Liberty, Liberally August 2023

Liberty, Liberally

You Have Nothing To Worry About

February 27, 2017

I was walking with my eleven year old son to the video game store. We were in the slushy parking lot, sun in the sky, wearing unnecessary jackets.

He hopped over the raised concrete curb where there were decorative rocks and trees, jaunting just ahead of me.

His foot lands in some grit-filled, melting snow, and a splash of the grimy water splashed back, speckling my khaki pants.

I say his name in exclamation, while at the same time examining his clothes for the speckles of wet gray grit that I had yet to see on my own.

He turns and says, “I’m sorry!”

Then another voice, closer to my sons age than my own, says calmly, and with joy, “That’s what I have to look forward to!”

A young man, leaving the video game store with his young wife, and his first child in his arms. The young woman looked at her husband with hope, and he held the child with that newfound interest, more interesting than his games in hand.

I said, “That’s right,” laughing a little, trying to imitate his blissful tone.

I didn’t elaborate.

I didn’t tell them any more, letting them keep that hope in their hearts and on their faces. I kept to myself that the dirt on my own pant legs - which I casually noticed while walking on to the video game store - was the least of the trials that come with kids.

Just brushing the wet spots and speckles from my legs, we went into the game store. While my son searched for a new game to play, I considered all the challenges of children, and how it was all worth it.

I didn’t even worry about my pants. Should have told them...

“You have no thing to worry about.”

Liberty: Pass The Test, Pass The Torch

February 27, 2023

The most common argument against individual liberty is that human nature is selfish and cruel, and that it is unrealistic to think that human beings, if given liberty, will not abuse that liberty when it benefits them.

This is the argument that Marxists and other totalitarians make. In their reasoning, human beings should not be guaranteed any liberty , and the state should maintain total control over their lives. They view everything through this lens.

“The true test of liberty is the right to test it.”

Christopher Morley

Individual liberty is a test. By guaranteeing the individual liberty of everyone, we are conducting a test on humanity. Are we capable of kindness and compassion, when given the ability to choose otherwise? Or do we need a strong and powerful government ruling over us, so that we do not destroy each other in our pursuit of power and profit?

That is the test of liberty, are we capable of altruism, or do we see altruism as naïve?

All too often in my own life I’ve found that people who see altruism as naïveté are themselves untrustworthy and cruel people who cannot be trusted. This shouldn’t come as a shock, since these people tell you from the start that they do not believe that human beings are capable of being kind and compassionate to each other, and tend to describe the world as a dog eat dog scenario. This reduction to our animal nature, denies the existence of our spiritual capacity. It denies our soul. And it is our soul

that is inherently free, our free will that is unalienable from us, and that cannot be separated from us. It can only be infringed upon. This is the entire basis for the concept of individual liberty, that human beings, if given the opportunity to do so, will choose to do good more than they will choose evil. The totalitarian and the pessimist do not believe this to be possible on a grand scale.

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

So this experiment in individual liberty that we are engaged in is truly a test to see if human beings are capable of choosing right over wrong, kindness over power and control, or consistently caring for one another instead of exploiting one another.

I would submit that those who do not believe this are the ones who cannot be trusted. Those who do believe this, while still subject to animal nature, are capable of transcending it.

“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.”

— Lord Acton

It’s a self-fulfilling philosophy, either way. Those who doubt the intentions of everyone they meet will inevitably find scenarios to support that position, never knowing the lost potential of goodness that was never received, for fear of being exploited. Those who do believe that humanity can overcome their lower urges will certainly find what they are looking for, too. It’s this latter group that found liberty and founded our nation on constitutional guarantees.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“Liberty Leading The People” painted by Eugène Delacroix, 1830

Liberty, Liberally

Equality Under The Law

August 13, 2023

“Equal justice under the law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building, it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society.”

- Warren E. Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1969-1986

Individuality is the opposite of equality.

This nation was not founded on the idea of equality, but it’s opposite, individuality. To be an individual, separate and different. To be different is to be unequal because equal means same. It’s a relatively simple thing to understand.

However, the myth persists that this country is about equality. This is because of a simple phenomenon of language. The phrase “equality under the law” has been abbreviated in the common vernacular to simply “equality”, but that is only a functional abbreviation if the meaning is not commonly corrupted. If we call it equality, but we know that we mean equality under the law, specifically, and not equality in general, then we maintain the meaning. But if we call it equality, and forget what that means, we become confused in our communications.

"Equality under the law" is the fundamental principle that every individual, regardless of their status, gender, race, religion, or any other distinction, is subject to the same laws of justice within a given jurisdiction. The concept is rooted in various philosophical traditions and has been a cornerstone of free societies.

The idea can be traced back to ancient civilizations, including the Greeks and Romans. However, it gained prominence during the Enlightenment era. Thinkers like John Locke and Montesquieu emphasized the importance of equal treatment of individuals.

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

In many legal systems, the constitution

or founding documents emphasize this principle. For example, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Equality under the law means that the law should not discriminate against or favor any individual or group over another. This doesn't mean everyone is treated the same in every circumstance, but rather that people in the same situation are treated the same way by the legal system. This is an important distinction.

When we confuse equality in general with the founding principle of equality under the law, and we attempt to affect equality in general by way of law, we inevitably undermine equality under the law. The effort to make everyone equal is a fool’s errand. Individuals are different, equality is sameness. We can and should establish equality under the law, because that is justice. Not social justice, but justice itself. Forcing or coercing people to be equal destroys the individual, the minority of one. Each and every individual is a sacred, set-apart entity, with unique differences that deserve to be protected.

Equine, Bovine, Swine

By Joshua Fryfogle

May 22, 2015,

finished October 21, 2021

Desires of the heart

That where it all starts

The horse then the cart

So it follows

Cattle downtrodden

We want what we’ve gotten

The fruit that fell rotten

We will swallow

Yet often we scoff

At the fruit that fell off

The tree to the trough

We still wallow

The cows chew their cud

The pigs roll in mud

The horse sold to stud

It's all hollow

In youthful desire

Hermes, once a liar

Surrendered his lyre

To Apollo

You can respond to what you’ve read, or write what matters to you.

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”

— Frederick Douglass

Landscape with Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus 1645 by Claude Lorrain