This is why you are a conservative and vote against freedom even though you think the opposite. Consider how 911 restricted our freedoms? Have you traveled outside the US lately, very much a hassle. Don't get me wrong it is necessary but hardly freedom in the sense you define it. And just for jollies try traveling to someplace your so called democratic society deems bad - good luck. Let us know how freedom works for you.
But the point is - re-write:
A child is born of privilege, she has everything including tutors and superior medical care. Her every need is met. She succeeds in life and travels everywhere. Another child, this girl is born into a home where both parents are forced to work long hours. They work in non-union businesses with no benefits, this child gets no medical treatment and tutors are out of the question. The local library which offered her an opportunity to learn is closing (this is happening in Philly right now), her public school is underfunded and poorly maintained. But each lives under the same constitution and each believes in the postulates of that constitution. Are they both free, remember they are children.
Midcan, you are a moron studying to be an idiot.
Why is it every time someone disagrees with the extremism of socialism/marxism (which is VERY apparent where these morality plays come from) they must be conservatives that agree with the utter BS that the current government used 9/11/01 to justify? Violation of the Constitution - no matter WHAT the justification, is an encroachment on personal liberty. Any legislation that increases government authority is an encroachment on liberty. I don't care WHO proposes it or why, if it encroaches on liberty, I am opposed.
As to the “revised” version of your idiot morality plays, how about a third character - which happens to be a TRUE character, specifically a man I know quite well. He grew up in a two room shack (that's two rooms total, not two bedrooms) in a family of 6, including the grandmother. Diet was wild game (poached because they could not afford the price of a hunting license), vegetables from a garden raised on squatted land, and grain gleaned from what the harvesters missed in a nearby wheat field, and what they could get from trading labor and home-made leather goods.
The school had two classrooms, 1-6 (no kindergarten) and 7-12. Very seldom were there enough texts to go around, so they were shared. The high school "science" class was limited to 5 Skilcraft chemistry sets donated by a local rancher. There was no public library within 50 miles. Health care? Forget it.
The man, as a child, worked hard at school from the day he entered, and worked hard at home from the time he was old enough to swing basic chores. They all worked hard, even the grandmother. When he was old enough he hitched rides from school to a cafe/rest stop 30 miles away to work as a gas station attendant. He earned a minimal scholarship to the state university and worked his ass off paying for the rest. He graduated with top honors in nursing and added a masters on top of that, again with top honors. He is now married, has 4 children (all grown and married themselves, plus giving him three grandkids) and has good career as a pediatric nurse instructor. Needless to say, he can travel when and where he wants. (Not that that defines freedom, but it’s to illustrate a point.)
He is my younger brother, and I could not be more proud of him.
I, myself, left behind the conditions of poverty by making a career of the United States Marine Corps.
So don't give me a line of shit about different conditions growing up defining levels of freedom. I lived through far worse than most. I also know a hell of a lot more about how that affects liberty than most. In short, it did not. Poverty has no effect on liberty. But depending on government for assistance from poverty - THAT affects liberty.
We were a free, proud people, while most others we knew were living on the reservation and were a broken, despondent people dependent on government handouts. The reservation families often had more material things than we did because we refused to accept reservation life. But for freedom, we had more of that. There is far more to freedom than the availability of material goods - in fact materialism does not even enter the picture of genuine liberty. Anyone who equates freedom, in part or in whole, to material wealth is a moron. Freedom is quite simply the ability to make one’s own decisions, which in turn includes independence from a government that fucks you up the ass while telling you how good you have it with their "help".
