What Does Freedom Mean to You?????

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Alpha Dog, May 13, 2012.


  1. Alpha Dog

    Alpha Dog survival of the breed

    I just thought it would be interesting to see what others feel is freedom. Plus it helps us remember why we are proud to be Americans.


    Freedom to me is:
    The right to have my own belief's and live the life I choose.
    The right to raise my children the way I want, to teach them the morals I choose.
    The right to own and shoot firearms and teach my children the enjoyment to do the same.
    The right to agree or disagree with the majority, the right to my opinion and the ability to express it.
    The right to chew tobacco, drink a beer and eat what ever I choose.
    The right to go to work doing the job I choose and come home to my own land bought and paid for by me. The right to be left the hell alone and live the simple life I choose.
    The right to be a proud Southern country boy and not have to ansewer to or apologize to any one for who and what I am.
    The right to choose

    When we as people start to forget exactly why it is important and what it means to us that is when we truly begin to lose the gretest God given gift of them all. The Right To Be Free.
     
  2. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Freedom to me is.....being able to decide, on my own, what I want and then doing whatever I have to do to accomplish the goal

    Freedom is a mindset
     
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  3. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Freedom to me is to make the choices that are best for my family, without interuption by others, and to live the life we choose. We are one nation under God, and that nation is constituted with the right of our people to self determination. I am free and choose to live that way, regardless of government intervention in our way of life.
     
    Alpha Dog likes this.
  4. NotSoSneaky

    NotSoSneaky former supporter

    Freedom = No permits required, no taxes levied.

    Unrealistic ? Perhaps for some. It worked for hundreds of years.
     
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  5. sgt peppersass

    sgt peppersass Monkey+

    We are not free now but we are more free than others
     
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  6. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I wouldn't know what freedom is. In fact, there isn't a single human alive today who has experienced freedom on the level our forefathers arranged. Since 1933, these United States have been ruled by tyrants, and freedom got stuffed into the back seat to make room for complacency, security and consumerism.

    Europeans have more freedom today than the criminal public of the United States. If you don't believe me, travel there some time as I have and see for yourself. You can drive for days on the roads and never even see a cop. No speeding tickets issued along the road, no harassment, you aren't criminalized for everything you do.

    The people of America have been regulated by colorable law, with thousands of useless "laws" being passed yearly. The citizenry have become dependent upon a broken system which serves only to prey upon the weak and timid, making criminals out of an honest people and rewarding the real criminals (government). We have the largest prison population on earth...so much for freedom.

    Freedom to me is a dream, nothing more. I would like to experience what it is like, even for a moment before I die. Perhaps freedom is to be free from government.
     
  7. sgt peppersass

    sgt peppersass Monkey+

    Well said Broker. I do agree with Alpha about having your own plot of land to come home to after a day of work and cracking open a beer. Its unfortunate we have to pay someone quarterly taxes to keep living there even though we already paid for the land.

    And buying a car that we can chose what color, what model, when and where we are going to drive it. We cant chose how fast to drive it and we also still have to pay a yearly fee on something we already own.
     
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  8. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    As the song once said "Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose..."

    As we seem to enjoy paved roads, interstate highways, bridges, etc not all taxes are bad.
     
  9. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    You don't think "Toll booths" will take care of that? That is a direct use tax and doesn't take money from those that don't plan to drive on it.
     
  10. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    No, they won't. That is a user fee, as you know, and that would be considered as discriminating against those that can't afford to pay the tolls. Besides, often enough, toll roads are at least partially funded from public coffers. (Eminent domain, both federal and state, also figures into land acquisition for all such roadwork.)

    Worth noting, I suppose, is that toll roads usually parallel the older routes that were getting overused. Of course, those that can't afford to pay tolls could use them, but it would take longer, thus discriminatory from that angle as well.

    So. We get taxed to use "free" highways, and pay tolls as well. Even so, maintenance is piss poor.

