The cost (or, rather more accurately, the costs) of freedom are, I believe, indeed worth the luxury. It is infuriating to think that people, Americans, at this very moment are happily spitting out hateful, vitriolic slime against the very values I hold most dear; against (this very ironically) the very nation that has given them the freedom to spout such hatred. It is unnerving to imagine that at some point during my life, my personal communications may be monitored by the government in the hopes of apprehending those that would threaten our national security. It is less than a pleasant notion to entertain that for the time between ages 18 and 26, I could potentially be uprooted from my current aspirations and asked to defend the nation I call home. All of these things are undoubtedly the negative aspects of living in a free, democratic society. But am I willing to let others spew their hatred, prejudice, and filth; to grant the government access to private information in the name of national security and the protection of my fellow citizens; to drop everything and serve my nation if I am chosen to do so in a crisis? Absolutely. I would not have it any other way. So what if I have to listen to brainless fools proclaim their stupidity in the public square? So what if the intimacy of one conversation is broken in the pursuit of my protection? So what if my plans are interrupted by a dire need for military service? In a country where any of these things could not happen, I could not exist happily. If malevolent miscreants whose sole purpose is to hurt others with their hatred cannot proclaim their twisted opinions, then what guarantees me that I could freely say anything myself? If national security is not given precedence over small personal freedoms then the lives of my family, my friends, and millions of innocents are put unnecessarily in harm’s way. A nation free of a conscription registration mandate is a nation unable to defend itself, and therefore not a nation for very long.

This is, for all practical purposes, a democracy in which we live. Things do not always work in practice, but still I believe that The United States of America is founded upon the most solid, logical, and robust political principles of any nation in existence. I am proud to call myself a citizen of this nation and I am more than happy to trade small personal freedoms in order to keep the freedom that we all enjoy intact. Is the cost of freedom worth it? Without a doubt.