Category Archives: Freedom

(Editor's note: Part three of a four-part occasional series about Norman Rockwells paintings the Four Freedoms)

The third of the Four Freedoms outlined by Franklin Roosevelt and illustrated by Norman Rockwell in the early 1940s, is freedom from want.

This freedom isnt explicitly spelled out in the Constitution like the first two -- freedom of speech and freedom of worship. Yet the freedom from want is perhaps implicit in the safeguards our Founders intended.

In the Constitution, the Founders prohibited the taking of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Likewise, they expressed in the Declaration of Independence our inalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

What Roosevelt and Rockwell later referred to, in FDRs words, was an economic understanding which will secure every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants. When they suggested this in the early '40s, the U.S. was fighting Nazi Germany, which was systematically stripping people of rights, possessions, and even life itself based solely on race or creed. In this context, Roosevelts affirmation of a freedom from want became a direct attack on what Hitler represented.

In our own time, freedom from want stands for the belief that every person should have a reasonable opportunity for employment earning wages sufficient to support oneself and ones family. As jobs grow more scarce through technology advances and often pay less than a living wage, this basic freedom becomes harder and harder to assure.

Yet if we are to go beyond merely protecting the bare right to life, and instead assure the opportunity for each person to survive and thrive, well need policies and programs to educate our children and to create new jobs in which folks can be gainfully employed. Whats more, leaving this to the private sector alone wont work. In a constant race to the bottom line, businesses daily automate or outsource jobs and lay off workers to be more competitive with their rivals.

Government incentives and controls are needed to encourage investment in job training and creation that can move us toward the day when the freedom from want becomes a reality for all.

This does not mean folks who can work but choose not to should get a free handout. Instead, it means we should extend a hand up to all able-bodied workers -- like FDR did with the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. This remarkable program generated hundreds of thousands of jobs and major public improvements, such as the wonderful buildings at Black Hawk State Historic Site we still enjoy today.

The point is, we cannot reasonably expect people to work and support themselves if decent jobs arent available.

Protecting the freedom from want is a tough challenge, particularly in an age where jobs give way daily to automation. But with all the public works that need improving across America -- from roads to railroads to schools to bridges to energy farms -- there are a vast number of potential jobs that could both make America stronger and allow folks a living wage to move us towards securing the freedom from want.

As this series on the Four Freedoms suggests, we will need to work together and embrace what unites us to make this freedom alive and real for us all.

Mark W. Schwiebert, an attorney, served as mayor of Rock Island for 20 years.

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Freedom from want essential to the Founders - Quad-Cities Online

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has sought pricing and marketing freedom to help bring to production a one-trillion cubic feet gas discovery that will open up a new sedimentary basin after over three decades.

ONGC, which has opened for commercial production six out of Indias seven producing basins, has made a significant natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Kutch of Gujarat coast that can produce about three million standard cubic meters per day, a senior company official said.

This will open up the countrys eighth sedimentary basin the first in over three decades for oil and gas production in two years.

We can bring to production the find in 23 years time, he said. The present government-mandated gas price of $2.48 per million British thermal unit does not make the discovery commercially viable. Since the find is in shallow waters, it does not qualify to get the $5.56 per mmBtu cap price set for difficult fields, the official said. The current rates of gas are uneconomic, he added.

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Gas discovery: ONGC for pricing freedom - The Hindu

WASHINGTON, D.C. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, President Trumps nominee for international religious freedom ambassador, describes religious freedom as the choice of what you do with your own soul.

If confirmed, the 60-year-old, two-term Republican governor, former U.S. senator and one-time presidential candidate would be the first politician confirmed as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Previous ambassadors were religious or nonprofit leaders, and Brownback would follow a rabbi and a Protestant minister.

Religious Freedom is the first freedom, he said in a tweet responding to Trumps announcement. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

Here are five faith facts about this Methodist-turned-Catholic politician:

As senator, he supported the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which also created the ambassadorial post.

