Freedom

Happy Veterans Day! "If you enjoy freedom, thank a veteran!"

Well, I don't have freedom. I can't afford food, I can't afford new clothing, I can't afford gas, I can't afford transportation, I can't get a job, I can't afford a place to live, I can't afford health care.
What other kind of freedoms are there? (If I speak my mind in public, I am told to sit down and be quiet, or arrested; I don't have the Freedom of Speech that was promised me.)

I will thank the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, of the Civil War, of WWI/II. They fought so that I would be able to vote for the government, not pay taxes to some remote leader in a distant land, so that people wouldn't be slaves, and so the world wouldn't be under a terrible dictator, or again ruled by a distant land.
And I will thank the soldiers of Iraq for fighting so we can have oil and gas. And the Afghanistan soldiers (those that finally got Bin Laden) for ridding the world of another dangerous man.
But my personal Freedoms? The things that I need to exist in this world, I don't have. And if I ever do get those things, I will thank those who have protested Wall Street, and the corruption and greed in our own government. And if any of them are soldiers, than I will thank them, because that is where our Fight for Freedom is.
In the 50's-80's we dealt with the Cold War. Though we had many freedoms at that time, we were living under fear. The War on Terrorism (not the War in Afghanistan) was to say that we, The United States of America, will not give in to fear tactics again, we will not be intimidated. So, I thank those soldiers. Though I do not thank the continuation of that fighting, nor the change of the name from War on Terrorism to the War in Afghanistan. And in reality, I do not thank the Iraq War, because it was mostly about greed and misinformation (though I do thank the soldiers who were able to capture Saddam and bring him to justice for the atrocities he committed, but there are other evil dictators in the world doing far worse (like Sudan), but we aren't doing anything about those.......


We do have many freedoms, we do have the freedom to protect ourselves (sorta, you can carry a gun, but you can't use it), we have freedom of speech (sorta, I can say what I want here, or in private; but if I protest the government, or the wealthy, I am yelled at and ridiculed, and possibly arrested, we have the right to vote for our leaders (sorta, our Presidential votes go into a state pool and then the state votes for the president, not the individuals), we have a right to health care (well, not really, it's a privilege, to those who can get insurance, which can be denied for any reason, to those who can afford it, and the utterly downtrodden who are able to qualify for government aid through the homeless programs; but the poor, and sick who aren't homeless, can't get health care without going in debt), we have the right to pursue education (sorta, children are forced to attend a school within a district they live, even if that school is not providing a satisfactory education; higher education costs an arm and a leg, and only the moderately wealthy [by American standards], those who received high grades/test scores, or those willing to go into heaps of debt can afford to attend; also education seems to be a very low priority for government funding). We used to all receive basic public services (fire protection) at no cost with no discrimination, but not that long ago a man's house was allowed to burn to the ground because the city said he had to pay an extra fee in order to receive the public service....which makes it a private service.
So, are we really free? Do we have freedoms? We have some, but many have so many restrictions or only those with money can have them. If you think about it, that disqualifies them from being freedoms.