Liberty

7-3-15

Liberty. I feel that this is a word that is very misunderstood in the society that we live in today. It has been butchered by mainstream media and distorted to the benifit in whatever political agenda is envoking its name. Liberty is an ideal that is entrenched in the foundation  of our country and must exist if we are to stay the haven of freedom that we claim ourselves to be. We have entered a world that constantly has information flowing at our fingertips. Social media causes information, frequently untrue, to be cycled by mass amounts of views, many of which won't take the time to check the authenticity of the information they are reading. This causes us to have mass amounts of people that are misinformaed and have a widly distorted view of events. The two party polotics pathway, that this country has decided to travel, has split our nation into two opposite views now matter what subject is being discussed. Liberty is not exempt from this list. One of the strongest political movements, in my generation, has been that of the libertarian movement. This is a group of people, myself included, that believe in the foundations of liberty as laid before us in the Constitution. The basic idea, for me atleast, is that everyone should be granted the same inherent liberties: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Lets look at each of these points seperatley. Life. We should all be allowed to have the oppertunity to live a long and valued life. This includes readily availiable healthcare plans that are affordable no matter your socioeconomic status. I believe that we went to far with the Affordable Healthcare Act because although it did open up healthcare plans to individuals that may have not had acsess otherwise, it's mandate that we have to purchase a plan, or get taxed, is unconstitutional. To make readily available and to force upon are two totally different concepts. By forcing me to buy into health insurance is not universal healthcare but instead another tax with which I am forced to cooperate. I understand that Universal Healthcare will never be free, but in my mind it would be much more benificial to create an economic climate that leads to the availibility of such plans at affordable rates, without forcing individuals to make decisions or face a fine. For me specifically, I have plans under the Act that are free for me, but they injvolve such high premiums that I would not see any help until I payed for as much medical care as I have recieved in the last five to ten years. I am someone who goes to the docter very rarly so barring any serious medical disasters, I would not recieve any benifit in the short term. So I would still be paying the outragious prices that doctor's offices entail and would receive no aid. This is not something that is very feasible to me, but because I am unwilling to take part in this scheme I am forced to pay a penalty. Life should not be more expensive, in retaliative terms, for one individual over another. Medical aid should be inherently affordable and should not require a middle man for it to be a feasible option for the majority of the country. Liberty. We should all be given the opportunity to live our lives without fear of intervention from an outside entity. In my mind, as long as your actions are not directly interfering with the lives of another individual then there is nothing that you could be doing that I would justify means to stopping you. The pursuit of happiness. Not the guarantee, but instead the opportunity for all of us to actively pursue what we view as our version of happiness. Basically we should all be given the same opportunities. Whether your from a rich family or a poor one. Whether you were born black or white, in a subdivision or in the ghetto. No matter what social class you are brought into you should be given the same chances as an individual from the opposite end of the spectrum. This is where I feel like we are falling the most short. Too many people are denied chances because of where they are born. Take growing up in the projects, for example. Many people claim that this isn't a problem because there are the few stories of successful people that made it out of that situation. While it is true that growing up in a harsh environment can create even more character, the facts show that the majority of people growing up in impoverished communities are not going to live the successful life as someone that grew up in a more supportive environment. I'm sick of people using excuses instead of helping our fellow human being out of the situation that they did not choose in the first place. We all need to come together as a human race to try and even the playing field that is life.