During his two terms as governor, his actions on international religious freedom would be minimal, said Rabbi David Saperstein, the most recent international religious freedom ambassador. But Brownbacks support of the State Department office while he was senator, and his efforts to end the South Sudan civil war, were noteworthy, Saperstein said.

Issues of religious freedom were very much at stake in his lead work on the Sudan Peace Act, he said, adding he thinks Brownback will be an effective ambassador-at large.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, at far right, and three bishops attend the religious freedom rally on Feb. 17, 2016, in Topeka, Kan. With Gov. Sam Brownback is, from left, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Salina, and Bishop Carl A. Kemme, of Wichita. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Joe Bollig/The Leaven.)

Brownback has been a bit of a Christian church hopper. He grew up a Methodist butconverted to Catholicism in 2002.Today he attends Topeka Bible Church, said Teresa Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the nondenominational evangelical church with an average weekly attendance of 1,400.

Sometimes, he rises early for Mass before joining his family at the church, calling the routine, according to author Jeff Sharlet, a great mixture of the feeding.

Sharlets book,The Family, about a secretive Christian group to which Brownback belonged, said the governor was baptized not in a church but in the Catholic Information Center, a Washington chapel run by Opus Dei.

In 2016, he joined a Rally for Religious Freedom alongside Catholic bishops, the lead pastor of Topeka Bible Church and Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington state florist who was sued after she cited her religious beliefs in refusing to create an arrangement for a gay wedding. I have never seen a bigger rally at this statehouse than this one, Brownback told the demonstrators, according to a Catholic diocese website. It is fantastic.

When then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now U.S. energy secretary, invited 49 other governors to attend The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis in Houston in 2011, Brownback was the only other governor who showed up in person. (One other sent a video.)

In 2012, he was criticized by church-state separationists for promoting a ReignDownUSA.com prayer event for which he said, Weve been favored like no nation in history and yet too often weve forgotten God.

The National Association of Evangelicals called Brownback a strong candidate. Faith and Freedom Coalition declared help is on the way after dozens of reports of Christian persecution abroad in the last month alone. Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore noted Brownbacks dealing with AIDS in Africa and advocating on behalf of persecuted religious minorities. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson called him a man of deep personal faith.

The 2016 bill allows religious organizations to establish religious belief as qualification for membership, he said at that time.

The ACLU, reacting to his nomination, said, In Gov. Brownbacks view, religious freedom has meant issuing a license to discriminate against others, especially against LGBT Kansans.

University of Vermont political science professor Peter Henne said a Brownback appointment could change emphasis on LGBTQ issues abroad: If there are countries repressing LGBTQ people for reasons they claim are related to religion, we might not push back on that as much as we would otherwise, he said.

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5 faith facts about Sam Brownback: Political champion of religious freedom - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

ATLANTA-- How do you define freedom? Gwinnett County teacher Alex Robson is completing a 48-state tour to ask everyday people how they define it.

Robson is asking people what freedom means to them, where they live and how they express freedom. He calls it the "Freedom Summer," and along the way he is collecting note cards - asking people to write how they define the term.

Traveling around his summer school teaching schedule, Robson made it a point to drive to each of the 48 states and 78 cities during the Freedom Summer tour so that he could reach as many people as possible.

Over the last 10 years of Robson's Freedom Cards project, Robson has interviewed celebrities, politicians, and everyday people to see how they define freedom.11Alive reached out to Robson about his Freedom Summer project.

His interview is below:

What is the most powerful story you've heard while collecting the Freedom Cards?

While I was in Kansas, I met a Gold Star Mother who is a mother who lost a child while serving in the military. She and I had quite a connection because I have the same name as her son, Alex. She made his favorite meal and we talked a lot about how for everyday people Alex was a soldier who died in battle and that it was an honorable way to die. To his parents, he wasn't a soldier. He was their son and he never came home. They didn't just sacrifice a soldier; they sacrificed their son. On their Freedom Card, they had a picture of their son and the words "this is the face of freedom."

