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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by MguyX[/i] [br]With the upcoming July 4th celebrations upon us, I wax patriotic and give you . . . freedom. There is a terrible beauty in the image of Paris, crying. She symbolizes both the ugliness and the beauty of freedom. Paris Hilton was released from jail yesterday, in an insignificant event covered, both eagerly and reluctantly, by the entirety of Western media. Two network outlets were outed for trying to pay for the interview, from which they quickly shied away. After listening to her �uncompensated� interview with Larry King, I am confirmed that she is just a child with too much money and no real aspiration. Paris is an icon. Her name invokes the treasured memory of a city that helms a country to which this country owes its independence. Her reality mocks the creation of a country that owes a debt of gratitude to a city that helms a country to which this country owes its independence. The United States of America is both the flagship and the poster child for freedom. It actualizes and mocks the ideals of what it means to be free. I love the principles for which my country is constituted to stand. This land has come to mean the promise of a free world, where people are free to make their own way, unencumbered by the dictates of a single personality or ideology. But we suffer from the efforts of single personalities and single ideologies to plunge us into the pseudo-freedom that they dictate. The irony in my selection is an old and tired observation. This country evolved from the heroic efforts of the upstart colonies of Britain to forge a way for themselves. I do not fault Britain for subsidizing the colonies' birth. Nor do I fault that great country for trying to keep them within the realm (though there may have been some circumstances that exacerbated the willingness of the colonists to break free from what they considered an oppressive government -- and Thank You -- France -- for helping the colonies to start, and to achieve, the implacable force of civil rights, which even the colonies' successors would and must contend with and continue to refine). I even forgive that black stain upon this Constitution that allowed the enslavement of my ancestors. Because this country, at least � and too long after its parent soverign did the same � abolished slavery. But the product of our captains of industry are weak. Freedom has left their progeny weak, and unable to captain this ship. What happens when a weak soverign captains the helm? �The garboard strake leaks, the seams need caulking . . .� Freedom has its blessings; freedom has its curses. It built a country of promise. It created a country of institutionalized terror. It spawned a country where I can plant a banner in my yard that criticizes its excesses. It houses an amalgam police force that watches me, and you, for the purpose of forwarding freedom, with the threat of even secret incarceration. The hallmark of freedom is the individual spirit. It is the upheaval of spirit against the system that spirits create. The system that spirits control. That the parents of Paris would allow her to obtain only a G.E.D. ("General Eduducation Diploma," or as Chris Rock would say, a "Good Enough Diploma" -- meaning she failed to complete even high school in the U.S. [not to mention, abstained entirely from even attempting college/university] )is a travesty to parenthood. What does one do with so much money? It is a blessing, and a curse, and a trap for the uninformed. Freedom means the freedom to help the world, or at least your fellow man, to do better. With great power comes great responsibility, says Uncle Ben. And it does. [/quote]    -  HTML is OFF | Forum Code is ON   Check here to include your profile signature.