To my fellow Americans, given what today is and the current socio-political climate, I want to address something that's bothered me for years in a thread. I want to discuss "freedom", specifically in the context of the Bill of Rights.

I had the fortune of studying under Dr. Robert Abele who focuses on philosophy as it relates to politics, ethics and jurisprudence. He was the first to show me the connection between USA's Bill of Rights and John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government"

Jefferson and the founding fathers were highly influenced by Locke re: the nature of government. Parts of our Bill of Rights are lifted directly from Locke's writings. In fact, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is a ripoff of Locke's "life, liberty, and property"

Thus, to understand "freedom" in the context of the Bill of Rights, we really need to understand "freedom" according to the philosophies of John Locke. So what did he say about freedom?

Locke believed that we have freedom only to the extent to which our freedom does not impinge upon the freedom of others. There is a natural limit to freedom here. For example, a person is not free to harm another for the other person is free to live a life without harm.

Yet, I have never had the sense that _this_ is how we understand "freedom" in the USA. Instead, "freedom" is more often used with the implied adjective "absolute". Chaotic and anarchic. Freedom is understood as being without limits. It gets worse.

Our current socio-political crises have revealed that the notion of "freedom" is even more extreme than without limit for some people. A mentor of mine recently described it as a mindset of "My freedom is more important than your freedom." I could not agree with them more.

The problem with believing that your freedom is more important than another's is that it's a paradox. If all individuals apply this belief as moral law, then everyone's freedoms are impinged by someone with superior freedom. It results in the least freedom and liberty possible.

Let's apply this to a common scenario happening now: mask wearing. If a person decides to exercise their freedom to not wear a mask, they are impinging upon the freedoms of anyone they come in contact with to be safe. Their freedom to live a healthy life is threatened.

The harm to freedom done by those who do not act with a Lockean understanding of "freedom" actually violates their very beliefs about "freedom". People who would demand maximum liberty only mean maximum liberty for themselves. They are a walking contradiction.

This all said, it is not like United States _has ever lived up to the Lockean standard of freedom_. We impinged the freedoms of the indigenous people of this land. We impinged the freedoms of those we made slaves. We are some of the worst violators of freedom to have existed.

As you go about your life today, I challenge you to examine your understanding of "freedom" and "liberty". Does it consider others? Does it _actually_ work to maximize "freedom" and "liberty" for _all_ others? Or is it really just about you and your freedoms?