What is the price of freedom?

the following link is a reading of our constitution...http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html%20action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=128242656&m=128260011 (thanks Keith for this link!)

     Our leaders need to listen to this reading. Our political system really needs to change. Or more correctly it needs to remember the roots of our freedom quest. The tyranny of the King is nothing compared to the tyranny of the abject bastardization of the paradigm set forth in this document. The tyranny of the Moneygod. It needs to think about the greater good not just the one issue mentality of the typical voter. It is time to stop sniping at the other guy and placing blame.

(picture drawn by my daughter "the flag in sidewalk chalk" 

     If it were so simple, it would not be such a mess. Money and power have infected and corrupted a great ideal. It is not too late to make things right. The sides divided need to work together to accomplish this task! Our founding fathers would be appalled at the liberty we have taken with the interpretations of the system they devised. I listened to this link and heard nothing about the place of lobbyists and special interest groups being part of the political concept they laid out. They have twisted the ideal of freedom into a freak show of whining and sniveling rich spoiled brats… *Bruce Johnson for President 2012*

        I was walking thru the local Grocery store recently and was looking at all the food and consumables. All the choices! The freedom to buy with abandon, because it is so plentiful! What do I want to grill for the fourth? I wandered aimlessly and end up with nothing…

    There is always tomorrow to decide. At least we all think there will be a tomorrow. But what if there is not? What if we are so ambivalent and apathy so great that we allow our all our freedoms to disappear?

     We all wear a seatbelt or should wear a seatbelt, but why should it be a legal issue? Did the passing of this law really lower our insurance cost across the board like it was purported? *I think not* When we allow others to make decisions for us, we are surrendering our freedoms.

     Good or bad, this law is in affect and now is used as a REASON for selective enforcement zones. It was never sold to us on that pretense. It is a safety issue, first and foremost, now it is a money generator and a step on the slippery slope of BigBrotherism. Hopefully, we will learn form this…

     There is a price for freedom. There is a cost for the pursuit of happiness. There is a mortgage on our future and it crosses the lines of right and left. It affects us all particularly if we do nothing. Sometimes our society forgets that the laws of physics apply to every aspect of our existence. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And an object at rest will remain at rest.

     The void left by doing nothing is easily filled by those that whish to impose their beliefs and morality or immorality upon the motionless majority that believes it will all be ok, even if they stand idly by and allow others to think and act for us. An object in motion wants to stay in motion. I know I am guilty as charged, at times.

     Freedom is the choice to live and make rational *sometimes totally irrational WTF were they thinking* choices that affect us all. It is the right to chose to be left or right on the political spectrum. I am not condoning either side. we all know where I stand I am condoning the right to chose, support and voice our opinions. This freedom does not come cheap. The price is heavy and the load is born by all of us as citizens of this great country.

     You may not want a gun in your house. You may not be pro guns. I am not a gun toting guy, but I do not want the only people that have guns to be the police, the crazies, and the criminals. But there is more to this than a few hand guns. There are killing machines that can kill you fifty times in one clip. There only purpose is to kill in quantity. I have a problem with those kinds of guns.

     That is a choice. Allow freedom and pay the price with needless deaths, or deny freedom and pay the price with the possibility of psuedogestapoism. But the price is steep. The price of freedom of choice,  often an emotional response to the intellectual question muddy the waters and blur the lines. As our society becomes more fearful of difference, we seem to invent bigger, badder, and better ways to kill those that may not agree with OUR ideas of what freedoms are.

     For as long as I can remember we have had the paradigm of *This is America and I am American mentality of the 70’s the luxury of cheap fossil fuels.* While the rest of the world uses less that we do and pays more we still get a volume discount. And I think we take it for granted. Because we want to drive a gas guzzling SUV at any time we please we all pay a price for this freedom. There is plenty of blame to go around. We can all take a slice of the BlamePie. (Except for Cookie, he gets a pass; he walks or rides a bike more than anyone I know, and drives gas sipping vehicles…he is almost a tree hugger not that there is anything wrong with that…)

     Crank the air! The temperature is approaching 90 or so! Live in comfort! Freedom allows us to make this choice. The cause and affect is a motherf-er. It leads to many issues that affect us all. Contribute to escalating green house gases and depleting the ozone or endure the sweltering heat and discomfiture. We are free to chose, but it is not free. And the cost is global.

