The United States of America is based on individual liberty. Liberty is based on the golden rule. There is difference between freedom and liberty. Freedom is unlimited; liberty has limits. Those limits are based on sensible and perhaps even innate universal morality, that one not harm or hinder any other. Liberty is legislation of the golden rule, that one can do whatever one is interested in, as long as one does not harm or hinder another in the process. In the established philosophical work by John Stuart Mill entitled "On Liberty,' John Stuart Mill illustrates this Harm Principle and further elaborates that the only time one might engage in violence with any legitimacy is in self defense of oneself or another.
Freedom is undefined. If there were freedom and not liberty, one would be free to go against these innate leanings of fairness. The only true freedom we have in the United States of America is freedom of speech, the freedom to circulate information and opinion via all forms of media. One is free to present the most repulsive, offensive and ignorant thoughts imaginable without repercussion, for, accordingly, one is also free to present the most investigative, informed thoughts in defense of a minority of individuals as well. To have true freedom there has to be true freedom. There cannot be any limit in relation to who, what, where, when, why, how anything is said.
With the essence of liberty in mind concerning the current debate on healthcare reform, the United States of America is a sad state. We debate a fraction of the time, with a portion of the passion, on war in Iraq than we do for better healthcare for our countrymen. War includes spending billions of dollars on death and destruction. While healthcare reform includes spending a fraction of the money spent on war to limit insurance corporations from preventing care for individuals.
I am just as ignorant of specifics of war as I am of the healthcare plan. But I do know that sometimes in war good things happen and that sometimes in care bad things occur. I know that bad people take advantage of situations during war and during care. Institutions and individuals take advantage of people no matter. In war it is often shadowy institutions that take advantage, in healthcare it is often insurance corporations. This is not reason to prevent attempts at betterment; there have always been people who take advantage of the status quo. To prevent such infractions by bad people, things must be done when you see someone being hit or being prevented care.
How sad that some people in this United States of America have such diluted ideas of freedom and liberty that they will sign the freedom to war abroad on strangers and wil,l at the same time, give institutions freedom hinder people they know. Simply based on fiscal concerns, let alone the physical concerns of all us mortals, the cost of war is exponentially greater than the cost of healthcare reform or free healthcare. The cost of war in Iraq is approaching $1,000,000,000,000.
And so to that I hold the First Amendment dear and near and say in the most polite manne,r with the most detectable profane inference: To who it concerns, screw you for promoting war on foreign land and preventing medical care more accessible for a brother man.
2