    Sad situation.
     
  11. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    The ability to dance to any drummer I choose. [touchdown]
     
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  12. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    This questions has been jiggling around my mind since Alpha Dog first posted it. Freedom is relative to experience, expectation, and circumstances and we all paint "freedom" with a different brush and with different colors.

    A teenager's first taste of freedom are a set of car keys and a tank of gas. We all remember what that felt like and yet it was a freedom with boundaries. Nonetheless, we felt free.

    Then maybe we moved away from our parents home and for the first time, were responsible for our own decisions, our own successes and failures but even that usually had a safety net - parents who were there to help us recover from an overindulgence in this newly discovered freedom.

    When we became parents ourselves, we realized that never again in our lives would we be truly free, bound always by the abiding love for our children.

    We bought homes, we had jobs, we mowed our lawns and tended our friends and families. Freedom became little oases within our world, a place to rest and regroup.

    I think what Alpha Dog was referring to was in the broader sense, freedom from an intrusive government and that is a reasonable expectation and a noble goal but I doubt that the genie will ever be put back into the bottle.

    So what freedom can exist for us? I think, at least for me, it is the freedom of choice. It is when we have no choices, or limited choices, that we feel most dissatisfied with our circumstances, when we feel most trapped.

    My vote, therefore, has to go with freedom of choice and from that freedom comes all others that enrich our lives.
     
  13. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I am a middle-aged white man with money so I can do damned near anything I want within reason, long as it doesn't damage anyone else. If I rock the boat too much, then there are enough laws that I violate day to day to keep me in check, or even make me disappear.
     
  14. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I suspect I may violate more laws than you on any given day Sea and you know where I hide the bodies so I better stay on your good side
     
  15. fedorthedog

    fedorthedog Monkey+++

    None of us will ever know true freedom, a life with no rules. I would just like to not be told what I can and cant do on my land, what I have to pay for that I dont agree with. True freedom is anarchy, we can never have that. I just want limited rules and self responsibility.
     
  16. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    True, but then again, true freedom or "freedom to the fullest extent" is simply life without government. One could call this anarchy if they choose. I like the original blueprint which was forged by thoughts from Locke and others who cherished freedom and still understood what the value of hard work and constant vigilance could bring. Our Constitution and three branched government provides us with a remarkable way to limit the scope of governance; it isn't perfect, but a minimal government is the closest we may ever come to experiencing true freedom.
     
  17. Alpha Dog

    Alpha Dog survival of the breed

    You know my favorite is Cool Hand Luke and I think the biggest reason is no matter how hard they tried they couldnt break him and even though in the end it cost his life. He died to be free and never let them break him even knowing how much easier things would have been for him to comply. To become part of the system and follow the program, even when he knew they were going to kill him he stll would not break. It always makes me think about what others have went through to get us where we are now. Broker and several others have a point we have lost so much of our freedom over time and most people didn't know it until it had long past. RH is right we will never be able to put the genie back in the bottle. They can take everything away from us except our mimd which drives us with endless determination and desire to sacrifice all in the pursuit to be free men and wemon. When we as people lose that desire, deternination and the want to sacrifice all to be free, we have placed our self in the chains to be slaves. Even if freedom is a dream a thing of the past or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I will never give up my personal pursuit of it because a little peace of that dream or that gold is mine. Paid for with the blood of my family and all of yours, they faught and died to make sure it was there for us. So as long as God puts breath in my body and blood pumps through my veins Im going to fight for what freedom we have left and hope to regain some that we lost not just for me but my girls
     
  18. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    As we always say "Freedom isn't Free"
     
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  19. What Alpha said, word for word
     
    Alpha Dog likes this.
  20. Mechwolf

    Mechwolf Monkey+

    I miss the simple pleasure of being able to take a wiz on a tree in the woods and not fearing the police arresting me.
     
    Alpha Dog likes this.
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