Posted on 11/07/2017 8:12:06 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
As a young person, my first encounter with the word LIBERTY came from the verse “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty”. Naturally inquisitive, I wondered, “So then, what is LIBERTY?” because “wherever the Spirit of the Lord is” there IT is…right?
Another encounter I had with this word came from the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…that we are endowed by our creator with Life, LIBERTY, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” At the time, I thought to myself, “it’s easy to know what Life and Pursuit of Happiness are, but again, what is LIBERTY?”
In an 1819 letter, Thomas Jefferson was asked to define Liberty. He said “[Liberty] is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful Liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.”
He seemingly links his definition of liberty with the modern definition of unobstructed and confined freedom. I am not sure I agree with Jefferson, that Liberty or Rightful Liberty is as he defines it. As a matter of fact, I believe, on his journey to discover Liberty, he was actually defining Freedom, not Liberty.
Think of it, we all want to be left alone, to have our unobstructed freedom to worship (or in some states, smoke pot if we please). Yet, we also realize that we must draw limits around that freedom because we, unfortunately, do not live alone on Tom Hank’s castaway island.
We are all born into a nonstop, lifelong, tug-of-war between unobstructed and confined freedom.
My baby girl, Eliza, loves her unobstructed freedom to be naked. But unfortunately, mom and dad must confine her to that pesky diaper! Mom and Dad want their unobstructed freedom to study State constitutions and save the...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
An excellent review of many good thoughts on Liberty.
Liberty comes from God - freedom from government. It is a shame, but we have been using the word freedom in place of the word liberty since the Civil War “freed” the slaves.
Our county was founded on Liberty!
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