How do you define freedom?

My definition of freedom is that you can have dreams and you can act on those dreams without people telling you not to. As a teacher, some of my students don't have the same opportunities that other students have. Many of them face obstacles, whether it is socioeconomic or have families that are not able to support them. I believe that being a teacher helps me spread freedom in America.

"All of these stories are connected and interwoven in a complex way," Robson says. "Even though we are inherently different, we are all connected that we get to share the same freedom."

To participate in the Freedom Cards project, send a 3x5 note card to: The Freedom Cards PO Box 606 Atlanta, Georgia 30301

See the original post here:

Defining Freedom: Metro Atlanta teacher completes 48-state tour to find true meaning - WXIA-TV

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE / the national interest July 27, 2017 07/27/2017 10:59 pm By Jonathan Chait Share Photo: Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Senate Republican leadership introduced the Health Care Freedom Act. As advertised, the bill would eliminate the individual mandate, a key underpinning of the exchanges that allow insurance to be made affordable to people too affluent for Medicaid who cant get it through work. But the changes would not end there. States could have more leeway to weaken consumer protections. Health-savings accounts, a tax shelter used by affluent people, would grow. Planned Parenthood would lose federal funding, as would the Centers for Disease Control, whose public health budget would be cut 14 percent.

More detailed analysis is difficult given the time constraints. That is, of course, the point. Since their unexpected election victory forced them to actually write and pass replacements for Obamacare, the Republican proposals have been a series of public-opinion disasters on a scale unseen in the annals of polling. The partys response to the publics disgust has been to conceal its intentions, and the Senate vote is the ultimate expression of that furtive impulse. Mitch McConnells sincere belief is that his plan can only pass if experts and authorities the Congressional Budget Office, insurance actuaries, think tanks cannot inform his members of its likely effects.

A handful of recalcitrant Republican senators called the preliminary outlines of this bill a disaster, and insisted they would vote for it only if the House promised not to pass it into law. Even this absurd condition was not met. House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement indicating that he would like to go to conference and write a different bill, but pointedly refusing to rule out passing the Senate bill unaltered. Attempts to further clarify his position simply underscored Ryans outright refusal to commit himself to the simple and clear promise not to pass the law.

Republican aides say it is a coin flip whether the House will pass the Senate bill. There really is no cover for senators who vote for this, no room to insist they have been fooled if it passes into law unaltered. Their cooperation in the charade has been given willingly.

The public, on the other hand, has ample grounds for complaint. The Senate is engaged in a mockery of legislating. The Senate vote is a scandal, a crime against the public good.

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An eight-year crusade to destroy universal coverage has failed, and a social achievement endures.

Three Republicans Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski voted against the bill.

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The 'Health Care Freedom Act' Is a Scandal - New York Magazine

News & Observer

Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built News & Observer In Raleigh, once its $5 million price tag has been raised, a design by the Durham office of Perkins+Will for the North Carolina Freedom Park will offer an optimistic take on slavery and the African-American experience here. Slated for a postage-stamp ...

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Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built - News & Observer

GREENSBORO The North Carolina Coaches Association over the weekend announced the East-West All-Star Game coaches for football as well as mens and womens basketball and mens and womens soccer in July 2018.

Freedoms Casey Rogers will serve as West head coach in boys basketball. He will be assisted by Brian Carver of Enka.

Rogers, 37, earned his second N.C. Basketball Coaches Association (NCBCA) District 10 coach of the year honor last season after guiding the Patriots to the NCHSAA 3A West Regionals for the third time in the last four years. Last year, Freedom won 28 games, tied for third-most in program history, despite graduating its top two scorers and starting three underclassmen for much of the year.

