The Privilege of Being Free | Teen Ink

The Privilege of Being Free

December 11, 2009
By fredrickn BRONZE, Turtle Lake, Wisconsin
fredrickn BRONZE, Turtle Lake, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If you have one leg in tomorrow, and the other in yesterday, you're peeing on today."


Freedom: the right to act according to ones will without being held up by the power of others. From a philosophical point of view, it can be defined as the capacity to determine your own choices. It can be defined negatively as an absence of subordination, servitude, and constraint. The definition is from Wikipedia.com.

Freedom. A word that Americans work for their whole life. What this country was founded on; motivation to some, a prayer to another. Easily taken; dire to gain, once lost. Many people live in America for freedom of speech, a free government, and a life of unpunished wrongs. A life-a delicate choice. That’s all freedom really is-a choice.

There is a song that has recently come out by Lynyrd Skynyerd titled “God and Guns.” The song states that their was a politician that was talking about taking our rights away as citizens to have guns, and also the right to talk about God in public places. The artist then goes on to say that the politician should know what he is talking about and that, God and Guns was what the American country was founded on. The statement not only seems semi-violent, but also has a deeper meaning than what meets the eye. The song is saying when the first pilgrims landed on American soil we only had thought of freedom and our God for spiritual protection. The guns part is what the founding fathers used to protect the families that were here and also a source to shoot food or game for warmth.
As Americans, you and I have the opportunity to speak freely in government, music, construction, and so many other issues that other citizens in other populated countries do not even get the chance to freely speak about it in public. As a freely spoken American, I believe that, we the people, need to realize that we all have so much freedom and we take this privilege for granted way too much.
Though the American government is starting to put certain restrictions on specific criteria in the American government, we the people still have so much granted freedom in every specific place. In order to be good citizens a Greek philosopher told people in Greece to question the government. In order to stay put and have a wider horizon of governmental power, we the people need to know what our government is doing and question the authority.


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