I was living in the little town of Norcross several years ago, when a young man knocked on my door and announced he was running for Mayor. I said, I don’t vote, he said yes I know but I want your support.
I was eating a piece of chicken when I answered the door, but invited him in and wasted no time, asking him what he planned on doing as Mayor. He replied by saying, “You know government is a process.” I replied “No, I didn’t know that I thought it was a gun in my back.” We had a short amenable visit and he left.
This is a preview of
Are We Living in a Fool’s Paradise? Socialism, the Antithesis of Private Property Ownership (Issue 209)
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Posted in Politics | Also tagged Mayor, process |
During the long political campaign for a new president of this country, I became a sort of news junkie listening to all of the speeches, which began with dozens of candidates seeking the office of power.
I kept listening to hear one of them talk about freedom, but no one ever did, except one. And that was Sara Palin, the governor of Alaska, running on the Republican ticket for Vice President. She did speak of her love of freedom and was the only one I heard mention it. After awhile, I noticed the absence of any mention of the word, and concluded it had become a taboo word.
After concluding it has become unfashionable to talk about it, I realized there’s a lot of confusion about its meaning. In my blog articles, I write more about the meaning of freedom than any other subject. I write about what it is. In this article, I will write about what it is not.
First off, freedom is not a government grant. It’s a state of being that cannot be legislated by politicians. It is a gift granted to us as an inalienable right by our creator.
It is not a commodity that can be bought and sold.
It is not a privilege . . . a privilege being a special or peculiar benefit, favor or advantage granted to some by other humans, but not to all. A privilege can be a civil or political grant, favoring some and excluding others. Freedom is not exclusive.
This is a preview of
Freedom: What It Is and What It Is Not (Issue 142)
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This is a true story, which happened recently.
A young man finished high school and went to work for a company in the electronics business. He had a natural adept ability for the electronics field. A dedicated employee who worked long and hard, he applied his talents and in a few years rose up in the ranks of the company to a managerial position.
In the course of events, he purchased his own home, a house he restored and furnished with all the latest appliances and electronic gadgetry. Then he added a fish tank to his decor. Not one of those small fish bowls with a couple of gold fish, but a larger tank, operated by electricity to keep the water oxygenated for the fish.
Who doesn’t enjoy watching fish live, eat and play, swimming around all day in a fish tank? The owner furnishes all their needs—food, air and comfort—and all they do is swim, eat and play.
Here in Georgia is the world’s largest fish aquarium, a facility that houses thousands of all kinds of fish from the largest whale to the smallest fish. An attraction draws millions from all over the world to come to Atlanta to visit this huge aquarium.
There is something about the life of a fish that is fascinating to us. Whether in the ocean or in captivity, they do not have to work for survival. Everyday they swim, play, eat and reproduce without any worries about their wants or needs.
Much about the life of human beings depends upon fish life, especially for food, but fish do not depend upon man unless taken out of their natural habitat, for whatever reason, but mostly for pleasure. Fish are colorful, alive and entertaining to watch.
The young man I mention, who bought a house and installed a fish tank, went to work as usual one day and returned to find the inside of his home totally destroyed and blackened with smoke. The structure of his home was still standing. The inside and furnishings had not burned down, but it was declared a total loss from a smoldering of black smoke that had slowly penetrated everything that day.
At first glance, this seemed a mystery. How could the inside of a house and all the furnishings and personal belongings be destroyed by smoke when there were no visible flames? Apparently, there was an electrical shortage, which created a fire. However, as the fire heated the fish tank, the tank burst, and the water from the tank put out the flames and left the smoldering debris. Since no one was home, this condition of smoldering continued all day until the owner upon his return home from work that evening discovered it.
The devastation from the smoldering was so extensive, nothing in the home was salvageable and the inside and all the contents were declared a total loss. The reality of this amazing story fascinated me. A rather tragic mishap no one could imagine because of owning a fish tank. In our wildest imagination, we cannot fathom the course of events that sometimes occur from the most innocent actions and decisions in our lives.
Fortunately, this story had a good ending because of the personal responsibility of a good insurance plan that restored the inside of the structure and covered the replacement of the personal property damage.
It’s a story I found so interesting, I began thinking about the analogy of the actuality to the current happenings and events in this country.
This is a preview of
A True Fish Tale: The Smoldering Tanking of a Fish Tank (Issue 139)
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