Rogers is also a four-time conference coach of the year and was both AP and NCBCA state coach of the year in 2013-14 when he led Freedom to its third state championship.

Rogers, who also enters his sixth year as FHS athletic director, has compiled a 232-79 record in 11 seasons, having led the Patriots to both conference regular-season and tournament titles in three of the last six years.

Other notable 2018 West coaches include Hickorys Barbara Helms (womens basketball, assistant) and Shelbys Lance Ware (football, assistant).

Continued here:

Freedom's Rogers will coach in 2018 East-West Game - Morganton News Herald

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, speaks to reporters on March 23 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

'Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there,' says Rep. Mo Brooks.

By LOUIS NELSON

07/28/2017 10:36 AM EDT

House Freedom Caucus members lashed out Friday morning at the Senates dramatic failure to move forward on an Obamacare repeal bill, complaining that their colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill let the American public down.

Let's be clear about what's happened over the last 24 hours in the United States Senate. It was an abject failure of the United States Senate to do what America needs doing, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House group, told CNNs New Day Friday morning. He urged his Senate colleagues not to leave for August recess without making progress on health care and suggested that perhaps a change in Senate Republican leadership might be in order.

Story Continued Below

If they're going to quit, well then by God, maybe they ought to start at the top with Mitch McConnell leaving his position and letting somebody new, somebody bold, somebody conservative take the reins, Brooks said. It's not necessarily anything bad about Mitch McConnell himself personally, but he's got a job to do, and if he can't do it, then as The Apprentice would say, you're fired. Get somebody who can.

McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, and the rest of the GOP leadership team had worked furiously this week to shore up support for legislation that could advance the Republican goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare. After previous efforts at compromise failed to garner the necessary votes, Republicans settled early Friday morning on a skinny repeal intended to advance legislation out of the Senate such that negotiations on a final repeal bill could begin in a conference committee with House members.

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But in a dramatic vote Friday morning, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined with the Senates 48 Democrats in voting against the skinny repeal, defeating the measure and leaving Republicans without a clear path forward that does not include cutting a deal with the minority. It was McCains vote just after 1:30 a.m., cast with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture from the well of the Senate, that struck down the skinny repeal and sent an audible gasp through the chamber.

Brooks, in his interview with CNN, noted that House Republicans had successfully negotiated a compromise on health care, but not without great gnashing of teeth and a lot of intense emotion. He called the Senates Friday morning vote a failure from the newest member Luther Strange at the bottom to the very top with Mitch McConnell as majority leader, specifically name checking the Alabama senator whose seat he will attempt to take beginning with next months Republican primary.

Other GOP House members were similarly disappointed but sought to deliver an optimistic message that their partys repeal-and-replace efforts were not dead. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), flanked by three other conservative members, said Friday morning on Fox News Fox & Friends that the Senate vote was certainly disappointing and not what we promised the American people but that President Donald Trump had already begun reengaging on the issue.

Appearing with Meadows on Fox News was his predecessor as Freedom Caucus chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who called for a little bit of a shift in how we approach health care. He said efforts by some Republicans in the House to force a vote on a so-called clean repeal that does not include a replacement would put pressure on the Senate to act.

I'm optimistic we can still get it done. People are losing faith but I can tell you we are still staying in, Meadows told Fox & Friends, adding that he spoke with Trump by phone Friday morning after the vote. I can tell you who is staying in: the president is staying in on this fight. He is going to deliver. He made it clear this morning.

Meadows and Jordan both expressed frustration that they and their House colleagues were likely to be sent home for August recess next month with health care left unfinished. Meadows told Fox News that it blows my mind that were probably not going to be here in August.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), in his own Fox & Friends interview, said his vision for transformational health care reform would require the cooperation of at least some Democrats.

If you're going to fail, fail doing what you really fundamentally believe, said Gowdy, who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus. It's not going to get done with 24 hour's notice and a bill that has the word skinny in it. It's hard to persuade people.

