Freedom vs. Safety - 2nd Time Around...

From my other blog written last year but wanted to repost...

I was asked, not too long ago, "which would I rather have, Freedom or Safety?" At first, it seems like a difficult question. I mean, everybody wants to be free AND safe, right? Why do I have to choose between the two? Then I thought about it. The choice is not that hard at all. As a matter of fact, it's a lot easier of a question than we realize. If faced with the choice, I will pick freedom, 100%, hands down every time. Ask George Washington if he wanted to be free or safe, I'm sure he'll back me up on this. You see, freedom has never, ever been safe. As a matter of fact, to be free is to live in constant danger. Throughout history, humans have always tried to make others subservient and those who were subservient strived to be free. There will always be people out there trying to take away our freedom and we must always fight them.

So, if this question is so simple, why is there so much debate on the subject? Well, since the dawn of time, humanity strived for safety. It's something that is embedded into our very being. We need to be safe. That's why it takes a special person to risk their safety for someone else, put their lives on the line for an ideal or a purpose. When faced with the choice of being free or being safe, people are faced with choosing between something that we all strived for (safety) and something that is actually very foreign to mankind (freedom). You can't fight me on this, history is filled with civilizations that enslaved others. It is what we know, it was how we lived. Hell, even the bible listed rules regarding slavery (Leviticus 25:44-46) (Exodus 21:20-21) (Titus 2:9-10) and not one of them says to set them free. Freedom is a foreign concept to humanity. This is why we pick safety. This is why so many are okay with the loss of a few personal freedoms. They collectively scream "I WANT TO BE SAFE!"

I brought up George Washington earlier to make a point. He faced enemies that came from across an ocean to fight him. He also faced enemies that might have lived next door. There were a lot of colonists that didn't want freedom but wanted to be safe. They would rather be subjected to the rule of the King of England than rather control their own destinies. If it meant that they would be inconvenienced, they wanted no part of it. Why upset the status quo? England provided protection from the French and the Indians. They provided a way of life that made living for most colonists comfortable. They offered stability. The colonists were safe. Why upset that? Think about that the next time someone tells you that we must give up some of our personal freedoms to be safe. Think about how George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the rest of our founding fathers would have felt if they were asked to do the same. Sure, we live in more dangerous times and our enemies are many but to be American is to be free. We owe it to all those that came before us to fight for our freedom. To sit back and let our freedoms be taken away in the name of safety is the greatest of insults to those who have fought and died for those very freedoms that we willingly give away.