Posted on 04/21/2005 3:35:34 PM PDT by bookish_lass
Our Day in Liberty
Liberty is defined as, "Freedom from unjust or undue governmental control." When is government control undue or unjust? Perhaps when it is aimed at the innocent?
My 13 year old daughter, Kira has been studying the Revolutionary War. I want her to understand the reason the United States became so prosperous. I want her to understand what freedom means: that all men are created equal, that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, that no free man lives at the expense of another. Kira has been reading about revolutionary heroes Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin among others. I thought that visiting Philadelphia would be the perfect field trip to learn about liberty. I wound up wanting to weep or scream instead.
Upon arriving in Philadelphia, my husband, daughter and I were walking along the sidewalk when people with guns stopped us and demanded to know where we were going. I indicated Independence Hall...the birthplace of liberty in our country. They told me I couldn't just walk over there, I had to be searched and have the proper ticketing. It dawned on me that all the new fences weren't for construction, they were for keeping people out. Never mind that a real terrorist could drive a car bomb right up to the door of the place. So, having driven all the way from New Hampshire to Philadelphia to see this, we submitted to the search and jumped through the (free) ticketing hoops. While I was waiting to have my bag x-rayed, I snapped a couple pictures of the security goons, who immediately informed me I couldn't take pictures of their security.
Eventually, we were allowed inside to see the Liberty Bell and were greeted by a huge photo of the communist Nelson Mandela. The Liberty Bell itself turns out to be nice. You can even touch it. We're then "allowed" to walk across the street to Independence Hall. While waiting for our tour, I read the plaque that tells us the Independence Hall is a "World Heritage Site" which means control of it has been given over to the United Nations. We've placed our liberty in the hands of the United Nations. Lovely.
After the Independence Hall tour, we went next door we decided to see Ben Franklin's Philosophical Society. When a man demanded to search my bag again, I decided I had had enough liberty for one day and told him I no longer wanted to go inside. We went home.
Sadly, I had to tell Kira that freedom doesn't mean guys with guns telling you where you can go and searching you, when you're not even suspected of committing a crime. What I thought would be a real world example of what liberty is, turned out to be a pitiful reminder of what liberty is not. At least we weren't met with, "Your papers please." Yet.
--- Kat Dillon is a homeschool mom who moved to New Hampshire with the Free State Project (http://freestateproject.org) in June, 2004.
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