Ok, this is a rant. It’s a rant because I’m frustrated. I want people to understand how much I love freedom, how much joy I get from liberty. And what’s happening now gets in the way of that understanding.

There are all these people preaching hate in the name of freedom. I don’t know why they’re doing it — their idea of what’s important to freedom don’t seem to line up with mine — and I’d like to become curious, some time, about what they’re doing. But for now, I’m just really really sick of it.

Health Care Reform

The current health care legislation is lame and inadequate, but for purposes of this post, let’s assume we’re talking about real reform — the kind that means people don’t go blind or lose limbs or die because they can’t afford health care.

Here’s what I want to tell folks who claim to be speaking for freedom, for limited government, for constitutional government:

AFTER we’re free of a census that asks us to tell the government our “race”,
AFTER we don’t have standing armies all over the world,
AFTER we aren’t in a permanent state of war against a vague enemy,
AFTER we aren’t in a “drug war” that results in a higher percentage of Americans being in prison than citizens of any other major country and kills zillions of people each year,
AFTER corporations aren’t treated as people while being protected from the consequences of their actions,
AFTER we no longer have an IRS that’s above the law and ruins lives,
AFTER the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is seen as a horrible, tragic mistake we once made, and could never make again…

AFTER all those things, and after we’ve solved the problem of human beings experiencing horrible suffering for lack of health care while we stand by and do nothing, let’s sit down over a nice cup of coffee and see if we can come up with an even better solution that honors that beautiful thing called liberty.