Freedom: Liberty for Security?

Freedom is an intangible item, of which most people on earth have not had enough. Freedom is gooey and defined differently by many. One basic definition many may have is,"You're allowed to do anything you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else and their property". This is again, very open to interpretation and idealistic, however, I believe this is actually where we need to be, more-so than where we are now. I know, there's lots of things that can 'hurt' somebody but be totally within the limits of ones freedoms, but I am talking more just in the physical sense. Anyways, where we are now is not desirable by many who are understanding, or know already, what freedom is. We have definitely lost our grasp on how important this unseen force is in our everyday lives. Freedom is like the wind, you can't see it but you can see the effects of it, if you just know what those effects are. Some that I notice in everyday life are things such as recycling, curb appeal (outer house decor) and your right to travel.

Recycling is something that I don't see much use for, unless it's done locally, like at your house. Composte, for example, is a great way to recycle, if you're gonna use it at your own leisure. But when it's trucked off to some plant or whatever, repackaged and shipped out again, or just let to rot at some composte location, that just wastes any good that can come from using composte. It would be just as costly to leave it in a landfill and be done with it. And the argument that recycling plastics is better for our environment. Well there's lots of information out there that states otherwise and it's usually the argument of transportation and processing of these plastics and then the fact that there more expensive in the end than new plastic. Besides all the arguments for and against recycling, the fact is that it should be someones free choice to recycle or not. Freedom to do what you want with your garbage and not being told how to sort it, or get fined, is the key. It's just one more way to make criminals out of hard working, mind-their-own-business type of folks that most of us are.

Aside from recycling, there are all these by-laws to ticket offenders if there grass grows too long or if the weeds are getting too out of control and such. Or overzealous landlords who like to run a townhouse community just so or else you'll be kicked out or whatever. This is a total infringement of ones right or freedoms. I personally don't care how people take care of their lawns or outer decor. Sure it might be an eyesore, but freedom is free to choose that, and not to have the community or bylaw officers tell you how to run your life. This is encroaching the boundaries of ones personal choice. I don't think it should matter what someone elses property looks like. I think the social pressure to keep up with everything in life is enough, nevermind having to get ticketed if you want, or don't care, the lawn to look a certain way or threat of losing your chance to renew a lease if your christmas lights are up all year round. Freedom of choice people, if you, or me, want to be lazy about christmas lights or mowing the yard, then let us/them, it's not hurting anybody and some people really need to worry about themselves more than others.

Now, on to the right to free travel. I don't know the laws much about this except from experience but some things really bug me about the traffic violations one can ensue very easily. These are things like seatbelt tickets, driving without a license or insurance and red light/speeding cameras (film or video). First off, seatbelt tickets, these are a personal choice and not at the power of the province or feds to make me or anyone else comply. This does not affect other people, physically. If someone wants to take a risk with their own life, let them. They should know better. However, it's funny that sometimes seatbelts don't save lives or the absence of a seatbelt put the driver in better circumstances when an incident did occur. I'm not sure how the numbers work out but I would say that it's about 50/50 where seatbelts saved someones life opposed to not wearing a seatbelt saved someones life. I have heard many stories about people who did not wear seatbelts, and if they did, they would have been dead or at least worse off (but who's really to say, it's like predicting the future). Anyways, it still seems to me that I should have to pay the officers wages, by taxes, to give me a ticket, which I then have to pay, for something that should be my freedom of choice. Same with driving without insurance or a license. First of all, I do think licensing is a good idea, however, parents and sane people know when someone should be able to drive or when they themselves are ok to drive, if they use good judement. Now, I know not many have that supposedly, but don't you think if we actually needed to use our own judgement, we would still have it??? Back to my point though, just because I may not have my license on my persons at the time of a ticket or whatever, doesn't mean I can't drive. It just means I forgot it at home or lost it. This should not result in a huge fine and towing fees and all the rest of the hassle that goes along with this. If the cop really is there to serve and protect people, he could escort the person home to find his license and if he/she doesn't have one, then ticket them for not having one (this is assuming we should still require licenses for 'travelling'). Same goes with insurance, health insurance is an option (other than basic coverage), so why can't we have the option to have car insurance. Again, it should be freedom of choice to take that risk of paying the rest of our lives or have insurance to save us from that burden. But the choice should be yours. And if you can't prove you have insurance because you don't remember where the hell you put it last time or it renewed recently, you get an order to appear in court and maybe pay a hefty fine if you don't have insurance, which is usually more than insurance anyways. This is all, I feel, another weight on the working class. Another tool to conform our society, just like the last two paragraphs. Also, I'm sure everyone gets pissed off at traffic cameras or photo radar, mainly because we getting ripped off. They are not making anyone slow down so how is this fulfilling the general mandate of the authorities to 'serve and protect', as it does neither. The other thing about this monitoring of people, in motor vehicles, is the fact that we're being tracked and traced by license plate scanners. Just talk to your local police or RCMP detachment and ask them about license plate scanning technology. I know that they don't have it in the city of Edmonton, but it exists people, and while nobodies watching a bill could pass to do just this. It already has in places like New York and other cities, just a matter of time before it's proposed to be implemented to ours. I thought we were free to travel unrestricted and, well, free. Also, I almost forgot to mention, the drunk driving checkstop is a blatant disreguard for this freedom but as a police officer said, and I quote,"Yeah, but it's for the safety of the community". But I guess for the safety of others, we have to submit to this tyranny.

I hope people can start to change the debate on these topics and others from the 'how to implement' to 'should we even be implenting' and then we might have a more free society.