Today I’ve been thinking about freedom.
It’s simple really.
People should be free to make their own choice about their personal beliefs, their bodies, who they choose to spend their lives with, what they want to say, and how to raise their children.
No, I’m not saying that murderers and child abusers should have the freedom to do anything they want. What I’m saying is that when people are not harming others, they should be allowed to be free agents and make their own decisions.
Now some would like to suggest that what I do with my body is their business or somehow affects their well being, or could potentially “harm others,” but really for the majority of the time this is absolutely not true.
At some level we are all at risk just by walking out the front door. There’s a myriad of ways that we could be harmed out there in the world.
When people start dictating our every move, we might as well just stay home.
Some people might think that we should only be allowed to say something as long as it isn’t offensive or against the mainstream way of thinking.
Well, this isn’t freedom either.
We have to be willing to stand up for the freedoms of even those we don’t agree with because who’s to say that one day they won’t have the authority to silence us if they get the opportunity.
For the most part, most things that other people do really isn’t any of my business unless they make it so. I want to be left alone to make my decisions and I want to leave others to make theirs.
It takes a great deal of strength to stand up for an unpopular view that goes against the mainstream. There aren’t many people who have that kind of strength, but these are the only people that have ever really radically changed the world.
If we can’t stand up for the unpopular idea or opinion, we must at least stand up for those who will.
Freedom doesn’t necessarily require brute force. Sometimes it just requires a strong voice.
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