In the land of the free
Americans are fond of saying they are in favor of freedom; that freedom is what makes America great. However, freedom is a slippery concept in practice.
Basically, social order depends on the surrender of freedoms. We are not free to shoot someone we don’t like; we’re not free to yell “fire” in a crowded theater (unless there’s a fire). I suppose nearly all of us would support those limits to freedom.
However, here are a few “freedoms” being hotly contested in America today: Refusing to get a covid vaccine; getting an abortion; refusing to wear an anti-covid mask in public; marrying someone of the same gender.
I suppose all of us would support personally having all these “freedoms,” knowing we would never exercise some of them. But granting those freedoms to other people is another matter altogether. I imagine each of us would approve some and disapprove others. Ironically, when someone demands that the government “keep their hands off my body,” we don’t know if they are referring to anti-covid masks or reproductive choice. I suspect that few of us would support both of those demands.
Our choices as to the give and take of freedoms may result from a careful, thoughtful examination of the issues, but the friends and groups we identify with are probably a bigger influence. And personal experiences may play a powerful role at times. When the child of anti-gay parents comes out, for example, the parents sometimes change their opinions rather than disowning their child.
Freedom is inevitably a political matter, since freedoms are granted or surrendered in the form of laws. But let’s tell the truth: The United States of America is not all that “united” regarding which freedoms should be granted or surrendered. However, our diversity of views is not necessarily a bad thing. Otherwise we would still have slavery and women would not be allowed to vote. Martin Luther King Jr. said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Of course, we would not all agree on what constitutes “justice.”
At least we are free to disagree.
EARL BABBIE Hot Springs Village