How can America consider itself to be "land of the free home of the brave"?

Question

But scared of terrorist and criminals. America spends more on it's military than the next 15 countries combined ( of couse the military didn't protect us from 911 ). America also locks up more of its beloved fellow American than Russia and China combined many of which are forced to work ( also known as slavery in most places ). How can BRAVE FREE people be so frightened and incarcerated?

Answer 1

I feel it is a catch slogan. While we are more free then most, this is not a free country.  If it was prostitution, gambling and drugs would all be legalized.  Over half the people in prisons are there for drugs which is considered a victimless crime.  I feel even aborton should be legal, while I am personally against it, I feel that it is a personal decision based on someones morals and values.  When something is based upon morals and values of others, and doesn't affect me in any measurable way, it's not my business.  Now there are all sorts of people that will be against the gambling, drugs, prostitution, aborton and will be aginst this statement.  After all theres Broke people, Stoned people, Diseased people, and Dead people in that order of what i listed.  But all of these affect the person(s) participating in it a lot more then anyone else.  This infringes on someones freedom in my mind. If theres one thing I've seen though, people will do what they want, and will fight a ban, but will usually be ok when something is regulated.  Look at nevada with gamblng and prostitution, or alcohol as a legal drug.  Sure they cause problems but look at the prohibition period for alcohol.  Or the disease that streetside prostitutes cause compared to legalized tested prostitutes.

As for home of the brave, people have always felt fear over the unknown.  Not knowing if a terrorist might kill you tomorrow will do that.  Such is life, I'd say there evil but hey feel there doing the right thing.  That being said I have no problem with the government killing hem or holding them in guantanimo.  Because THEY DO affect me in a measurable way.

Answer 2

there's a lot more then that

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 3

If you can think of any place on earth where your statement is more true, then you best be leavin'... leavin #1!

Answer 4

   We lost the civil war (1861-65), after which most all of the state constitutions were changed to allow the corporations to do business; passage of the14th. Amendment was for this purpose. The paid police forces  came into existence to protect corporate interests and the common law "Sheriff's Posse" was declared to be obsolete.

   Can you name some thing that we are free to do... without license or permit? So much for the home of the free....  

Answer 5

Wow...IGNORANT.

# 1 being brave doesn't mean you can't be 'scared' of terrorists and criminals.  Brave has a whole different meaning...of course any nation is going to be afraid of terrorists because they are afraid of the fate of their people. Being brave doesn't mean you're immune to casualties/deaths...and attacks sweetheart.  And yes we spend more money on our military than ALL other nations combined actually. So what? 9/11 is an intelligence issue...not a military issue. The military serves and protects...and should be well respected.  They are not to be blamed for not being able to stop 9/11.  

Answer 6

I really think this should be in the "politics" section instead of Government (You would get a ton more answers that way)

But I completely agree. I wrote a blog once about the whole "freedom fries" thing (If you don't remember, wen we decided to go to Iraq, the president of France said that he wouldn't support us because a war with a country that did nothing to us would be illegal. Conservatives [and other Americans, to be sure] started screaming about how the French were cowards in the War On Terror and we started renaming everything with the word "French" in it to say "Freedom." Hence, "Freedom Fries.")

I said in that piece that, to follow that to its logical conclusion, if French is replaced with Freedom, then the country containing Paris would be called Free. France would then be the Land of the Free. Moreover, it's just a good thing we didn't decide to rename German chocolate "Bravery Chocolate" in WWII, else we'd lose the whole "Home of the Brave" thing, too.

A gripe that I've had since I became politically aware is that, if you believe the official story of 9/11, the terrorists have won. If terrorists truly knocked down those buildings, they did it as a statement. Most terrorists knock out infrastructure: Major centers of telecommunication and energy; bridges & roadways; factories, etc. (Look at when Gaza was bombed - it was out of power for a week or more) If they are the ones that knocked that building down, they did it to try to get us to be afraid. People act irrational when they're afraid. People will vote against their own self-interests when they're afraid.

Then the Neo-Conservative movement utilized that fear to push forward concepts that they'd had for government since the Nixon era, if not before.

Are we brave? That depends on what you ask that about. If the question is whether we are brave against terrorism or not, I would have to say that we're not. We're currently beating up a country with almost no organized military and no central resistance. The people we are fighting in Iraq do not have the level of military sophistication that we have. We are the big bully on the block that only likes to pick on people smaller than us. That's not bravery; that's the epitome of cowardliness.

And Free? We're not free. we're getting closer to 1984 every day. It's happening so much that even saying 1984 or Orwell or Fahrenheit 451 has become a cliche. We're not free. Just remember that in n**i Germany, as long as you didn't cause any problems and went about your daily life you were completely left alone, provided that you were German.

In an authoritarian system, be it a traditional dictatorship or monarchy or the new one, "Authoritarian Capitalism," they'll take away the laws that "you're not really using anyway" or "will help law enforcement catch bad guys." My favorite, when it comes to the Fourth Amendment, are the people that say, "If you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid of?" That implies that the men that put this country together had something to hide; that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson or James Monroe had a skeleton in their closet.

"Mankind will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Thomas Jefferson

Answer 7

Because people do not rebel against 'not being free' when they think they are!.

Quote: President Dwight D. Eisenhower..............

@In the councils of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.  The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."