Sing of Freedom With Every Breath

Freedom.

Our gift from the minds that dreamed America, is in danger of being forgotten.

Freedom, to me, is the right not to be oppressed, coerced, or punished for the things I believe, and to insure such rights, I also chose to submit to societal compacts and laws that promote the same right for others, and to act in such a manner as not to transgress anothers' right to safety and security, both in their person and their rightful property. Freedom also demands full acceptance of responsibility for my actions.

Today we are oppressed on all sides by idolaters, those who worship, as something sacred in and of itself, things other than God. Here are the idols we are surrounded with: 1.) The Bible, Torah, or Quran, whose more literalist believers have placed God in the box of being impotent to change any of the laws written down over the past 3000-1500 years, or giving new leadings appropriate to our lives today. If you doubt what I say just look up Joseph Smith, Bahaullah, or the lives of many levantine mystics who claimed that God was still speaking to us. Murder and exile were often the way the Scripturolotrists employed to silence such voices. 2.) Money, Debt, and Consumerism. This is the altar area of secular America. We were led to believe we were entitled to a lifestyle not in keeping with what we could afford, so the doors to credit were thrown open to distract us, while the corporate giants and banks accumulated unprecedented power. Now millions of people are saddled with debt (myself included) guaranteed to keep us chained to a system of economics that has itself reached the limits of catatrophic implosion. It is sad to watch thousands of middle class Americans out protesting the extension of free market economy into the health care insurance sectors. These people are holding the flashlights for the burglars, and Fox News daily passes out free batteries to them. 3.) Guns. I am surprized that many people don't genuflect when they see weapons. I overheard an older guy with some of his buddies talking about some of these things. He said "They can cut off my dick, but they better stay the hell away from my guns." This was met with murmurs of agreement, and a few ribald remarks,of course. WTF??? If that isn't idolotry, I'll kiss Glenn Beck's ass. 4.) Stupidity/ Anti-Intellectualism. I refer one to, Idiot America by Charles Pierce. In many areas of our social and political discourse, reason and logic are mocked, and held to open ridicule by 'Good Christian People'. I refer to the saddle on the dinosaur, and to my point #1.

These are just my insights into the major idols which oppress us through their infection of our daily lives, and which threaten to drive political descisions. Remember, there are many many people who feel that the existence of a day old human blastocyst to be more valuable than cures for diabetes, Alzheimer's, ALS, spinal cord injury, and the alleiviation of the suffering of millions of people. These believers will say that those so afflicted can just develop the patience that 'God has willed for them' ,because we dare not be so arrogant as to try to set limits on the amount of suffering God has 'decreed' for them, collectively and individually, in order to bring about some 'greater good'. Here is another huge idol; the self righteous judgement which sets a human being in the stead of God in deciding just what God's Will really is.

This begins my Manifesto of the Free.

Stay tuned.

Tim