Brooks suggested that a failure on healthcare could spell doom for much of the rest of the presidents ambitious conservative agenda, a list that includes an overhaul of the tax code, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a major infrastructure package. Health care was placed first in line, Brooks recalled, because an Obamacare repeal would make subsequent goals easier to attain. Without an undoing of former President Barack Obamas signature legislation, Brooks asked, how will the rest of Trumps agenda get done?

Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there. That's why you take on that kind of responsibility, he said. And if Mitch Mcconnell cannot get the job done on this, how is he going to get the job done on the rest of President Trump's agenda over the next three-and-a-half years. As I see it right now, this is a killer.

Jake Lahut contributed to this report.

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Freedom Caucus blasts Senate GOP's 'failure' to pass Obamacare repeal - Politico

David Messenger, acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1998 beating death of his pregnant wife in their Chaplin home, has progressed so far in his treatment that he should be allowed to travel anywhere in the state except Windham County, have a smart phone, and stay out until midnight on weekends.

That was the testimony Friday of a forensic psychologist and the supervisor of Messenger's release in the community at a hearing before the Psychiatry Security Review Board.

Messenger had asked for the phone, a later curfew, and the ability to travel beyond Hartford County. Initially committed in 2001, Messenger has been living in a supervised apartment and receiving treatment at a regional mental-health center in Hartford since 2015, with no violations, according to testimony.

Assistant States Attorney Andrew Slitt, who works out of the Windham office, peppered psychologist Fred Storey and release-manager Archer Bridgeforth with questions about whether a further expansion of Messenger's freedoms would heighten the risk to the public. Both said it would not.

The Psychiatric Security Review Board, which supervises 150 people who were acquitted of crimes by reason of mental disease or defect, will vote on this new request by Aug. 25.

Ellen Lachance, who supervises the staff that supports the board, said it's common for community mental-health teams to ask for additional privileges for patients who are responding well to treatment in part so they can gauge how the person will do when he or she is no longer under any supervision.

In the early years of his commitment, Messenger was confined in the maximum security Whiting Forensic Division at Connecticut Valley Hospital. He has steadily gained freedom which has been unsettling to the family of Heather Messenger, who was 42 when Messenger beat her to death with a fireplace poker. The couple's son, then 5, witnessed the attack on his mother.

"We don't think a killer deserves any privileges and of course wonder how and why he can already have so many and yet ask for more," Hannah Williamson, Heather Messenger's sister, said Friday in an email from Michigan.

"We still believe he should be in jail. After all, Heather was the victim and she is still dead," Williamson said. "He seems to have more freedom than any other 'acquittee.'"

Messenger's 20-year commitment expires in 2021. A Superior Court judge would decide whether to grant a discharge. The prosecution can file a request for continued commitment.

Messenger's long push toward freedom hasn't been lost on Middletown officials. When they learned in 2006 that Messenger at that point was making trips into Middletown escorted by staff, then-Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said he would have a police officer "stapled to his butt" as soon as he left the hospital grounds. CVH in June 2006 voluntarily decided not to let Messenger go on any unsupervised visits. But that order has long since been lifted.

He still is not allowed to drive a car (he has no driver's license). He cannot leave Connecticut, and he must continue to wear his GPS device so his whereabouts can be monitored. He lives in a supervised residence in Hartford, which has a curfew of 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Messenger's curfew had been 10 p.m.. He is now asking for permission to abide by the later curfew of the residence.

Heather Messenger's family has argued that Messenger should not have been released to the community because he has access to significant amounts of money that he could use to track them down.

"Our position has been well stated, and we regret the decision that was made and, in doing so, we fear for the people in Hartford who may inadvertently run into the killer," Daniel Williamson, Heather's brother, said in 2013.

Williamson and his wife, Melody, have raised Heather Messenger's son, Dane, from boyhood at their home in Illinois.

