Originally Posted by
König
I really don't understand when people start this old repeated tune "where is the USA I knew?" or "we need to take our country back". Back to where? The 19th century which saw slavery? Early 20th century when women could not even vote? World War 2 when American citizens of Japanese descent were put in concentration camps? McCarthy's 1950s ? Segregationist 1960s when black folks had to ride in the back of the bus? Please enlighten me which one of these you'd like back? I don't like all this post-9/11 security non-sense either, but I will take it any time compared to being a minority and living during the times that I have listed.
Well, yes, I do want to go back and here is why.
We never said that the country was perfect. A system was established whereby over time we could make changes as needed. Almost all of the past imperfections were corrected by increasing the liberty of the people or specific groups of people that had been denied the full liberty promised by the direction taken by the founders.
The point to which I want to return is the one in which we based our ideals and our success on the progress toward increasing liberty.
We find ourselves at a point in time whereby nearly all changes involve the reduction of liberty, rather than its promotion and elevation.
I want to go back to a country that prided itself on the assurance of liberty. It was country that sometimes painfully sought out those injustices and at great cost instituted remedies. We are better because of those changes. I do not want a return of the injustices. That is simply insane. I want a return to the longing to eradicate the injustice of some having less liberty than others, whatever the political or personal cost.
We now try to correct problems by reducing liberty, not enhancing and embracing it. Yes, I want the old way.