Gosh how I hate that smug phrase - Freedom isn't Free.
This trite reduction smacks of all I dislike about the need for political conservatives to reduce complex thought to terse black and white soundbites.
Freedom is freedom, as far as I'm concerned.
Freedom is freedom to act, to think, to speak.
The reduction of our basic right to be free into this bumpersticker slogan that
Freedom isn't Free
is a fine example of the anti-education, anti-intellectual, anti-individual push by the Bush Administration, which would turn us all into unthinking, frightened consumers rather than ask us to remain thinking, caring, citizens of action.
Freedom isn't free?
Well, what the heck is?
And who said we thought it was anyway?
And, another thing, I hated the fact that another concept - Support Our Troops - means rubberstamping illegal aggression and pouring the blood and lives of American men and women into unwelcome foreign soil way back in Vietnam, when my dad served.
Support our troops?
Sure, we all do - but that doesn't mean we should simply look the other way when bad political leaders think endangering a few hundred thousand troops, or so, for their political agenda or to "expand global markets" or to ensure a stable price on a barrel of oil through the next election cycle, is a fine idea and one that America will support.
Actually, I believe I really support our troops MORE and BETTER than knee-jerk conservatives who blindly support George Bush and his pre-emptive military policies and his bad economic relationships with other countries.
In fact, I've never come closer to wanting to deface and destroy another person's property as the first time I saw one of those idiotic magnets or stickers (the Wal-Mart ribbon) stuck on the back of a giant Black Ford Expedition, a gas-guzzling behemoth, here in Westport, CT.
I wanted to rip that sticker off, but I didn't.
Because freedom is freedom.
That clueless driver, petite in her stiletto Manolos and heavy-wristed with her Rolex, has every right to sticker her oinker of an SUV.
The fact that Americans have no idea of the connection between their use of oil products, and the kind of car they choose to buy, and our political and economic relationship with the governments of other countries is the real problem that we face as persons and a nation.
I'm sick of being implicitly accused of being a bad American, or a lesser being, because of my values, my ethics, and my political beliefs.
I pay my taxes, I care for my family, I take part in my community. In fact, I think I'm a BETTER American than the conservatives I know who support George Bush and his bad ideas because I am actually willing to support the right of the other side to indulge in their bad ideas and their questionable moral values.
Because freedom is freedom.