Freedom – What’s That? – Operation **Reclaim** Loveland

Freedom – What’s That?

Freedom is a core part of the American identity, but what does it mean? Is freedom being allowed to make as much money as possible? Is freedom being permitted to pursue the career of your choice, or attend university if you can rally the funds?

Is it being able to live where you’d like, or marry who you’d like? Is freedom having the power to quit a job? Is freedom access to hobbies and recreation?

Are you free? If you are, what makes you so?

Is freedom bestowed upon us, by some external entity? If it is, can it be taken away? If it can, is it freedom?

What makes something a human right? Are rights ordained by some congress and signed into being? Are rights innate, whether recognized or not?

How much power do you have in your own live to make your own decisions? Who else has power over your decisions? Whose decisions do you transgress into?

Are we experiencing freedom if we’re punished severely for dissenting, or for not conforming? Where is freedom when we’re punished for not producing enough for other people? How does freedom work when going to work in order to pay for a roof and food requires you to do things that aren’t ethical, and that eat away at your soul?

How much freedom do we have if ALL of our basic needs have been commodified at a rate higher than we can pay? How much freedom do we have if we experience a disability that makes it even harder?

How much freedom do we have when they censor our history from our schools? How much freedom do we have when there is plenty of food for everyone but they manufacture scarcities? How much freedom do we have when our food has been designed to addict us, and they control the sources?

How much freedom do we have when we can’t access our own planet? When every strip of earth has a price tag, and many can’t afford it? How free are we when a fishing license is required to even go to a lake? Or a pass to exist on national parklands.

When the land isn’t free, neither are we. When it’s criminal to pull a fruit from a tree in a public space, we are not free. When existence requires privilege, we are not free. When due process is bypassed as our country’s standard practice, we are not free. When we have over 200 concentration camps, we are not free. When we have mass incarceration, we are not free. When a compulsory education system requires us to send our children to schools that get get shot up faster than we can keep up with, we are not free.

We are prey.