up against injustice or respect other people’s rights we lose our freedom. It starts with the individual making the right choices and ends with the majority making sure their voices are heard and conveyed through our government officials. With these actions and always striving to know more about our fellow man we can hopefully find a way to true freedom or what I simply call love.

Reference Page
Roosevelt, E. (1948). The struggle for human rights. Retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/PDFFiles/Eleanor%20Roosevelt%20-%20The%20Stuggle%20for%20Human%20Rights.pdf
Thoreau, H. D. (1849). Civil disobedience. Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/WALDEN/Essays/civil.html
King, Jr., M. L. (1963). Letter from Birmingham jail. Retrieved from http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

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