Vince Deagler

remember the mel gibson moment at the end of braveheart where he yells out freedom???? that’s what i was going for, it is a very powerful scene. the reason is simple, freedom seems to be a hot topic now-a-days. for instance, during the “bush” years there was a steady drumbeat of “we are losing our freedoms”. this charge was usually connected to something like torturing prisoners in clandestine locations, wiretapping or warrentless searches under the patriot act, spying on american citizens without going through the fisa courts, racial profiling of people of middle eastern descent, etc. now i’m not a big bush supporter. i really liked how he started, but he failed to reform and even expanded the entitlement programs that are killing us financially, he got ground down by the anti-war crowd and media (my impression) so that somewhere along the way he started waging a politically correct war, and then you have the whole bail-out thing starting under his watch (he acted more like a king than a president limited by the constitution). these are just a few areas where i see him going astray. this is not a bush essay, so i will continue. since president obama has taken office, there has been a steady cackle of the same charge (we are losing our freedom) only for different reasons. the present administration, despite running on a platform that critisized the overspending of president bush, has taken spending to levels that are difficult to comprehend. reminds me of the old joke…how do you know when a politician is lying…their lips are moving. well all of this spending has to be paid for. now i know we have been told no one making less than $250,000 as a family or $200,000 as an individual will see a tax increase…in fact we were told 95% of all americans will see a tax decrease under president obama’s plan. (see joke above) first of all 95% of all americans don’t even pay taxes. secondly, by signing the expanded schip program into law he incresed the taxes on everyone despite their income level. thirdly, there is not enough money to only tax the “rich” and pay for everything. so what do we hear??? we are losing our freedom (when the government is able to re-distribute income as it is presently doing, those who are being taxed have lost their financial freedom and when the gov’t takes over private business as it has done with aig, fannie mae, freddie mac, gm, crysler, citigroup, bank of america, etc. to any degree, the free enterprise system is being lost). but it is not just taxes and gov’t take-overs. if you’re listening you will hear we are about to lose our freedom in the area of healthcare, and should a cap and trade program be established on the use of carbon energy, well, more freedom will be lost. i’ll leave it to you, to sort all this out, because what i really want to address is freedom itself. what does freedom actually mean, what is it in a real time-real world setting? for many people, the concept is simple. freedom is the ability to do anything i want. now, lets consider that. first of all it is unrealistic. imagine what something as simple as traffic would be like if freedom meant i can do anything i want. i could go on listing unrealistic scenarios, i’ll spare you. the point i am trying to make is, that understanding of freedom is unrealistic, it cannot work. secondly, there are many things that may start out as expressions of freedom, only to enslave the individual’s who pursue them. there are millions of people enslaved by a gambling addiction, a substance abuse problem, sexual addictions, debt due to an abuse of credit, eating disorders, over eating food addictions, relational problems, employment problems, a lack of education, generational poverty, sub-standard housing, neighborhood blight, health issues, etc. all of these things are a matter of choice, but when choice is exercised poorly, freedom is quickly lost and replaced by bondage. how can that be considered freedom? it can’t. so do we really understand freedom? sadly, many do not. freedom isn’t the absence of restraint, limitation, or boundaries. no, each of these things play an important role in a free soceity or individual life. i like to think of freedom as the ability to make healthy choices in our lives, the ability to do the next right thing, to pursue happiness. but that has to mean my freedom stops where yours begins. if that is not true, one of us will quickly lose our freedom. also, that kind of freedom has to require personal responsibility for the choices we make, or the whole system will crash. what i mean by that is if others are held responsible for my choices, they have lost their freedom. (unfortunately this is exactly what is happening all around us) and personally i feel this must include a moral authority (god) and absolutes (truth, as in scripture, functioning as a moral compass). (without these life quickly mutates into little more than selfishness) and selfishness can only take us into chaos or the bondage of self indulgence. the debates on freedom will continue as long as we have power to grap, political parties, and elections. i really can’t do much about that. but what i can do is take each day i am privilidged to live, and live it to the best of my abilities in pursuit of a life of true freedom. that kind of freedom respects the freedoms of those around them. that kind of freedom sees each day as a set of starting blocks, and runs the race as best as is humanly possible. it doesn’t sit around complaining about injustices whether real or perceived. kind of an …if life gives you lemons, make some lemonade…approach to life. victimhood is just another self-imposed form of bondage. but it also looks to god and his teaching for guidance. after all as creator he knows what we were created to do and be. is there any greater freedom than discovering what we were created to do and be and then doing and being it??? i think not. for me, the highest expression of freedom is being able to live a life that brings a smile to my creators face because if he is smiling its because i’m living as he created me to live. and that is real freedom. so you can have that whole “do your own thing” approach to life. that never has, and never will result in freedom. i’m going with…”the truth shall set you free”… life offered to everyone of us by god himself. if you want to know more about that kind of freedom, drop me a line. blessings, vince.