"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
most people who read that will recognize where it's from. it's the last line of the Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem.
ah, freedom. such a good word. but what does it mean? America is supposed to be synonymous with liberty, right? we're all free!
what's free? who's free? well, let's take a look at the people who you'd think would be the most free of all, the ones who can do whatever they want- your average Hollywood superstar.
celebrities have it all, right? money, fame, everything! they can do whatever they want! they must be the happiest people on earth. sounds logical. but take a closer look- almost every single celebrity is deeply depressed. they're steeped in drugs. their marriages never last. if anything, celebrities, in my opinion, are the least happy people in the country.
why? if you have it all, why are you so depressed? you're free! i think i have an answer. remember, this is just my opinion.
i think we've got the wrong definition of freedom. freedom doesn't mean that you can do anything you want, that you can satisfy your every desire with impunity. i think freedom means having control of yourself. being able to take charge of yourself. if you want to do something, but you know it's wrong, so you don't do it, that is freedom. freedom is being in control of yourself. of not being a slave to your every desire.
people today have a warped definition of freedom. "it's a free country, i can do what i want". this mentality is what makes me afraid to walk around the corner from my house at night. a fifteen-year-old girl was murdered in my neighborhood a short time ago. gang wars are threatening my family's safety. why? why all this crime? because people think they can do whatever they want. it's their "rights". the entire mentality of "freedom" cost an innocent girl her life.
this is not what freedom is supposed to be. the real feeling of freedom comes when you know that you are in control of your own actions. you call the shots. if someone is trying to convince you to do something wrong, you have the ability to say no, you have control over your own actions, you act in a way that you know is right, you are not a slave to your desires or someone else's. That is freedom.
how old are you? I swear you're a GENIUS! I totally agree. People should be able to make their own choices but when someone makes the choice to kill it destroys the choice of their victim. If people want to destroy their own lives it's their choice but when they begin destroying the lives of others... sometimes human beings make sick. then again sometimes I'm amazed at how good they can be so i guess it sort of evens out.
ReplyDeletewow your are a really deep thinker and you can make others think.
ReplyDeletewow.
hmmmm you are right. celebraties aren't really free they are probobly more trapped than some of us. even though it seem like they can to any thing they really can't. sure most of the time when they get arrested they can buy them selves out of it, but really some day they won't be able to.
sorry i got a little off subject.
anyways good job really made me think
I would vote for you if you decided to run for president because you would actually try and do something as the person that you are. the people running for presidency right now i don't trust they don't have the same depth as you or the ideals that you would aim for to help the people of the United States of America. Just my opinion anyway but you have my vote.
ReplyDeletei agree with wingless avian. I would totally vote for you! and why did Mitt Romney have to drop out? he was the only candidate i liked at all.
ReplyDeletetotally awesome point. My friend wrote something about freedom and I think it's pretty cool,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freewebs.com/crystalpebble/bloooooooog.htm?blogentryid=3170290
check it out.
~Emmie
Amen. I totally agree with that. how do you come up with this sorta stuff? It's amazin'. I gotta say. watch, you're gonna become a leader of a country. doesn't matter what country, but you're gonn a lead it and everyone is gonna WILLINGLY follow. I think you'd be a perfect leader. Well, you will be if you don't actually want the job. That's the one way of knowing if someone is ready to lead. If they want to, don't trust them with it. Unless thay desperately DON'T want to and they'll probably end up doing something stupid. In which case they should not be a leader. I know I'd move to your country 'cause you probably wouldn't become power-hungry and corrupt like most politicians.
ReplyDeleteEes anano retal
rose mary, i'm 15. and i'm not a genious, trust me. in fact, i am one of the stupidest people i know.
ReplyDeleteanywho, me? president? are you kidding? why on earth would i want to be president? talk about a stressful job. anywho, no inteligent person will ever voluntarily run for president, so that's a bit of a flaw in the system there. but i must admit, i'm flattered like a pancake.
but you guys actually agree with me? i really wasn't expecting you to. cool!
i agree whole heartedly. i think you'd make a wonderful president when you're older and maybe run for it. rememebr you've got Jin's vote already! YAY! Also, genius is not measured by intelligence though most think it is. so you're one of the stupidest people you know? that doesn't mean you can't be a genius. you're a genius in reasoning and thinking of things that really matter. if you have an education and don't have those qualities that you have, that's most people, and look at how they've treated our world. they've murdered it. you can make a difference, so keep doin' what you're doin' and help the world!