     Although I may ruffle a few feathers, the situation that is henceforth to be called the BP Debacle or BPD, is not just the fault of the oil magnates. It belongs, in some small way, to each of us that have driven when we could have walked, had the air on when we could have had a window open, warmed the car up for longer than needed and any number of FF wasting things we all do sometimes without thinking of the cost.

     This does not EXCUSE the idiots in charge! This does not condone the malfeasance that ensued. This does not forgive the horrific events that will continue to haunt the people of the gulf and our society for YEARS! And cost us billions.

     Those of you that never complained about $4.00 plus gas prices may be excused. But I really doubt you can be honest that you did not utter at least one or two WTF is up with this gas prices during this period of recent history. I just stopped looking at the price per gallon, and just looked at the total dollars, paid and went on my merry way. I chose to ignore it. I did nothing. That is a price I paid. I paid with apathy.

     Magically, the price came back to a MORE REASONABLE level. One price we all pay for this is increased localized production and the inherent risk of drilling off our shores. This does not excuse the complete absurdity of the situation, and the lack of any plan “B” by the BPD. It will never happen just is not good enough.

     As a side bar, I have a penchant for bungee cords and ratchet straps. I make sure everything is tied, bungeed and ratcheted to the extreme, and it can be frustrating if you are going on a trip with me, because I have the plan “b” and plan “c” all the way to plan ‘z’ of bungees and straps.

     However, I did not always think that way; I had to have about 15 sheets of plywood fly out of the back of the truck to learn that securing is a much better idea than taking your chances. It was only plywood, and no one got hurt or died, it was not an ecological disaster, but I learned my lesson. It is minuscule compared to the BPD, but this is not the first time the oil companies have had leaks, groundings or disasters. They force us to pay for the freedom to be apathetic to the environment while catering to the moneygod.

     WTF were they thinking. I’ll tell you what they were thinking. They weren’t. THEY WEREN”T!!! Well, at least not about the possibility of the disaster, they WERE thinking about the PROFITABLITY and the RESPONSIBILITY to the shareholders. Well, that price is one we will pay for YEARS. Ask Alaska about the Exxon Valdez. But, the oil companies were making BILIONS IN PROFIT PER QUARTER! Not per year, not per decade, but every three months. *12/4=3*

     The bill for the freedom to drive with impunity for the past several decades is due. And I believe this will not be the first disaster of this kind. Hopefully the oil companies have FINALLY learned that they should have a plan “b” and a plan “c”…Hell they should have every plan all the way to “Z” with the moola they made…take it from Bungee Bruce…jus’ sayin’

     Moreover, the price has been paid by the valiant men and women serving our country here and abroad in the other Gulf in the Middle East and the surrounding oil reserves in countries like Iraq and Iran. Our youth has paid this price for us in loss of life-blood and limb. This is a debt we can never re-pay. Anyone that think the “war” does not have a rather large to do with oil is fooling themselves. It may have been sold to us a WMD’s and a repressive regime, but there is also the not so hidden agenda of vast reserves of oil.

     And yes I know it is not the largest oil reserve in the world and I know it has much more than just oil at stake. But it is a factor. If you think it isn’t then I really want what you have been taking to delude yourself that it was just about WMD’s and terrorist threats. We will pay this price for decades. A debt for the generations…

     Our country has turned a nearly a blind eye to many a repressive regime that did not have the American Dream or preserving the American way of life as a major or even minor component in the strife. We may have sent some token aid, but the impetus was simply not there to affect a change thru war. The FFF *fossil fuel factor* was simply not an issue. We ignored the plight and set our focus on the oilfields.

     We pay for freedom. Everyday. It is not all negative, this payment. It is not just paying taxes and living here. It is much more. It is involvement in the processes of our government, thru voting and being heard, volunteerism, donations to our favorite charities and speaking our mind to all that will listen on the injustices we see. We CAN make change, and we SHOULD hope for a better future for our kids and their kids.

     Regardless of your political beliefs or your allegiance to a party, the cost is there. It really starts with all of us. We all pay the price for freedom. God Bless America!

Just another day in paradise