Freedom. The soldiers are protecting our freedom. That’s what I hear on the news.
Protecting our freedom. Protecting it from what?
The only people that can take away our freedom are the ones that control it.
You cannot protect something that you do not have
so it stands to reason that you can’t take something that is already yours.
Nobody is threatening my freedom but the ones that control the soldiers.

You don’t see the rich sons and daughters of corporate executives and state representatives
on the front lines.
You see the lower class,
the immigrants and the ones that pay the fines,
shooting and fighting and dying en masse
and to protect the homeland industry they struggle within.
Then they come home with a complex mental issue, and a new vocabulary,
snap at their kids and maybe whack their wife a few times,
and wind up on the streets of a country, not the one that enlisted them,
but the one that lied to them.
Our freedom isn’t what’s at stake here.
When 911 happened, we “had to give up some freedoms” but who took that away?
It wasn’t the men in the planes, and it wasn’t the man with the beard who lived in the caves.
It wasn’t anyone on America’s most wanted list.
No, it was the men that sit in leather seats and make the hard decisions,
and that’s why we pay them the big bucks they cash in.
It was an indirect result, it was a thinly veiled insult.
It wasn’t like our freedom was some set of crown jewels the jihadists snuck in under cover of dark
and made off with in a big burlap sack, snickering behind their balaclavas.
Protecting our freedom? Protecting it from what?
Nobody is attacking our freedom, they’re attacking our homes and our bodies.
The freedom came later, and it didn’t come in the shape of a terrorist attack.
It came from home, in the shape of a bill that was constitutionally passed through.
Can someone explain to me how this became the catchphrase of the red, white, and blue?
Freedom is not a slogan or the ability to bomb the communists,
its laughter when you see a politicians clenched fists.
Freedom is not an excuse, and it’s not a justification.
It’s the opportunity to be the better person, or at least be the best
person the world allows you to be.
You think freedom comes from a government?

You were born free.
You are free.

You’re free to do anything at all, as long as you’re prepared to accept the consequences.
What kind of country are you running here, Mr. President? You can’t seem to go more than a month without facepalming when you hear about the latest shooting or mass homicide.
Wow. That must be quite a blow to your ego and your pride.
How does it make you feel? Are you proud to be the leader of the most psychotic country in the world?
I think you had better take away our violent video games,
and censor our literature, and make everybody Christian,
and ban metal music, clearly, in these things dwell the problems
that are corrupting the mid of our youth.

No, it’s got nothing to do with poverty or health care, what makes you say that?
And wrong again, you’re wife’s publicity campaigns disguised as goodwill
don’t make children any less fat.
You can stop right there, I really don’t think that it’s fair
that you should have to see all the normal day to day things the rest of us go through.

You take us for granted now, but what will you do when we are gone?
You’re proud of your bank account, I’m proud of the callouses on my hands.
I want to stay with my family. You want to send me off to Afghanistan.
You know what we’re free to do? We’re free to build a better life, a simpler life without you.

America is just a ruling body, with a birth and a death, freedom is something man has always had, it was here before America, and it will be here long after America is gone.
You have always been free. You’re free to do anything, anything at all, to make this life anything you want it to be, as long as you’re prepared to live with the consequences.
Are you willing to burn your resume, cancel your 401k,
drive your car off a bridge and quit your job, this very day?
Of course not. You don’t want freedom,
you want a watered down version that’s diluted with safety.

But break it down to its basic components. What is Freedom, what is it?
Something to believe in.
A idea to hide behind, a symbol to instill a sense of pride,
an idea to keep our lies in line,
the create a common state of mind
because loyalty is safe and questions are dangerous,
and “good” and “evil” are simple and easily defined.

“Those in power will never give it up willingly.”
“Those in power will fight to retain it.”
“Those that seek power are the least qualified to wield it.”
“Countries are just lines drawn in the sand with a stick.”
“We pay your bills, we wash your clothes, we drive your buses, we are the daily, unseen, unappreciated, taken for granted people upon whose backs you have built your life of comfort and privilege.”
“We take out your trash, we fight your wars, show some respect.”

Everyone’s got a phrase and I can say it a million different ways,
but it boils down to the same basic idea, that there is no “us” and “them”,
there’s only compassion and there is violence, there is sadness and there is kindness.
There are those who accept the way the world works,
and there are those who do not, speak too loudly, and are shot.

Patriotism is just nationalism in a small enough dose in your bloodstream that you can pass the breathalyzer test at the poll booth every four years.
Its nationalism wrapped up all pretty with bows that you give to your right wing father in law for Christmas so you can keep your marriage happy.
it’s a prescription pill you take every day, drinking the Kool-Aid to keep those doubts at bay.
And nationalism, in turn, is just another way to separate people, just like race and gender and income level and sexual orientation.
Nationalism is just one more brick wall, that’s all it is, it’s nothing more than that, I promise. Patriotism doesn’t make you any more or less eligible for freedom. It’s not a magazine subscription.
You’re free, just remember that, freedom is your momentum and your government isn’t fuel, its friction.