Thankful Thanksgiving Day 21: Freedom

I am free to write this blog post and say whatever the hell I want. Today I am thankful for that freedom. And all the other freedoms I have living in this day and age.

We’re not a completely free society. At some levels that’s good (complete freedom is anarchy, I like that people aren’t free to shoot me). At some levels it’s bad (using the law to prevent people from getting married). But overall we have a pretty good balance.

The reactions of police and local city governments to the Occupy movement is a little disturbing and uncalled for. But the fact that the protests have gone on this long with such little violence from either side says a lot about society. Some responses may have been harsh and many people have been jailed, but its nowhere near the response you’d have seen in the past. Union busting and suppressing civil unrest use to involve a lot more bloodshed.

While there appear to be some efforts to curb some of the freedoms on the internet (SOPA), we are currently free. But we have also have the freedom to fight these efforts.