Freedom on the March

[Adam's Apple]

The March for Freedom
By Cal Thomas
February 28, 2005

Whatever else one takes from President Bush's trip to Europe, it is obvious who's on the offense and who's playing defense. Twenty years after Ronald Reagan proclaimed freedom inevitable for what were then called "captive nations," freedom is on the march as perhaps never before.

Europeans are going to have to rethink their policy of vacillation, accommodation and surrender to evil. In the '80s, millions of Europeans demonstrated against Reagan's policy of victory over Soviet communism and its offspring in Central America. But the paradigm has shifted. Now it is totalitarianism -- from the Middle East, to North Korea, to a resurgent virus in Vladimir Putin's Russia -- that must justify depriving people of their freedom and keeping their governments undemocratic.

In a speech in Bratislava, Slovakia, last Thursday, President Bush spoke to the "citizens of a free Slovakia" and noted that nearly 17 years ago "thousands of Slovaks gathered peacefully in front of this theater. They came, not to welcome a visiting president, but to light candles, sing hymns, pray for an end to tyranny and the restoration of religious liberty."

The president said that communist authorities "watched thousands of candles shining in the darkness - and gave the order to extinguish them." While noting that the authorities succeeded in crushing the 1988 protest, the president said, "The people of Bratislava lit a fire for freedom that day, a fire that quickly spread across the land. And within 20 months, the regime that drove Slovaks from this square would itself be driven from power. By claiming your own freedom, you inspired a revolution that liberated your nation and helped to transform a continent."

This is the Bush Doctrine: Freedom is something to be embraced by all people, regardless of faith, history or ethnicity. It is a universal value. The tide of history has turned. Where within memory the oppressors were on the march and free people had to explain why they wouldn't move; now freedom is marching and dictators are being told to get out of the way.

President Bush has nothing for which to apologize when he champions freedom. Dictators and those European leaders who have been on the wrong side of history more than once should at least entertain the possibility that Bush may be right and this time align themselves on the side of freedom and liberation for people who do not enjoy it.

www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050228.shtml

©2005 Tribune Media Services

 

[immto]

Religious Liberty
“We only have two problems in Washington; elements on the left who want the state to control the church, and elements on the right who want the church to control the state."

- James Standish, 2004



Why is it that it's always one way or the other when it comes to religion? Where's the compromise? The founders of this country obviously had a strong belief in god but they also had a strong belief that a church should not be in charge of the government. I don't know if the republicans really wants the church to control, the nor do I claim that the democrats want to control the church. But it seems that too much religion gets mixed into our politics these days.

Everyone has the right to freely choose his or her own religious belief. When it comes to policy however I don't believe that a person should use his or her own belief to mandate what others can or can't do. For instance, I respect life. I could not suggest to anyone an abortion. But I would not forbid someone from doing so because I don't believe that it's right. That is exactly the type of situation that we as a country need to understand is dangerous.

I know many who read this will disagree with me but please consider what would happen if each and every important decision for our society was based on a religious belief or the bible. Who's belief would we choose from, which bible, the Koran maybe? We are one the largest Muslim countries, right? "LOL" And there lies the problem with that frame of mind. Obama says, we are one the largest Muslim Countries, does that make it so? Of course not, but if we mandate that a church or set of beliefs rule the land, then we are in for allot of trouble.

If you don't believe in abortion, the best and single most powerful thing you can do, is to not have one. Protest if you must, but don't protest with the goal of mandating for someone else. Protest with the goal of changing someones mind.