Liberty

In today's modern society, it's easy to forget the princples that created this country, primarily Liberty. If you'll click on the Liberty link, you'll see a definition. What stands out to me is #2: freedom from unjust or undue governmental control.

The problem is, the more we ask government to help us, the more control they have. Basically, we asked the goverment to assume more control, the control is not undue. It may be unjust, but we still asked for it.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

I'm willing to bet most of you greatly agree with Mr. Franklin. I really like this quote:

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.

Carl Schurz (1829 - 1906)

Read my previous post. Sounds a bit like what I think Google is trying to do.

Freedom can be inconvenient:

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), to Archibald Stuart, 1791

Most of those were said in a different era. An era where tyranny was how most governments work.

I bet by now, you think I'm going to complain about Mr. Bush. I don't need to do that. He does a good enough job. I'm talking about something else. Something insidious.

Indentured Servitude

I'll not bore you with detail about indentured servitude. I'll let you click on the links provided to learn more. Basically, it boils down to; party A owes party B big bucks, but party A has no money, so he or she works for party B until the dept is paid.

Can anyone say Visa? Master Card? Mortgage? The United States of America has become a nation of Indentured Servants. We owe, so we work. Credit is 'party B'. We do jobs, and work with people we can't stand because we owe. We keep buying more stuff to stifle our tension and anxieties, even if just for a short time. We're willing to pay 25% more for an item we put on credit. Most of the time, it's actually way more than 25%. If you purchase a meal for $50 on your credit card, even if you're paying more than the minimum, it can take years to pay down the full amont of the meal. That meal can actually cost you about $350 in the long run.

We have become servants to the credit companies. The own our servitude for years to come. If you actually were able to add up how much money is taken out in credit, that much actual cash, paper money, doesn't exist. There is no way everyone could ever be able to pay off credit bills. There just isn't enough money in circulation.

We no longer have Liberty. Just ask the collection agency.

My hip is much better today. It's almost gone, as though it had a flu or a cold.

I went to class tonight. Wouldn't you know it- I studied the the wrong things, and even did the wrong quizzes. I even had to do a presentation. I'd read the schedule wrong, and wasnt' prepared for class at all, but I impressed myself by actually pulling it together. I even winged a presentation. Not too bad of one, I think. Even when I was nervous, tired, had to pee really bad, and was on a bad attitude day, I just kept thinking, "I can handle it." When I was in High School, I wish someone had told me that was all there was to confidence; I can handle it.

I took a few pics today, but most of them were in class, and I don't think it would be the best idea post them here. At least till after finals.

Back to politics, for a moment; I'll stand on Patrick Henry's words before I believe one or Mr. Bush's. Or Kerry's. Or Hillary's.