Freedom

I have had this bouncing around in my head now for a couple of days, but haven't had the time to put it down.
i posted the thought to Twitter(@jraypatten) and Facebook today.
"Freedom isn't free, or cheap or safe, but it is worth the price."

There has been a lot in the news lately about freedom. Part of it is inevitable, the country is in an election cycle.  A lot has revolved around the controversy over the mandate on contraceptive coverage.   The right is claiming a freedom of religion issue, and the left a women's health and "Freedom of choice" issue.  But I am not really ready to address that particular aspect.   Instead I want to take on a more basic look.

The issue I have been thinking of is this.   One multiple occasions I have listened on his show as he debates with someone who says that our treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo does not rise to the level of torture and even if it did it is justified given the stakes involved.

Here is the problem with that argument.  We can have a truly spirited and merited debate about whether or not the interrogation methods used are torture or not.  I do not know.
If they are, then they should NOT be used.
Sean's argument back is that If he were holding YOUR family captive or you KNEW your family would die if the information were not wrangled from him wouldn't you support doing anything, no matter what, to get that information out?

The answer for many of us is "Yes, of course."  But, that does not make it right.   Two wrongs do not equal a right.
Sean makes a good point about the constitution being for a limited government.
Why? Why does the constitution limit government?  Not because  the constitution grants us rights, but because those rights are ours as a condition of being Human.  We are endowed by our Creator, the Lord most High, with those rights and no Government, no person, and no entity outside of God himself has the right to forcefully infringe on those rights.
What this means is that we do not have the justification to use torture, or to indefinitely hold people or take other steps that go around the constitution and the rights that are spelled out within it.

This goes Doubly true for American citizens and the Patriot Act, the NDAA and other related laws unconstitutionally infringe on these rights.

the truth of the matter is that we can either have a Free society, or a apparently safe society.  But there is no true safety.  Reducing the danger from foreign terrorists, or even domestic ones, comes at a price. that price is making EVERYONE a suspect.   We must decide if we want a free society or a society where our own government has decided that its own population is the enemy.

Our freedom has a price, and that price is the fact that we may be hurt or killed for our freedom and in the exercise of it.  That is why the tree of liberty is watered by patriots.  It does not necessarily mean that we are  dying in a war to protect ourselves or defend ourselves, but that freedom carries a risk simply by exercising it.  I hope that my children learn this lesson.   I want to protect them, I want them to live long and full lives, but their lives cannot be full if they are wrapped up in plastic bubble-wrap. and locked away for their 'protection.'

Freedom is precious, and as with all precious things it is expensive.  We must be willing to pay the price.