I’ve seen hints this year that there are a lot of Americans who don’t think much of their country this 4th of July. How easily we forget where we’ve been and where we could be. We’re not perfect, but then I don’t know who said we were. There are certainly cases where our freedoms are being infringed upon. How easily we lose sight of how much worse off we could be. Our journalists get blocked from covering an oil spill the way they think it should be covered and we scream “OMG! WTF are you doing?.” At least we live in a country where that’s more an exception than the norm. Not only can we attempt to cover the news, but we can cry foul when we’re not allowed to.
I do think our government has gotten far larger than our founding fathers ever intended it to be. The cause? I have no basis to say. I posit that it does have something to do with our attempts to legislate the stupidity and irresponsibility out of people. I hear a lot of hollering about “big government” meddling in things that should be left to the almighty “free market”. Guess what… “free market” has some serious shortcomings. It doesn’t care about the environment. It doesn’t care about safety. It doesn’t care about responsibility. Free market doesn’t impose safety measures on oil drilling (whether they’re followed or not). Why should it? It’s less expensive not to. I could go on. I’m sure my arguments have holes in them, but I think the idea that business can do its thing without government influence is a fallacy.
This year, we need to remember the depth of our freedoms. The freedom to keep/bear arms, which was recently re-affirmed. The freedom of speech, which allows me to write blog posts about most whatever I choose without fear of the men in suits and sunglasses coming for a visit. The freedom to go to my church on Sunday morning and listen to another member of my congregation tell us how he’s reconciled the death of his daughter with the prayers he sent for her healing. Stop and think about it.