ReplyDeletehahahaha! i took my medicine today!
thanks, jin. but i'm not gonna run for president. i hate politics.
ReplyDeleteI'm scared, Jin.
ReplyDeleteand GR, if you're one of the stupidest people you knowit means you're very smart. someone who is really smart will surround themselves with people smarter than them to learn more about what they should do in certain situations. and not all politicians are whacked, thank you very much. if they're smart they will realize it's a position of service, not power and run for the country, not themselves. that is how an inteligent person will run. my dad's a politician. and a lawyer so don't go insulting them, either.
yesh, also, if you hate politics is only another reason to run
ReplyDeleteI agree that if you hate politics, that's a good reason to go in and change it for the better. Unless you're idea happens to be orse than what it was. In which case you shouldn't go into politics. But you have good ideas, so you'd be good for politics. And, if I livd in the united states, I'd totally vote for you. But I don't, so I can't. hey, come up to Canada and be the Prime Minister!!
ReplyDeletevery insightful.
ReplyDeletei really like that "slave to your own desires" quote. it reminds me of this argument i was having with my boyfriend over drug legalization (me anti him pro, even though neither of us use).
and the whole concept of hell is in my mind, illogical. I don't care how bad you were during your life time, no one deserves an ETERNITY (that's forever) in hell.
i prefer what i believe is the jewish version of the afterlife, where if you lived a good life, you're closer to jesus (or mohammad or buddah or whatever deity you believe in) and if you lived an immoral life you are far away from him/her/it.
wow, ok. i do agree with that but i also think freedom has more than just one definition, its such a umm, well i can't think of the word but its can have so many different meanings and values and its such a strong term to and its used in so many different ways, then again if thats true and freedom is control over our own desire does thats mean that nobody is free? because we all have desires, its not always bad things but don't we always want what we can't have? but i do agree that that is one of the meanings of freedom, probably the most important to.
ReplyDeleteExactly!! Now if only They would listen to us.
ReplyDeleteyes. exactly. when we were first considered the "free country", they meant that there was no queen or king. but after a while, people started thinking "free" more deeply.
ReplyDelete"free" started to mean "no rules". now, "free" is many different things and it has lost it's true meaning.
ali, of corse we all have desires, and of course they're not all bad. my greatest ambition is to change the world. it's not bad at all.
ReplyDeletething is, letting other forces CONTROL you, that's what i'm talking about. being so wrapped up in your desires that you follow every wim, that you have no control to say "stop! enough is enough!" that is not freedom. freedom, in my opinion, is being completely in control of yourself and your actions. of having the ability to not do things that are wrong, and to do what's right, regardless of what others think of you.
rose mary, i didn't mean to insult politicians at all! sorry it came across that way. i hate POLITICS. notice the absence of the letters "IAN". i'm sure your dad's a great guy. however, i've no interest in enering that field. that is all. sorry if you took it as an insult.
ReplyDeleteGR, you wanna know something a bit bizarre? Scratch that, REALLY bizarre? You were somehow involved in my dream last night. Like, you somehow knew this person, Elizabeth Cohia, that kidnapped me. I dunno. It was strange. o_O
ReplyDelete...You don't know any Elizabeth Cohia's do you? 'Cause that would be freaky.
Ok, thats makes sense. freedom is having control over our choices. Now you have me thinking about other meanings of freedom...
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Although I think another reason most celebrities act so outrageously is that it gets them publicity. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that you have emotional deepness and you really think about things before you write about them. if you were the president and you had any inkling to actually run then people would follow you not just because you were about to make history by being the first woman president or the first black president but because of your striving to try and make a difference. i'm not saying that people are going to vote for Barack or Hillary just because of them making history but in this presidential race it's really a race of sexists or racists.(i don't mean to offend any body in this vein of talking and i am neither sexist nor racist) i truly belive you need more than a game plan about how to run the country. You need an understanding of the pepole who will be voting for you. you would be a person of that depth and understanding.
ReplyDeletehey levi: that is quite interesting. what did i look like in your dream? i hope you won't get insulted, but i never dreamed about you, as far as i know.
ReplyDeleteali, i'm glad we're clear on that.
alannah, that's probably true. thy're really messed up, aren't they?
wingless, i agree that that's what we need in a president. but i don't have the qualities needed to be a good leader. i like to change the world in more subtle ways. like writing.
