There are layers to freedom. Through centuries the idea of liberty seamed through the fabric of what is the American culture. The free will to move anywhere in the country, marry whoever you want, and say what you feel. For many, its definition is not as clear-cut as it may seem. But, on the other side freedoms, and their meaning has long been jaded.
Freedom to me is the sovereignty and control over how your story is told. Through this control, you have say-so over who you vote for as your leader, what career you decide will build your legacy, and which political party you align with. The Founding Fathers of America found that democracy is the best way to regulate the lives of American citizens with a fair and fluid legal system.
The meaning of freedom is doing what you please. However, this is not what freedom means to me. This is an average run-of-mill take on freedom, not mine.
What It Means to Me
To the masses, money is freedom. But, it is not, it is only the illusion of it. Taxes exist to hold all citizens accountable so that the financial infrastructure stays afloat.
This point baffles me because money is printed and a constructed currency that can have no value in an instant. Money does not equal freedom, it equals power. Freedom is powerful but it is not always power. The idea of it being power is a farce because in this world it only goes so far. You can get de-platformed or canceled for speaking out against decades of oppression and favoritism in the media.
True Freedom
True freedom is morality against heinous crimes and acceptance of our natural rights. Our natural rights are the rights to eat what we want, where we want without persecution, love who we want, and befriend those we believe in. We have the natural right to live our lives how we see fit along a line of universal ethics, not a book from 200 years ago where people of color slept in barns and picked cotton for their daily activities.
These grievances stretch back into the crusades, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, partition, apartheid, segregation, and many more tragic events where lives were lost because of the quest for power. All in all, what freedom means to me, is a life lived with compassion, peace, inspiration, unity, and selflessness.
Opinion news by Mikal Eggleston
Featured Image Courtesy of Osajus Photography‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of [●] wim goedhart‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
