Not having been born in the land of our neighbours across the pond, I understand their culture and ideas only from the position of tourist, having family members who reside there, and as a viewer/reader/watcher of countless programs portraying the country, and its people.
My judgement about a certain statement, with seems to emanate from the lips of most citizens, is one of bewilderment.
“The Land of The Free” (and the Home of The Brave, whatever that means ):).
America over the last decade and more, has become the the very antithsis of this ideal. I don’t want to go back too far and delve into other areas relating to this, so I will keep it simple.
Since a certain ‘gentleman’ took office, it seems that this appointment started the country on the downward spiral towards the very issue i am talking about.
It seems there is not a day that goes by where people’s freedoms are being curtailed, or at the least, very restricted by either the politicians, or by their bully boys (our good old boys in blue)
There is a website which was brought to my attention about a year or so ago, in which the ‘servers amd protecters’ have now become the ‘curtailers and resticters’.
The rights of the civilian population are being eroded, but the main reasons for this, as I see it, are 1. Control(read ‘domination’) and 2. Money (read ‘extortion’). For a country which used the word’ Free’ as its call to arms, the increasingly intrustive actions of both of these institutions are negating the very meaning of the word.
Freedom is about the right to do things within the law, but also about not having to live under a mountain of legislation about the ‘smallest’ things. Not using an indicator/turn signal, is something many motorists do, but recently I have been watching simple stops such as these, not end with a simple warning (this is not an offence in my eyes), but with the occupants being dragged from their vehicles and beaten for simply ‘exercising’ their ‘freedoms’. The Land of the fee is a effect of this new found vigilance. Policing for profit seems to be the keywords in the society. Quotas are being assigned and must be adhered to or officers find themselves being cast out of the organisation.
It was always my belief that the government funded public services and those services are wholly the financial responsibility of the state, and whether they make a profit, is not the purpose of the services. They are there to serve the public. But it seems that checks and balances are now of paramount importance.
It seems that laws are created and when people follow the laws, they still get harrassed and arrested. I am not fond of guns per se, but they are a necessary evil. This leads me to question articles I have read about certain states where one is allowed to ‘open carry’, which to those who are not aware, is that you can walk down the street carrying and openly displaying an assult rifle or hand guns or whatever. But when confronted with citizens exercising their ‘constitutional rights’ the Police go into panic mode, try to seize said weapons and arrest the owner. There was a case I read about a year or so ago, about a man who had to wait 7-9 months to get his legal property (his guns) back, after he was arrested for open carry, even though it was proven that all was in order. Freedom. What Freedom?
