A thought, on Freedom, Liberty, and Responsibility.

So many times do we hear the words above in conversation amongst Americans. Yet how many really understand that the above are not buzz words, or , more specifically, solitary in nature? I hear people near me discussing things that deal with the above, never realizing that they are contradicting themselves. You can't have freedom without liberties, nor can you have either without responsibility. PERIOD. The Freedoms that so many take for granted were fought for and paid for with BLOOD. Maybe not in our lifetimes (and I don't count any war after WWII as a freedom war. No ill intentions to those that fought in them, just a fact. This could be debated all the way back to the Civil War but I digress) but definitely in blood and lives and livelihoods. Those that paid that price, more than likely made the decision without qualms or hesitation when the time came to them. As in anything, there are probably exceptions but we need not view them for this thought. Only the fact that somewhere, sometime, and someplace, someone died so that others could wake in the morning and make decisions for themselves. Those that have joined the military may not always make that choice through patriotism. Most haven't actually. Many make the choice(since we started a truly voluntary military) to better their position in life. Some to get out of the ghettos, or the bario. Others to get away from "seeing the backside of a mule everyday". It really doesn't matter. As anyone who has served(at least as far back as 20 years ago, it was like this) the instructors will instill in the recruit, some sense of belonging to something much bigger than themselves; something with history, national sense of belonging, Esprit de Corps, etc etc.
Most people never really get that in public schools. They teach history but that really can't instill the responsibility that is required to be truly free.
I am not saying that you have to give up a life to be a free person in this world. Not at all, but somewhere, someone will have to do that to make sure that others can stay free. The other side of that responsibility is knowing that freedom isn't even remotely free, even if you don't pay that ultimate price for it. It requires attention to those that would take it away from you. It requires you to accept responsibility for your own actions.

We are at an extremely poor time in our countries history. When the people chosen to (Mis) represent this country, can't even take acceptance of their own failures; we have reached a new level of lows. Maybe these people are truly representative of the American people as they have evolved over the last 200+ years. I won't lie to myself about that possibility. All it takes is a quick glance in the papers to see the deceptions and greed that run rampant in this country, at every level of society.

I know that, again, there are exceptions out there. Maybe more than a few(and I think there are a great deal more than a 'few'.) and that may be the saving grace of this country: near future or not.

I would love to hear thoughts on what others define "Freedom", "Liberty", and "responsibility" as. I know that many of my definitions come from a mixture of Heinlein (the discussions in Starship Troopers especially) various passages from the bible on reliance and self reliance('God helps those that help themselves' kind of thing.)and other places, many of them from our history, others from overseas(Locke, Machiavelli, etc). I have read other writings on "Rights" and what not, I don't want to discuss "rights" as I think there is only one true right available anyway. I want to hear about your definitions of freedom, liberty, and responsibility, as it applies to the prior subjects.
You can post in comments if you wish or you can email me at James Maynard 4 0 AT gmail.com (all one lowercase word with the numerals.) Fair warning, I reserve the right to quote you in a future post, good or ill. You will be given credit unless you request anonymity in your email.