Posted on 06/20/2002 5:30:04 PM PDT by vannrox
Defending our 'Freedoms' by Harry Browne May 23, 2002
We are told over and over again that the terrorists aren't upset with American foreign policy; it's our freedoms they can't stand. They want to destroy us because we're free.
Unfortunately, those who say this don't spell out the particular freedoms that the terrorists are upset about.
Is it our freedom to divert 47% of our national income to taxes collected by the federal, state, and local governments?
Is it the freedom of senior citizens to have life-and-death decisions on medical tests and treatments made by faceless Medicare bureaucrats — who have the power to imprison doctors or patients who defy their wishes?
Is it the freedom to have our retirement money hijacked by a Social Security system that squanders the money on boondoggles, so that our children and grandchildren have to be taxed in order for us to get our retirement money back?
Is it the freedom to pay higher and higher school taxes that impoverish us, so that we're forced to send our children to "free" government schools — where they can be indoctrinated as good little citizens of the state?
Is it the freedom to have the FDA keep life-saving medicines off the market for political reasons — so that critically ill patients have to travel to other countries to get what they need?
Is it the freedom to have our tax money spent on ridiculous anti-drug ads that drug-users (present and future) think are just plain silly?
Is it the freedom to have our tax money spent on invasions of Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries — to have American troops stationed in a hundred countries around the world — to have American bombers attacking Serbia, Libya, Bosnia, the Sudan, and countless other countries?
I really don't know what freedoms the super-patriots are talking about. What I Want
But before you bruise your dainty fingertips typing an email to tell me I should go live in Iran or some other Hell-hole, let me tell you what I really want.
I don't want to live in Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, East Timor, or anywhere else.
I want to live in the America that once existed as the beacon of liberty — providing light and hope and inspiration to the entire world — the one that politicians from William McKinley to George W. Bush have replaced with a giant bully that tyrannizes Americans and foreigners alike . . .
I want to live in the America where health care was inexpensive and easily accessible, where health insurance was easy to obtain and cheap, where there were charity hospitals and free clinics, where hospital stays were inexpensive — the America that existed before the politicians imposed Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO Act, and their yearly "improvements" on us.
I want to live in the America where government at all levels took just 8% of the national income, mainly because the federal government was bound down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution — where the federal government was so small that it could perform its constitutional functions on just the revenue collected from tariffs and excise taxes, with no income taxes at all.
I want to live in the America of Washington and Jefferson that promoted good will and honest commerce toward all countries, and hatred toward none — one in which the politicians don't blame their own failures on faceless foreigners.
I want to live in the America where people like George Bush, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Teddy Kennedy can't impose their ideas on you and me — where each American is free to work out his own destiny.
If such a country still existed, the terrorists wouldn't be invading America with box-cutters — in the futile hope of changing American foreign policy.
They'd be flooding the country with visa applications — trying to get in to enjoy the same freedoms we'd have.
I wonder if Harry would consider that icon of paleos everywhere, Thomas Jefferson, a bully for terrorizing those peaceable Barbary Pirates?
Harry, it seems our entire history is based on "bullying", as you put it. Most people, however, describe it as "defending our interests".
I'd like that too. But the question of why health care is so expensive may not be so easy to answer. Surely technology, malpractice suits, and the costs of ever more expensive operations have much to do with the high price of health care.
It appears that Browne engaged in some ethically-challenged actions during his 2000 (and possibly '96) presidential campaign. Damn shame to me, because I contributed 100's of dollars to those campaigns.
That said, he is so close to the political philosophy of the Founding Fathers that I'm amazed the feds haven't arrested or assasinated him by now. Maybe it's because they know that only a few percent of us value individual liberty these days, numbers low enough to marginalize, ridicule and, if necessary eliminate if we start making trouble for them.
Read Harry's 'Why Government Doesn't Work' if you get a chance, it's a great book.
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