What Do You Do With Your Freedom?

If you are reading this, you probably have freedom.

Freedom means a great deal.  In the USA, freedom means the right to gather peacefully, to protest injustice, to love whom we choose, to worship as we wish, to express ourselves, and more.  The positivity of this is immeasurable.

However, there are things we are going to see in a free country that we do not approve of.  White supremacists and neo-Nazis waving flags and taking to the streets is not cool.  However, they still have the right in a free country to peacefully march.

On the other hand, a black football player taking a knee during the national anthem in protest of injustice is equally protected, and a right in a free country.  Despite certain assumptions, this is not disrespectful of veterans or anyone else who fought for our freedom – in fact, quite the opposite.  This is what veterans have fought to allow us to do.  This is what it means to live in a free country.

Blindly following a leader leads to tyranny.  When our leaders demand this, we have both a right and frankly an obligation to remind them that this is a land of freedom.  The false equivalency being narrated by some of that leadership needs to be overcome.

Freedom means a lack of oppression.

While I grant you both the white supremacists and the kneeling football places have the same right to protest, what they represent is utterly and completely different.  Neo-Nazis, the KKK and their ilk want to deny freedom to anyone different from them and their doctrine.  They want a “pure” race of people that, frankly, does not exist.  Worse, some support extreme measures up to and including the mass-execution of those whom they consider different.  After they protest, they remain dangerous.

The football players kneeling to protest injustice want to call attention to a growing racial divide in our country.  They want to bring attention to intolerance, and an unfair system what treats them and other minorities as second-class, still.  They want greater understanding and safety from oppression.  No one is disrespecting the flag, as some are trying to claim, they are participating in a free country where we are subservient to nobody.  After they protest, they will do no harm.

One of the greatest aspects of freedom is the right to protest injustice.  That is why anti-fascists countermarch in response to the white supremacists.  If we simply allow injustice to go unchecked, then we do not engage in the freedom many have fought and died for.  Protest for greater tolerance and to create more freedom is an incredible generator of positivity.

Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action.

Knowing that the right to protest is a part of what gives us freedom, we can use this to gain more good for our world.  When we stand up for tolerance, freedom, and the rights of individuals to live the best they can, ultimately we empower ourselves.  When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings in the collective consciousness.  We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings.  When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for.  Gratitude leads to happiness.  Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude.  Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the one hundred ninetieth entry of my Positivity series.  It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone.  Feel free to share, re-blog and spread the positivity.

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