If you've ever read Pebbles on the Seashore by Alfred George Gardener1, he states, "A person's freedom ends where another man's freedom begins".

Or your liberties end where mine begins. Everything must have a limitation in a civilized world in order for it to work. That's why we have laws, and Law Enforcement Officers or LEOs to enforce those laws.

There will always be those that don't see it that way, those people are the socialists, the communists, the monarchists, and of course, the dictators. The forefathers foresaw this. This is why they wrote the United States Constitution, giving each Citizen unalienable rights that they are given at birth.

One must never give up those liberties, not even for security. All security is fleeting and temporary. May it be a gun, or your body because your gun will break or run out of ammo, or you may tire or get injured. If you look to a letter written by one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin to Governor Morris of Delaware in 17552, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," Mr. Franklin was indeed correct.

For when the Government takes your liberties, rarely do they ever give them back. Look at Nazi Germany. Hitler said his power was temporary. It took defeating him in war to get his people's freedom back. The former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the same thing, it took the fall of the nation.

Back to where your freedoms begin and end. They begin of course with you. The government doesn't give them to you. You are born a free person in America. That's what makes this country so great. You are free to speak your mind, to pursue your wealth in any lawful manner, make as much wealth as you please.

Where do your freedoms end? When you start to oppress others. Then you're no better than a dictator or a monarch that our founding fathers and the pilgrims fled from. Principles are what we need to have to make sure that we don't cross that fine line and become the dictators from the 20th century and the one ruling by decree in the White House at the time of writing this article. He will remain unnamed.

  1. The full poem can be found here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10675
  2. The letter can be found here: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-06-02-0107