Freedom In America

America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.

When the colonists from England came to America to escape religious and social prosecution, political constrains, and economic hardship, they had a utopia of freedom in mind, which they did set up in the new world. America guaranteed religious tolerance, political anarchy, and economic freedom. America was defined by freedom. America was freedom. But later colonists did not have a free colony in mind; they wanted to wall in a section of this free country and conduct their own intolerant society inside those isolating walls. In those regions, such as the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts, did not tolerate other religions, and enforced strict rules, creating a totalitarian hierarchy headed by the church and followed by parents of oppressed children because of their constraining religion. Since then, America has been defining freedom: the Puritans established a free colony; one that was free from other religions’ prosecution. But their colony itself decided which freedoms a colonist may have, and which ones he or she may not have. Freedom was offered, but only in selected categories.

Then after a few decades, the United States’ founding fathers exterminated this flaw of society by writing the Constitution, uniting all colonies to form a nation, and set the boundaries of freedom, which back then was quite lax and comforting. The freedoms offered included a wide spectrum, not limited like the present day. The freedom was free.

As the United States matured, it noticed the growing problems and loopholes of this freedom as its citizens took too much advantage it. The solution? Limit their rights and freedoms. So now our rights are still available to an extent, and our freedoms fenced in to a degree which it is still bearable. But is it still free? Kind of, but not quite. America has manipulated and shaved off parts of our freedom and rights.

Our rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, has been hollowed out. Student press in schools can have reports censored by the school and equipment confiscated by the administration because the First Amendment, supporting the freedom of the press does not apply student reports who fall under the supervision of the education system’s administrative branch, who have total power over the student newspaper. Our freedom of speech and privacy are not even close to what they promise. For reasons such as national security, the government can censor, retain, deny, or even manipulate selected pieces of information. Saying keywords on the phone or in emails that monitoring agencies are looking for can give them clearance to investigate your intentions. Privacy, once thought to be a guaranteed right, is actually only able to be enforced by those who choose to.

With the recent conflict in Iraq and terrorism on United States soil, freedom has been a main topic of controversy. In Iraq, freedom rights are given, but are not restricted at all by the primitive framework or the Iraqi government. According to Akeel, a twenty-six year old Iraqi, commenting on life in new Iraq, “Ah, the freedom. Look, we have the gas-line freedom, the looting freedom, the killing freedom, the rape freedom, the hash-smoking freedom. I don’t know what to do with all this

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