The Death of Freedom

Evidence that freedom in America may be on its deathbed:


Tuesday June 8th, 2010

Washington Post journalist Helen Thomas was forced to resign after voicing “anti-Israel” comments. Basically, she said Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine”. I’m not saying I agree with her views, but I respect her for saying something she believes in (instead of being journalistically neutral, which, I feel, is death, even Un-American). Thomas shouldn’t be forced to resign from her job for having an unpopular opinion. Think about it: she lost her job because she was being FREE.


Thursday June 17th, 2010

Congressmen grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward today in a congressional hearing, basically pinning all the blame on him for the big mess in the Gulf. A brave Republican from Texas named Joe Barton went against his fellow congressmen and boldly apologized to Hayward for the Obama administration's “20 billion shakedown”. He quickly retracted the apology, however, when his party leaders rebuked him for his words. I guess sticking up for BP was too conservative a stance, even for the Republicans. So much for free speech in Washington, the Capitol of a country that was built around the belief in free speech.


Wednesday June 23, 2010

General Stanley McChrystal was fired from his position as top Afghanistan commander after "mocking" Obama and the President’s senior officials in a Rolling Stone Article (he called Obama a “wounded animal” and National Security Adviser James Jones a "clown", among other things). McChrystal was initially forced to apologize for the comments, but was ultimately asked to step down by Obama. Maybe his comments were immature and maybe the war will be better handled without him, but are McChrystal's blunt opinions really grounds for termination? Apparently freedom of speech is tolerated in America so long as it doesn't undermine those who are in power.

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If people can't handle freedom (as the above examples indicate), then maybe it’s time we reevaluate our nation’s basic principles. Do we really want to be free? Or is the reality of freedom too ugly to handle?

We’ve spent the last decade hunting down people like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, who are so-called “enemies of freedom”. We’ve “liberated” places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and would like to do the same in places like Iran and North Korea. But what values are we really bringing to these countries? Isn't it a little hypocritical to be “liberating” these places when we can't seem to handle freedom ourselves?