Freedom

I once read a really great short story--I wish I could remember the title or the author, I'm sorry I can't--in which freedom was defined by the ability to say, "I won't."

And it is how to define freedom, just watch:

Pilly, quit expressing your opinion on line.

"I Won't".

Pilly, stop criticizing your local government.

"I won't."

Pilly, stop expressing your opinion about Wal-mart.

"I won't."

And so on. This morning I found the link to this blog disabled. I don't know why it would be or who is responsible and maybe it's just a fluke. Probably it is. But it certainly made me think about freedom.

I love my country, I even admire the President very much, I have trusted him since the first moment I heard him speak, I think his wife is beautiful and intelligent and kind, I think his children are adorable, I even like his dog.

I'm not wildly confident of the integrity of the House and Senate, but we're all just human, and Washington Government is in a very public eye, so I don't worry too much about that.

State government is in less of a public eye, certainly not under global scrutiny like Washington, but under enough scrutiny that we can probably be sure nothing too radical will slip by us.

But local government, now.....well, this is a small and rural place, the eye we're in isn't all that public, the checks and balances might not be quite so visible here. But it's still America, isn't it?

And as an American, I know that my freedom matters every bit as much as that of the President of the United States, himself. I know the President would say so, and I know he would mean it when he did, because I have a feeling the little people matter an awful lot to Barack Hussein Obama.

Because we're the ones who needed him most, we're the ones who trust him, we're the ones who believe in him and we're the ones who just keep on voting for all the things he thinks are a good idea.

And as a black man in America, I bet he knows a lot of stories about small rural governments, little towns where power goes to the head of the people who believe themselves to hold all the power, and what can happen to someone that the neighbors perceive as less....worthy....than themselves of actual justice.

Which would be not the letter, but the spirit of the law.

And so, as an American I encourage you to remember the man who said, "...and when they came for me, there was no one left to say anything," as he was taken off to Auschwitz, because that was the moment he realized that if they do it to me today, they can do it to you tomorrow. And that just because you think you're exempt, maybe you'd better rethink that.

Because people who get a little heady with power sometimes go Too Far. That's why our government--large and small--was designed to HAVE checks and balances. Because our forefathers knew that when a dog goes mad, it's a good thing if you already have a man in place whose job it is to leash that dog and put a muzzle on it before it bites the wrong person in the ass.

Freedom is a wonderful thing. Wonderful. And if you ask me to stop talking about it, if you try to make me stop talking about it, well, I Won't.

God Bless America.