Monday 16 March 2015

Freedom

Freedom. People fight for it, die for it and life without it is meaningless. It defines a person- the choices they make, the words they speak, the thoughts they have and even the dreams they have. Freedom is living and not having it, is not being a person. Without freedom you are but a shell of a being with no identification. Not having freedom can mean lots of things, it could mean being a slave in the ‘20s or, more commonly, being a child. Depending on your family, freedom is not granted until you are about 18 years of age. 18 long years with no identification. Someone making your choices, choosing your words, telling you what your thoughts are and even the dreams you have. It is soul destroying. It is not living. But what of the people who never make it out the tunnel, the ones who die before life even starts. Or even the ones who are adults with no freedom, death is sweeter. A life with no freedom is a life not lived. It is painful and unjust. Unlike in the days of the slaves, freedom is not taken out of maliciousness but rather fear and love. Fear from the person you love to be hurt but is it worth stunting that love’s life? To live my life knowing this is all the freedom I will have, to know that there is no light at the end of the tunnel is what I imagine hell to be made of. No crueller act can be laid on to someone. Nothing is as important as freedom. To be told what your choice should be rather than choosing it, even if the same, is like ripping out someone’s brain. How does one measure a life? Is it not by their decisions, actions and beliefs? And so how does one’s life be measured if they never made those decisions, did those actions and expressed those beliefs? How does one even call that a life?  Freedom. It is the reason behind so many deaths, so much pain yet so many are denied their little bit of freedom every day. Though some don’t deserve freedom, how can this world accept the pain of growing up without it? When one abuses their freedom, they are striped of it as punishment, sentenced to a life in jail yet we give the same life to our children. Yes freedom is everything, it is why life is worth living and it is why people marched through the streets of Washington, it is why people died on the bridge in Selma and it is why children cry when a parent yet again rips freedom from their hand.  

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