Freedom: it’s a word we all know and strive for. Whether it be a child who is trying to gain freedom from his or her mother on the first day of school, or a college student trying to become independent from their parents, attempting to become an adult all on his or her own. What about us as a whole, though? As humans? Do we really know what freedom is? Do we strive for it?
In primary all the way to high school and college, we have learned about how we as Americans won our freedom. From Lexington to Francis Scott Key, any 5th grader can tell you about how we used to be a part of Britain and now we are not. We are not taught though, what it feels like to have our freedom. Yes, we have the feeling that no one can take what is ours, and no one can keep us from pursuing our dreams. I know for me, freedom is not just being able to do what I love, but how I can do that. How I can go to the school I want to go to and pursue my degree, without anyone telling me otherwise. How if I don’t like the way something has been done, I have the option to come right out and say what I think without the fear of certain consequences.
Throughout the past few weeks, I have seen many debates about certain events. To tell you the truth, I could care less. I do not give a donkey’s behind about how someone can say how someone can live. What I do care about is the way people have been treating others for what they believe. Ever since the SCOTUS ruling, and everything else that has happened these past few weeks, my faith in humanity has weakened, while my faith in God has strengthened. It’s not because I believe what others believe, it’s because I thought to myself: “Is this freedom?”
The past few weeks, I have opened Facebook and saw something horrible, from one person to another. People have been posting about how they are feeling like they are being attacked, how they are in a hole now, or how they can’t handle this. The fact of the matter is, this is freedom; these people posting on Facebook have the right to post what they want, but they just take it a step to far. It hurts; why should anyone have faith in humanity when humanity talks about how they what freedom, yet they either don’t what to give it to certain people, or others don’t want to live somewhere because others have gotten that said freedom?
I am seeing more of hatred because of certain beliefs. We have freedom as Americans, but do we have freedom as humans? I remember seeing a picture of people hitting others and then the same picture of the reverse, now the people being hit, are the ones hitting. The caption was, “What the media is telling you is happening… What is actually happening.” I stared at the picture for a solid five minutes. I came to one conclusion: this picture is an accurate portrayal, but not by the way it is pictured, and not by the caption. It shows that everyone is hurting everyone. Everyone is up in arms because of one thing. So I go back to my question: Do we as humans have freedom? Can we stand up and say what we think, and not be looked at like we are the evil? As of right now, I don’t think we do.
If you are like me, you watch the news on a regular basis. You see everything that is happening in the world. You realize that there are people who don’t have freedoms that we do. I am not talking about our freedoms as Americans though. I am talking about our freedoms as humans. You may be thinking, what’s the difference? There is a federal document that says that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights! Yes, you are correct. I believe though, that us Americans have taken these and have taken them out of proportion. We have extracted our freedoms as humans and merged them in with the freedoms as Americans. As an American, we from America, this is a nationality. We are all human though. We all have skeletal, muscular, respiratory (you get the idea) systems. So why are we as humans judging other humans? I can understand not agreeing with another human, but judging them? Why are we trying to suppress another human’s freedoms (notice I didn’t say American)?
Let me leave you with this: we are human. We should have a goal for the state of humanity higher than the state of America. We as Americans should have the freedom to say or do what we want within the bylaws of our country (even though this raises more concerns). When it overlaps with the freedoms we have as Americans though? What would be the point of fighting? We are striving for freedom, but will we know what that freedom will feel like if we hurt another human being in the process?
For those of you who have stayed with me through all of this article, first I thank you. Let me say that I have tried to be unbiased the best I could, but sometimes as a human, my bias shows. Second, let me give you a challenge: next time you see a person, look at them through different eyes. Don’t see them as an American who doesn’t share what you hold. Don’t see them as an American who has different political beliefs than you. View them as a human, just view them as someone who you have a whole lot more in common with than just beliefs, or values, or traditions. See them as you would see yourself.
