[betty boop]

...political structures which cause people to bottle up that yearning cannot endure - whether China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran...

Oh i so agree, A-G! It does seem that life is entertwined with the desire to be free. Here I mean not "freedom from," but "freedom for."

xzins' most excellent question is well worth pondering:

"If it is lessened by the lack of freedom, then what is the "it" that is being lessened?"

Thank you so much for your beautiful remarks, to you both!

[Alamo-Girl]

I just finished watching President Bush give the most outstanding speech I've heard in years - and all of it, and the agenda for this country, centered on freedom. Y'all must have been on the very same wavelength.

Like the will to live, the want to live - the desire to be free lies at the root of our being and therein is the power to reshape the world.