It's Just a Minor Difference In How You Define It
by
Harry Browne
by Harry Browne
"Freedom
is etched in everybody's soul" – the kind of sentiment
he's uttered over and over in the past year or two. But you have
to wonder what he means by it.
I think that, to him, the word freedom means, among other
things:
-
The ability
to go anywhere you want in the world – all expenses paid
– with an enormous security guard, worth tens of millions
of dollars per year;
-
The opportunity
to speak before cheering crowds that include not a single dissenter;
and
-
The resources
to send troops into a foreign country, devastate it, and then
declare it liberated.
Unfortunately, for the rest of us peons the "freedom"
George Bush is proclaiming includes much more mundane things, such
as:
-
Paying
federal, state, and local income taxes, Social Security taxes,
sales taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, and import taxes
that add up to almost
half of what you earn;
-
Standing
in long security lines at airports, being forced to remove your
jacket and shoes, submitting to searches that are made without
any warrant or probable cause, in violation of the
4th amendment to the Constitution;
-
Knowing that your email
might be filtered and monitored – without a warrant or
probable cause;
-
Knowing
that your bank accounts and other personal affairs are subject
to inspection by U.S. Treasury agents – without a warrant
or probable cause;
-
Knowing that a mistaken
identification could cause you to be arrested but never charged
with a specific crime, put into prison, denied access to an
attorney, and even denied the ability to tell your family where
you are – in violation of the 5th
and 6th amendments to the Constitution;
-
Being forced
to testify against yourself by revealing all your income and
expense information to the IRS – in violation of the 5th
amendment.
No wonder George Bush smirks and we cringe.
May
10, 2005
Harry Browne [send
him mail], the author of Why
Government Doesn't Work
and many other books, was the Libertarian presidential candidate
in 1996 and 2000. See his website.
Copyright
© 2005 Harry Browne
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