Freedom

You know, we are endowed BY OUR CREATOR with certain inalienable rights; namely life, liberty, and property. Now it is certainly acceptable to have a government as a condition of being human, but governments definetly do not GRANT anyone freedom. Inherent in the very nature of any government is that they LIMIT some freedoms. Right off the top of my head, one of those would be the freedom to destroy your neighbor's property. This includes everything from vandalizing a car... to murder (because, of course, your body is your property). When law enforcement stops a crime from happening (which is almost never) or punishes someone for an offense like this, it is enforcing it's policing power. It is one of the main purposes a government has and things would be pretty chaotic if this didn't exist.



What this amounts to is that a person has all the freedom they want, right up until the point that they begin to infringe on somebody else's. This is a fine place to draw the line.



But what if a government decided (after many studies, and careful deliberation between the smartest minds available -- of course) that it had to protect you from...........yourself? You know, it's a dangerous world out there and there are lots of bad people willing to break the law in order to take advantage of you in some way. How could anyone be capable of working their way through the minefield that is everyday life without the assistance of some well-meaning people to hold their hands, or even clear the "mines" for them?



The answer is that making/finding/struggling for your own way through life is part of THE MEANING OF LIFE. We're not meant to go through life, staying quiet and still for as many years as possible until we die. To get the most out of it, you have to get in there and mix it up, get dirty, maybe get some bumps and bruises and break a sweat. That's figuratively and, if you want, literally too.