Another American Freedom – Freedom From Hatred

American ideals sprout from our fundamental principles of being a fee people. And spurred by these principles, our founding fathers strove to establish a system of government that would serve and protect our freedoms in perpetuity. The ideals and the freedoms that Americans hold to today are embedded throughout the historic records of our nation. America presents its absolute right to freedom in our Declaration of Independence. We structured the form of our governing bodies to focus their powers to the service of the people and limited their power over the people in our Constitution. We extended the supremacy of the people over the government through the adoption of our Bill of Rights to expressly state particular freedoms upon which the government is forbidden to tread. And in accordance with these seminal seeds of a free nation, the United States has established the American societal contract of a free and democratic people who are bound together by their mutual interest in being a nation that follows our ‘rule of law’ in pursuit of those freedoms and principles.

We hear about any number of our freedoms everyday from ever increasing sources: the news media offering coverage of people exercising or espousing their freedoms, political parties jockeying for public opinion, campaign ads alerting us about the eminent threat to our freedoms, decisions from courts (Supreme or otherwise) that cite said freedoms, and even in the artistic medias where we seek our amusements of the day. If you have not heard about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, or freedom of religion recently then you have not been paying attention.

What then do we make of the current ‘ground-zero’ mosque issue and the torrent of opinions, positions, charges, and rants regarding the mosque in the context of our American ideals? We could say that this is nothing more than a healthy debate on the issue. But ‘healthy’, really! is what you see and hear an open, rational and intelligent discussion of the question? Does your heart swell with pride when you hear the reasons offered for someone’s side of the debate, is your American spirit lifted by the moral virtue being presented, and is your sense of justice and equality satisfied by the way the debate is conducted?

Oh, by the way; what do you think the actual question surrounding the ground-zero mosque is? It is not whether they have the right to build the mosque, or community center or both. There are any number of legal rights guaranteed by our laws that make it clear that building the mosque is perfectly legal. The question is not whether they should build the mosque. Presumably they have already determined that this is a course of action that they believe is appropriate and advisable for whatever reasons they have considered. Their right to choose is no less endowed then another’s right to choose to state that they are against it. But not liking their decision in no way diminishes nor restricts their right to choose to do it. So again what is the question?

I think the question is whether in America we collectively hold that like Rockwell’s Freedom from Fear and Freedom from Want that there is a right to a Freedom from Hatred. Do we believe that under our democracy that hatred is a valid reason for our citizens, even if it were to be a majority of our citizens, to restrict the rights and freedoms of other citizens? Is this what the founders of our country fought a revolution for; is it what America fought two World Wars, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam war, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraqi, and a plethora of other conflicts around the globe for? Did Americans die so that even any single one of our freedoms could be limited for some but not all? You all know the answers to these questions. There is not even a question of what our American ideals are in this matter.

Americans always have and always will have to struggle with the difficulty and troubling demands placed upon a free people who strive to fulfill the blessings that freedom bestows upon us and our posterity. I do not expect or require others to do what I would do, but I do expect and require them to allow me to choose as freely as any other free citizen has a right to choose. I expect that in America I have a right to my liberties not being overshadowed by hate; that I have right to a Freedom from Hatred.