The Courant has reported that Messenger has access to nearly $2 million in property, bank accounts and investments, including an island house in Maine.

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

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Acquitted Wife-Killer Asks For Smart Phone, Later Curfew, Freedom To Travel In State - Hartford Courant

The Senate is hurtling towards some resolution in the weeks-long saga of Obamacare repeal, and after several failed votes and amendments, the final draft is finally in view. At around 10 p.m. Thursday evening, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the text of the Health Care Freedom Act, the more dignified official title for the skinny repeal.

The legislation, which was reportedly finalized over lunch today in the Senate, broadly resembles the details that have leaked out about the secret plan over the past week. It would repeal Obamacares individual mandate, and would repeal the employer mandate until 2025, where presumably that mandate would come back or would have to be re-repealed by Congress.

The skinny repeal extends a repeal of the medical-device tax through 2020 and defunds the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It would also more than double the limits of contributions to health-savings to allow people with HSAs more flexibility in paying for deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. This provision is somewhat significant, because it would decrease federal revenues and would need a score from the Congressional Budget Office going forward in the process.

Although provisions in the original Senate Obamacare replacement bill to defund Planned Parenthood and allow states the ability to waive essential health benefits for some insurance plans on the exchanges were rejected under the Senate reconciliation rules by the parliamentarian, this bill devotes much of its language to creative rewrites to get around those rejections.

To start, the Health Care Freedom Act still bans funding from a number of different federal sources to public providers that provide abortionsa direct stab at Planned Parenthoodbut made those provisions more general. Originally, the Better Care Reconciliation Acts attempts to defund Planned Parenthood targeted all entities that received over $350 million in federal and state reimbursements, which would have only ensnared Planned Parenthood, because of its size. But this bill lowers that threshold to $1 million, which would presumably be less hyper-targeted, and only extends the ban for a year.

This bill also adds over $400 million to community health centers. Although that amount is not specified in the bill as an offset to defunding Planned Parenthood, the two were linked in the formal introduction of the bill to the floor by McConnell.

The second parliamentary-skirting action comes on the issue of state waivers. The BCRA attempted to give states wide flexibility to essentially ignore certain Obamacare rules for exchange plans (those sold in state insurance marketplaces set up by the law), including its requirements that plans cover certain services. It did that through expanding Obamacares existing State Innovation Waivers program, which allows states to create insurance programs that modify rules about plan benefits and the exchanges. Under that program, however, Obamacare implements guardrails specifying that these state waiver programs would have to still provide coverage that is as comprehensive and affordable as comparable exchange plans.

The BCRA plan to give states much more flexibility essentially violated those guardrails, but the skinny repeal bill keeps them in place. But theres a bit of a poison pill: Once states get the waiver, it appears their programs cant be revoked under law under the eight-year waiver window, which means states would be rather free to ignore guardrail rules for almost a decade at a time.

Reportedly, these tweakswhich clearly maintain at least some of the spirit of previous attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and allow insurers to offer less comprehensive coverageare enough to satisfy the parliamentarian and pass with a 50-vote majority.

According to a Congressional Budget Office score obtained by Senate Democratic staff, the effects of this bill are about what has been expected: 16 million more uninsured people and just under $200 billion in federal deficit savings. Although premium estimates were not part of the CBOs score tables, it appears this law will have comparable effects to a proto-skinny-repeal scored Wednesday, and will increase premiums by around 20 percent over the next decade.

Thats the gist of what Senate Republicans will vote on, and what could very well end up on President Trumps desk, should House Republicans not follow through on Speaker Paul Ryans lukewarm commitment to add more provisions in conference.

The so-called skinny repeal is not as skinny as expectedit repeals the mandates, and includes provisions like a restriction of Planned Parenthood and some insurance deregulationsand its effects on coverage and premiums would be significant. And soon, it could very well be the law of the land.

Read more here:

The Health Care Freedom Act Hits The Senate Floor - The Atlantic