(This cartoon is by Ben Garrison at bengarrison.com.)The United States is supposed to be a free country -- a country where each citizen has the same rights and privileges, and can make their own choices about how they wish to live their lives. Unfortunately, there are many in this country who seem to have a different definition of freedom. For them, freedom means having the right to force their fellow citizens to live as they want them to live -- and these people populate both the right and left political wings.
On the right, these people would like to force other Americans to accept their religion through force of law (and would even force their religion on children through the public school system).They would keep women as second-class citizens, and deny them the right to control their own bodies. And they would deny equal rights to minorities, immigrants, and homosexuals -- because they believe equal rights are only for those who look like and agree with them. They would also fine or jail others for using marijuana -- the safest drug known to man. But forcing another to accept your beliefs or denying them rights is not freedom -- it is tyranny.
It is easy for those of us on the left to see that kind of tyranny. By there is also a form of tyranny that exists on the left side of the political spectrum. There are those who want to outlaw cigarettes, carbonated sodas, fried foods and fast foods, and firearms. And they would join many on the right in outlawing pornography. But denying citizens the right to choose is not freedom -- it is tyranny.
Oddly enough, those on the right and the left use the same argument to try and impose their views on others. Both sides will tell you it is for your own good, and the good of all citizens. That may or may not be true, but it doesn't matter because it has no place in a free and democratic society (even if it is the will of the majority).
We need to make up our minds in this country -- do we want to live in a free and open society, or a society where we are forced to do things because others think it is for our own good? Freedom means people have the right to make their own choices and live their lives as they please, even if those choices are bad and their lifestyle is one that hurts them. That is the very essence of a free society -- to be able to make our own choices, even bad choices. Denying any citizen the right to make a choice (good or bad) is a denial of freedom. It is tyranny.
I am not a moderate, but a proud leftist. But that doesn't mean I will accept tyranny from the left anymore than I would accept it from the right. I believe in democracy, and in a free and open society. Don't you? Isn't it time we stood up to tyranny from both sides of the political spectrum?
