I know, I know. Independence day is on Saturday this year. That’s not the point. The point is ‘Murica! Yeah! Not really. The point is what true freedom means, at least to me.
America is turning 239 tomorrow (despite some people apparently thinking that America is turning 2015; I’m not making this up. Check this out: http://read.bi/1UktZ1H). We’ve had an interesting couple of weeks in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Obamacare was upheld AGAIN, gay marriage was legalized and key components of “three strikes” laws. If you don’t know what “three strikes laws” are, it behooves you to look that up.
For this post, suffices to say “three strikes” comes from the baseball concept of “three strikes and you’re out.” Only in this case, 3 infractions no matter how big or small and you go to prison for the rest of your life. Obviously this has inherent problems that end up with non-violent drug offenders going to jail much more often than they probably should. These laws also tend to disproportionally affect minorities. It’s pretty sad. I, personally, believe rehabilitation would be a better option than permanent incarceration. It would be better for society and also cheaper.
Needless to say, those are SCOTUS laws that I was happy about. I know there was a lot of controversy over the first two. Although, I’m not sure that people really disagree with Obamacare as much as the media would have you believe. It may be my liberal bubble, but I find that a lot of disagreements come from people who think the ACA didn’t go far enough towards universal healthcare (me) and from people who don’t understand the law in general. Gay marriage is a whole other beast. Once “deeply held religious beliefs” get involved, there seem to be no holds barred with the things people believe and do.
However, despite what you believe, we do live in a magnificent country that allows you to have dissenting opinions. You don’t have to agree with the SCOTUS ruling; you don’t have to agree with the zeitgeist inspiring the Confederate flag being under fire in recent weeks. Literally nothing will happen to you if you simply disagree with the way things are going. That’s great. If you act on your disagreements by doing something illegal, (e.g killing people, setting things on fire, etc.) that’s where you get in trouble. But otherwise, we now have even more freedoms than we’ve ever had.
We still have a ways to go before we realize, what I believe to be, true freedom. Despite the progress we’ve made, discrimination of all kinds is still very real. It would be ideal that, under the law, we are all equally protected, equally compensated for equal work, incarcerated less for minor offenses, and not persecuted in the work place for what we choose to do with our personal life (within reason). It really comes down to us all being able to express ourselves and mind our own business. We’re truly the freest in those circumstances.
Again, the beauty of America and the freedoms we have is that I can express my opinion here on this blog. Effectively, I’m shouting this out to a world of people and someone might hear or they might not. Whoever finds themselves reading this, they can choose to believe it or they can think I’m crazy and move on with their lives. There are many countries where expressing opinions like this my get me in serious legal trouble. But not here: Cause ‘Murica. I do think certain countries do some things better than we do, but I’m hoping we’re constantly moving in the right direction, incorporating the best ideas and best methods of keeping the peace, freedom and equality… or at least working towards it.
I got all political there for a second, but have a safe and happy 4th, everybody! Fill your day with things that make you happy and don’t harm others. More importantly: Don’t be a dick.
-Gretchen
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