Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave...Really?

I don't want to point the finger of blame at all Americans because there are always brave people out there doing great things, but I think we need to take time and reflect on what we're doing. Now lots of people don't give a second thought to the phrase, "America: Land of the Free and Home of the Brave." Maybe it's about time we did and ask ourselves if this is true, or if this is just some lie that we want to believe.

Now I'm not saying I'm the bravest person in the world. I have a fear of spiders and of heights and usually I avoid those things if I can. They're typical fears I guess. Being afraid doesn't make you a coward, because everyone has fears and it's not being fearless that makes someone brave. Being brave is when you face your fears and overcome them on your own. However, we're living in a culture of fear as of lately and I don't think we're really facing them, or overcoming them, at least not on our own.

Every time you turn on the news, it's a new epidemic. You got your terrorism, your global warming, bird flu, childhood obesity, school shootings, out of control crime, a broken health care system, nuclear armament, drug addictions, teenage pregnancy, the bees are dying, child predators, your food is poisoned, your water is polluted, your teens are sexting, the economy is shit, 2012 is right around the corner...oh yeah, and now WE HAVE PIRATES! Holy shit, we're all doomed! Well it seems pretty bad, but I think the majority of the people in America are taking it rather well. Maybe they're staying calm, or maybe they just don't really care. I think they're just overwhelmed and really don't know what to do. Anyway, it's mainly the media and our politicians that are going crazy over this stuff, probably since they have the most to gain from scary epidemics.

Let's start off with one fear we can easily get rid of; drug addictions. Actually, we can get rid of a lot of violent crime with this solution too. Our government's current "solution" for fighting drug addictions in this country has been prohibition a.k.a. The War on Drugs. We ban drugs and anyone caught selling them, or in possession of drugs, gets sent to jail and fined. This action has made the problem much worse by costing tax payers around $60,000,000,000 each year (yes, that's $60 billion). Not only that, but it has incarcerated non-violent criminals that have done nothing to harm others. Also, it has created a black market for illegal drugs that real violent criminals exploit to get rich quick. As a result of drug prohibition, violence has spilled over into the streets because criminals outside of the law are in the big business of selling drugs. There are no legit business practices for these guys. If they have competition, they don't lower prices, or release a better product to get ahead, they just kill their rivals.

So what's the real solution to the problem of drug addiction and violence on the streets of America? Well, you have to admit that there's no way to 100% cure society of drug addicts and violent criminals, but we can reduce the problem. Just think about being free and brave. If you legalized all drugs, and I'm talking about ALL drugs; not just pot, but coke, heroin, meth, etc., then you could fix a lot of problems.

Now part of your brain is saying that you couldn't just let someone do this to themselves, but what good thing are you doing to help them out? Why is throwing a person in jail with violent criminals a kinder act than just letting them be free to destroy their own body? Chances are, they won't stop doing drugs because they're in jail and might pick up some new bad habits from their jail buddies. I'll admit, it's a strange and scary thought that someone could just go down to the store and buy heroin if they wanted to, but hear me out. As of right now, anyone could go down to a street corner and get these drugs, just off of some criminal instead of a drug store shelf. Anyone, including your own kids, can go buy illegal drugs. If you legalize it all, that means you can regulate it. You can set age limits. You can keep sanitary standards. You can allow people to be free to sell drugs and destroy their own bodies without harming others in the process. It's not the perfect solution, but it's a lot better than the current one. Best of all, you cut down on crime.

You don't have criminals out here in the street right now shooting each other because one guy is selling corndogs in another man's turf, because corndogs are legal and usually legit people sell legal stuff while criminals sell illegal stuff. If you legalize drugs and don't lock up drug users that aren't harming others, you don't have your jails overloaded with non-violent criminals, so you can have all the space you want to lock away the thieves, rapists, and murders for as long as you want. It frees up cops and courts to work on more important cases. America needs to start thinking about being brave enough to let people be free.

Now making drugs legal wouldn't end drug addiction. I think it would help stop a lot of it, but more would probably need to be done. To do that, we must change our view and treat it as a medical problem instead of a criminal problem. We have to get serious about treating people with addictions instead of just locking them away in some jail. We have to be brave enough to look at these people on drugs, not as crazy people that might harm us, but as sick people that need our help. Instead of spending our time and money to lock these people out of sight and out of mind, maybe we should try to get them the help they need.

As of right now, I would not say we are the land of the free. We might not be the most oppressive country on earth. We might not lock you up and torture you...umm, well, according to some recent documents, we might do that, but generally we're just a country with a bunch of stupid laws. According to this study, there are more prisoners locked up in the United States of America than in any other country in the world, including China. That's too much in my opinion for a country to be considered "The Land of the Free." Why so many? It's because of the War on Drugs and our determination over the years to keep fighting it. Other countries might have similar drug laws, but they don't have the resources and use $60 billion dollars a year that we do to lock up all of our criminals.

It's not just the reaction to drugs that has caused us to give up our freedom in exchange for security. We become afraid of any small, 3rd World Country that flexes its military, or political muscles. Everyone is worried about North Korea and Iran. It's one thing to oppose a huge empire like Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia, but talking about invading a country that poses no real threat to us is just insane. We've also given up lots of freedoms for the security of our children. We ban guns, we censor entertainment, we've put the government in charge of their education, we've banned lawn darts, etc. It's time parents get brave with their kids and tell them what the world is really like and start being parents again. If you want your kid to survive in this world, you can't hide him, or her from it. You have to make them tough and let them know the real dangers they face. Eventually, they'll get old enough that they'll start learning things on their own and begin making their own choices. You just have to accept that it's out of your hands and hope you made them smart and tough enough to survive. Leaving your kid's future up to some teacher, or politician does not make you a good parent.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that every new fear that is brought to our attention, the reaction seems to be to panic and assume it's a problem that only politicians can solve. If the government can't solve it, then we figure we just need to give them more money and power until eventually they succeed. Basically, we chicken out and turn over total control to a few people in power. It's time the American people show how brave they are by saying they want freedom. It's time we look more towards freedom as a solution to our problems and less of government as a solution to our problems.

Freedom is a great thing, but you can't be a wimp and want freedom. You have to fight and face hardships for it. You have to be willing to face problems that pop up because you are free. You have to be willing to find new solutions to those new problems without giving up your freedoms to do so. You can't just have freedoms you want, you have to have freedoms for everybody to do things you don't even like. If you resort to the government to control others for your safety then you aren't brave and you aren't free. I'm not saying that America is filled with a bunch of cowards, but when you look around at our policies, it sure does look that way. Nobody said freedom is easy, because it's not. When faced with problems, we should not ignore them, throw up our hands, and try to pass the problems on for the American government to solve. We should look to the meaning of America itself for the answers we need. When we start doing that, then we can truly consider ourselves the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.