Lol, I'm not insulted. It was just a weird thing. Plus, I have a habit of telling people my dreams, especially if they were somehow involved in 'em. But, strangely, I didn't actually SEE you. There was like a reference about you. Weird, I know. o_O
ReplyDeletei really like this post. i absolutely hate when people take advantage of their freedom. the one thing that bothers me the most is when smokers say something like well, you have to die somehow! (no offense to smokers, my mom used to be a smoker so please don't take this the wrong way) just because those smokers choose that life style for themselves does not mean that i want to go to a restaurant and be affected by their choice. (or is it effected?!) everything that you choose with your freedom has some type of consequence on every one else as well. it's not just what you choose for you but for the whole country. griffinrider, you saying that you dislike politics reminded me of something i said when i was about six years old. my dad asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. i said to him, "i don't know dad but i know i don't want to be a lawyer or a politician," haha. i find that particularly amusing. politics would be a very difficult job. no matter what you did you would always have someone dislike your decisions. too much pressure.
ReplyDelete-Christine♥
pressure is...something everyone can over come. it's only there if we're letting it pressure us. we need to get rid of it and know it's not really there and that's one problem out of the way. now there's more to deal with but so what? *smiles* it's our lives! what are we gonna make of it! (should i put a ? there?)
ReplyDeletedon't worry, GR. i didn't take it as an insult. I just love doing that. someone will tell a lawyer/politician joke and I'll just look at them all serious and tell them that my dad is one. usually their reaction is funnier. usually they freak out.
ReplyDeletejin, yes, you probably should. and how come you never talk like that when you're hanging out with us?
jeez.
ReplyDeleteyep. i vote u for president!!!
except, over here we dont vote for presient...........
you should be like the official blog......wise person or summin
you could exterminate politics!!
Sometimes a little piece of writing can change the world. if you were influential enough and a lot of people agreed with then you could hve the masses following you. almost like you were influencing them with hypnosis through your writing O.o
ReplyDeleteVery deep. I think that celebrities need to be given a break, though. Millions of kids and people do the same things they do, it's just not taked about. Millions of kids dip into alchohal everyday, or do drugs, or whatever. They just don't get the attention that the super-stars do. Celebrities are just people. they just get their faces plastered on the tabloids by the paparatzi. Other than that, they're the same as us: people. And people have a tendency to do stupid things.
ReplyDelete;) The Mii Maker ;)
um...i'm not really a "human" i'm a dreamer...that makes me only half human but still...i guess i'm still considered a person
ReplyDeleteaww, mii. celebrities are just like teens, huh? why is it that almost EVERY SINGLE celebritiy is terribly depressed, and there's a whole lot of perfectly happy teens? of course celebrities are people. they are just seriously unhappy people. and everyone envies them. which i find amusing.
ReplyDeletewingless, i know. isn't it scary, how much power writing can have? it would be great to influence bazillions of people just trhough this blog, but most people have never heard of it, and are not in the least bit interested.
you do pay attention to your comments right? i mean you are influencing a lot of people that think you are made of genius materieal just by knowing you through your writing.people listen to you because you make sense of the otherwise confusing and muddled up world around them.
ReplyDeletethat's the reason i listen to you, another reason is i consider you
ReplyDelete1.) my poet teacher/hero
2.) my computer friend
have you ever read ender's game? lot's of swearing but it's a good story. one of the people gains a lot of power by doing basically what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteand while it is true that teens do that kind of thing often they do it because of the celebs.
guys, i'm honored. i like all of your blogs, too!
ReplyDeleteand yes, i've read Ender's Game. it is one of my all-time favorite books. but what i'm doing is different. i am stating my opinions just for the sake of stating them. it helps me think, and iwant to see if other people agree with me. that's all. i have no other motives. i'm not trying to take over the government or anything.
just by the way, here's an interesting fact: francis scott key, the one who wrote "the star spangled banner", was a slave owner. some "land of the free", right?
ReplyDeleteI never said you were. i'm not accusing you of anything. I'n just saying that a good piece of writing can change the world.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Freedom is not being irresponsible or being given the excuse to do anything you want.
ReplyDeleteFreedom is...freedom of yourself.
=D Long time no talk.
hey, mella! haven't heard form you in a while. i've missed you.
ReplyDeletewow, inspratonal
ReplyDeletetis true
ReplyDeletethanks, amanda. and jin.
ReplyDeleteall blogging friends, i have a request to make. my friend recently started a blog, and she would be honored if you would drop by and see it:
ReplyDeletewww.laughoutloud12.blogspot.com
You posted on my blog and I decided to check your blog out. WOW I'm glad I did!
ReplyDelete