Thursday Thirteen

This country, the USA, is all about the Freedom To. The freedom to shoot whomever I want in the street. The freedom to breath Covid virus on the old folks if I want to. The freedom to berate officials and act like an idiot. The freedom to lie and call an election stolen when it doesn't go your way (Virginia's recent election is a good example of this - what happened to that voter problem now that Virginia is red, hmm?), The freedom to trample over other people while I make my way to top of the money pile. The freedom to drive like a maniac and run over people. The freedom to march around Charlottesville with lots of very fine people. The freedom to drive without a seatbelt or obey traffic laws. The freedom to believe the earth is flat. The freedom to spew lies on a national TV station with no push back. The freedom to publish hate speech without repercussion. And on and on.

But there is another kind of freedom, and this is Freedom From. This is the type of freedom practiced in many other countries that are just as free and democratic as the US - actually more so (and if I were 25 and not 58, yes, I'd move, so don't tell me to do that, I'm too damn old now). Do you know that in other countries people don't get spam phone calls every day? It's against the law and people have to opt in, not opt out, to get calls, even from companies they do business with. We're backwards here, we have to opt out of everything. A person could spend days trying to opt out of all the ads and crap thrown at us here.

In the bill of rights, we have five "freedom tos" and five "freedom froms." The founding fathers were aware that there are two types of freedom.

Anyway, here is a list of some "freedom froms" that I wish were more prevalent in the United States. Some of them are not such a big deal here but still exist in minute ways. What "freedom froms" would you add?

1. Freedom from unlawful arrest.

2. Freedom from harassment by others.

3. Freedom from poverty.

4. Freedom from illiteracy.

5. Freedom from forced religion.

6. Freedom from being shot or killed.

7. Freedom from fear.

8. Freedom from disease.

9. Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

10. Freedom from unusual and cruel punishment.

11. Freedom from oppression.

12. Freedom from war.

13. Freedom from non-living wages.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 730th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.