Freedom

I never found religion in a church or a book, because I could never seem to fully grasp onto what they said; I could never hold the pages up to the light and label them as my truth.

Something I am grateful for is that nobody ever shoved me into a Sunday session, I never had a Bible pushed against my skin, I was never forced into that environment in my youth.

I had that freedom....

Freedom, sadly, has become a word with many wrong definitions within a country that takes it own laws and spits on meaning, like a dog, not caring what we chew.

We attempt to redefine freedom of religion as freedom of our religion, because we cannot comprehend what others believe, nor do we care that entire religions cannot be blamed for the actions of a few.

Ever since I was a child, I was told freedom isn't free, but I find it unfair that there are those who help pay for the same freedom that excludes them, simply for being different, for not being of the perfect picture for a "true" American, red, white, and bruised.

We cannot call ourselves the melting pot when we burn anything that does not act like us, while we wander through verses as we pluck the ugly fruits and stomp them under our boots in a cruel game and pick and choose.

The freedom of speech quickly turned into the freedom of speech, as long as you fit a certain quota, otherwise, listen as we preach what you should believe is right.

The freedom of press turns into hate crime and scandal, faster than the speed of insult can affect the human anatomy, spreading through each emotion like a virus, until it becomes meaningless to fight.

I wish we all had the same freedom, the same choice that I was given: to look, to listen, to learn and understand what others believe and how they live day-to-day with the beliefs that they follow.

Here's something I have to say to those who are sadly fueled by the refusal to learn that same lesson, to whom this message should be a tougher pill to swallow:

We are all one species, derived from the same genes, with different beliefs, different Gods, no Gods, many backgrounds, many struggles, and many people willing to criticize those beliefs for any reason they can accumulate.

If this is really the land of the free and the home of the brave, we should stop fearing those who are different and spread understanding and knowledge, rather than blind anger and uneducated hate.

Freedom is fought for together, nobody can do it alone.

- Fox C. Marsh