(Editors Note: The references to guns below is meant to illustrate a Constitutional right that could easily be stripped from citizens at the whimsy of the U.S. Supreme Court, depending upon its makeup. The hyperbole is meant to illustrate the deranged turn in our countrys politics and the threat of violence posed by it. The latest example being the likely decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the near-certain conniption to follow.)

The Princess, er, publisher has made a decree: I shall not write an opinion piece regarding the recent leak from the Supreme Court of a draft opinion that, if made final, would overturn Roe v. Wade. Thats the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that first gave women the right to end a pregnancy without undo government interference. Overturning that decision will secure a long-sought victory for anti-abortion crusaders. But it would also strip away from millions of women a hard-fought, Constitutionally-protected right granted 50 years ago.

So, in lieu of that controversial subject, I will instead opine to you today aboutFREEDOM.

We Americans love our freedoms.

And it is true, compared to many nations, they are vast.

And they are palpable, substantial. You can hold them in your hands and in your hearts. Guns, for example. We love our guns, quite often more than life itself!

You want to hold your FREEDOM in your hand, really feel it? Press the cold, brushed steel of that pistol you own against your bare chest. Cock it. Aim it at the face in the mirror. So many people in lands faraway have never, and likely will never, feel such raw, visceral power in the palm of their hands.

Sexy, right?

Ok then. Caress that scoped rifle you used this winter to secure meat for your family. Thank it as you gaze longingly into the glass eyes of that horned head that once sat atop that God given natural bounty whose life you gloriously stole to fill your familys bellies. Not only did that little piece of American FREEDOM provide rustic decor for your living room, it also turned the rest of that carcass into rock hard steaks stacked neatly in your Second Amendment freezer.

Your freedom felled that beast as much as your selection of ammo and patient aim. And if the government wants to strip you of that right, theyll have to rip those guns from your cold, dead hands. Am I right? FREEDOM!

We have so much freedom in America, some of us dont even know what do with all of it.

Voting, for example.

Its election season. The right to vote is a big freedom. Its the freedom to select the candidate who you think will best serve your interests or your communitys interests in Washington, D.C., or in Salt Lake City or on the school board or the county commission.

The opposite is also true.

Your vote can signal your displeasure at an elected official, that they have disappointed you or failed to live up to their promise. You have the freedom to dispatch them with your ballot like an elk unlucky enough to stumble into your gun sights.

You can now proudly don that ubiquitous I Voted! sticker right on your bare chest, prance around, gun in hand, and gloat to any who will listen about how you helped send some dirty liberal hippie right into a private-sector lobbying gig thatll pay him or her six times what they earned as an elected official. Congratulations!

Of course, some choose to exercise this freedom in a very odd way, as an almost lazy protestation to NOT vote at all. Curious choice to be sure. But hey, thats American FREEDOM for you.

Better yet, given what we know about gerrymandering and the January 6 insurrection and the proliferation of 24/7 political propagandaright and left, but mostly rightyou have the freedom to support some candidate who is literally working to make sure your vote counts less and less and maybe even disappears altogether in the not too distant future.

Dont like Democracy? Want to overturn a free and fair election? Vote for Me, Im Mike Lee!

NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL FREEDOM!!!

This paper you hold in your hands, this very opinion, which has you probably shaking your head right about now, is also the product of freedom. Better believe it!

The blood spilled to make it all possible has long since seeped into hallowed ground. But get it, freedom allows me to tell you how I feel, what I think, pick and choose which facts to lay out to you to support my case, maybe even flat out lie to you, just for fun and profit if I so choose.

And you have the freedom to disagree, call me an idiot or a liar, find your own facts to support your own opinion, write me an angry letter, or quietly inquire about my mental health in a discreet phone call to the Princess.

Now if that aint FREEDOM, I dont know what is.

But get this, too: FREEDOMS, once granted, are extremely difficult to take away.

You want to stifle my freedom to express myself, share my opinion, tell you or some loony anti-democratic senator what I really think of them? See the part above about guns, if thats your wish.

You want to water down my vote, or worse, start seriously threatening legitimate elections with nonsense about fraud and Chinese ballots and voting machines controlled by dead Venezuelans, huh? Well, then there might be a fight brewing. No, no, there IS a fight brewing.

And how about that forbidden subject mentioned at the beginning?

For 50 years American women have had a freedom. Love it or hate it, its theirs and theirs alone. They fought for it. A lot of them arguably died for it. And if you or your government representatives, or the judges who lied about it to win their lifetime seats, want to take it away, good luck with that. Youre gonna have one helluva fight on your hands.

Because thats how FREEDOM in America works.

See the part above about guns again if youre still confused about that.

Continued here:

FREEDOM: Is it just another 'F' word now? - Millard County Chronicle Progress