Civil Liberties

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Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all of which are our God given rights as stated in the "Declaration of Independence" by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. Liberty is my main focus for this essay. Liberty as defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as "the condition of being free from restriction or control, and the right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing." As Americans we have never quite been truly liberated. The government has always had some sort of laws and regulations to restrict and control us from total liberty. First of all, my connotation of liberty is very similar to that of the main denotation of the term liberty. It is that everyone, no matter what race or gender you are, is given the right to say, do, live, believe, act, and practice any religion, any way we choose. I believe the government should not be able to put any limitations on what we as Americans can do in America. I think that liberty plays an important part in our democratic society, in helping it exist for as long it has. It gives, us the people, the opportunity to vote and let the government know how we think about the issues that are going on in our country. I think that if we didn't have conflicts or some sorts of disagreements in our nation, then our liberties would have never changed and we would still live in a world where only white, land owning men control society. Minorities and women would still be in the power of their oppressors, and would have no say in what goes on in our society. In the chapter I read about "Government, Power, and Justice", in 75 Thematic Readings, the only sides of liberty that I have read about are the negative aspects of liberty. In the "Declaration of ... ... middle of paper ... ... do not believe in? The government also uses its power to control us, by taxing our land, wages, and goods. The government decides who to give the money back to (rich get richer) and what will be done with it while we just sit and hope that the government's decision will affect us in a positive way. I have touched on a lot of things that have been brought to my attention about liberty, all of which seem to be more negative than positive. That does not necessarily mean that our government is a group of power hungry tyrants looking to control all the people of our nation, but our government has done less to give us more freedom then it has taken it away. But this is just my connotation of what I feel liberty is in our country; some people may disagree with what I have said or maybe even share some of the same opinions'. But isn't that what liberty really is?

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