Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Is that so much to ask? Yes, as it turns out, it is a lot to ask for. Why? Because all people were, are and will forever be sinful. Before I came to see the world through the Christian lens, I did not like this concept. It's not that I "like it" now of course, it's just that I see it as a hypothesis that explains the whole of human history better than any other. People are bad. Some people are real bad and some people are hardly bad at all. But, all of us have the potential to be real bad. Given the right or extreme circumstances, we all are capable of terrible things. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein were human beings just like you and me. People that rape young girls and boys differ from us in no fundamental way. Are the "sick?" Sure they are. But we're all sick. But I digress. I'm taking the occasion of the holiday to write briefly on freedom. I've made comments here and there on the subject, but I want to take the time tonight to say it one more time. We define freedom with that great phrase we all know so well: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That's the definition I'm sticking with for now. Life; don't kill me or try to kill me. That's simple enough right? Liberty; don't stop me or try to stop me when I want to do something. Pursuit of Happiness; I should have the security to pursue any endeavors that I'd like without someone stopping me or trying to stop me. Now if our world were filled with mature and reasonable people, these three things would be good enough to run our Libertarian society. But, alas, our world is not filled with these kinds of people so we have (in our country anyway) a set of laws designed to make fair the problems and disagreements that will naturally occur. This set of laws can never stop bad people from doing bad things, it seeks only to fairly punish the bad guys and protect the good guys. So, although I do believe that Freedom is endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, I also believe that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. One of the chief responsibilities of a Government is to secure this Freedom. This security is not cheap. Every soldier who has ever sacrificed his or her life in this cause hope that their sacrifice will be "worth it." What do they mean by this? To bring Freedom to many others, it would be worth it. And if any of us thought that our own sacrifice would bring a lasting Freedom to many others, we would do the same. Let the dying soldier's prayer of "let me be the last one to die forever," be heard throughout the land and across the whole world. "Make my sacrifice be enough."

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