What does freedom mean to you? How do you define it? What does it connote? Think about that.
Now, what does liberty mean? Is it the same as freedom? Does it connote different things to you?
I ask in part because we sing an anthem with the line “with liberty in law,” and I doubt many people could describe what that means. Well, now that I look it up, many of us may not be singing that part of the song. It’s in that beautiful second verse which has a lot of objectionable material. Turn the children away from the screen for the following:
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Are we looking for liberty in law from our public servants? Do we want our government working for us by using other taxpayers’ money for programs we can’t afford or by allowing us to keep what money we can earn to use properly for ourselves and our communities?
I used Google to search barackobama.com for the words freedom and liberty. Freedom: 29,000 hits. Liberty: 14,500. Change brought in 1,080,000 of course. The candidate said, “When anti-choice protesters blocked the opening of an Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic in a community where affordable health care is in short supply, I was the only candidate for President who spoke out against it. And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president.”
For johnmccain.com, freedom came in at 1,290, liberty, 305 (the change buzzword, 8,710). Here, the other candidate said, “Blessed with opportunity, and intent on the challenges of work and family, our own lives often seem too full and hectic to take notice of offenses that seem distant from our own reality. There is also the threat in a society passionate about its liberty that we can become desensitized to the dehumanizing effect of the obscenity and hostility that pervades much of popular culture.”
(Oddly enough, the numbers for Obama’s site jumped from tens and hundreds this afternoon to ten thousands and millions this evening. – ed.)
Which of these men are really talking about defending the responsible freedoms of Americans, of getting government out of the way of the people while defending justice and promoting mercy? That’s liberty in law, isn’t it?
You can tell me to shut up now.
It’s an important question, and gets down to definitions. Freedom from what? What kind of law?
The founders knew what they meant by liberty and law. Liberty to think for yourself. Liberty to use your gifts and powers to your best advantage, restrained by law only insofar as your freedom might unduly interfere with that of others.
Today freedom has been redefined as freedom from poverty, freedom from discrimination, and (increasingly) freedom (but only for some) to go through life never being offended. Such freedoms are assumed to supersede the old-fashioned freedoms envisioned by the founders.
Limited government sounds good, unless you’re in government. Then it means limiting yourself and your abilities.
What we need is a way to select politicians based on humility. Unfortunately, “if elected I’ll stay out of your way and not bother you too much” is not a big vote winner. “If elected I’ll spend other people’s tax money to solve your problems” works a lot better.
I love that, Ori. I’d love to see somebody run for Congress on a do-nothing platform. “If we get attacked, I’ll work on national defense. If we need road work done, I’ll vote for that. Otherwise, I’ll pretty much put my feet up in my office and try to stay out of trouble.”
I’d vote for him, but I don’t suppose it’s a winner.