Freedom. What does it mean? [I know, don't I sound JUST LIKE a 10th grade Social Studies paper?]
To my idiot neighbor, it means he's allowed to yell, "DAVE. . . . . . . DAVE . . . . . . . DAVE!" at the top of his lungs at 9:00pm on a coolish evening when everyone else's windows are open.
To my daughter, it means she's got 1.5 days left of school and she can almost taste that sweet, sweet nectar of not having to put up with the rules and regulations of the public school system for 12 WHOLE WEEKS.
For me, it means not having to screw my psyche into being someone I'm not. It means being me.
To many others, to this country, it means a lot more. Juneteenth is coming up fast, and I love the whole story in a sad, amazing way.
And not only is that celebration of freedom coming up, so is another amazing one:
Do you know Unmitigated Me?
Why not?
She's awesome, and I'm not just saying that because I have actually met her in the real world outside my computer and maybe think she has pretty shiny hair. She's also got a great job and is inviting the WORLD to see the ACTUAL, FOR REAL, NO LIE, Emancipation Proclamation.
The real one.
Perhaps you've heard of it?
Here's her post. The Emancipation Proclamation is going to be at The Henry Ford Museum, which will be open around the clock from Monday, June 20, 2011, at 6:00pm until Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 6:00am. I'm totally going to go and check it out AND make the girl wake up at the butt crack of dawn DURING SUMMER VACATION to go see something educational.
Because how awesome would that be to see? Not just the Emancipation Proclamation, but that look of OHMYGODWHYAMIAWAKE? on a teenager's face.
But mostly the Emancipation Proclamation.
Now, class, what does freedom mean to you? A prize for the best answer [and by prize, I may or may not mean a random something or other lolling around in my house]. [But I probably do mean that.] [FREEDOM!]
Firstly, you had me at parallelogram.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the first thing I think of when I read Emancipation Proclamation?
Constipation agitation, reconciliation.
I'm in a rhyming mood.
As we all know how much I love to rant (okay, maybe not "all" of us, probably not much more than a handful if we're being honest about my readership!), you can only imagine the rant that begins to build when I think about WHY there needed to be an emancipation proclamation in the first place. Unbelievable that we live in such a world where people do that horrible shit to one another.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fantastic that you posted about this. I wish I lived closer to Michigan just so I could go visit this document -- not just to see it, but also to drag my kids and be all parental and educational, which they would shriek about and thus allow me to give them speeches, ad nauseum, about how fortunate they are to live in a world where blah blah blah and don't they know how good they have it blah blah blah
Sad thing is, no doubt most of us who read your blog really never have to contemplate freedom all that much, because we have so damn much of it. We're not actually much better than the kids to whom we love to lecture, in terms of not taking shit for granted.
The ones who really think about freedom likely don't have the means of freedom to read your blog. But we can hope that one day they will get the emancipation that is their right as a citizen of this fucked up planet Earth.
Thanks for the post. At least it made me think about something besides myself for a few minutes.
Freedom is waving at the war protesters gathered at the corner in my neighborhood. They are there every Monday afternoon. Freedom is being able to sign a petition to recall my state's governor. Freedom is you being able to write this post on the Internet and me being able to read it. Freedom is also the jerks who walk by my house and toss -- with impunity -- all their trash into my bushes and gardens.
ReplyDeleteFreedom is waving at the war protesters gathered at the corner in my neighborhood. They are there every Monday afternoon. Freedom is being able to sign a petition to recall my state's governor. Freedom is you being able to write this post on the Internet and me being able to read it. Freedom is also the jerks who walk by my house and toss -- with impunity -- all their trash into my bushes and gardens.
ReplyDeleteFreedom, I want to say, is that brisk walk I take every morning without fear I'm going to be accosted, and feeling good because my limbs are still fast (fairly) and strong, and I still draw breath.
ReplyDeleteAh hell...let's be honest. It's right now, with a mug of coffee and nobody on my back.
that being said, MomZombie makes a good point about writing here in internet land.
Freedom.
ReplyDeleteTo be who we are without being judged.
People accepting those who are not like them.
Just let people live, as long as they're not hurting anyone.
Freedom is sitting in bed at noon reading awesome blogs with a giant pile of laundry in the corner of the room.
ReplyDeleteTo be unconventional, to question authority, to make choices unencumbered...freedom.
ReplyDeleteFreedom is being able to type whatever I want into this box.
ReplyDeleteSpeech baby. Freedom of speech.
true freedom WOULD be the unfettered ability to beat people who yell random things into the night with sticks until they figure out that they shouldn't do things like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteFreedom is a book by Jonathan Franzen that was released last year.
ReplyDeleteProbably not the answer you were looking for but there it is.
And summer vacation is 12 weeks long? It feels much much longer to me.
At this exact moment, freedom means to me tooling on the internet. But it's totally different today, because I'm in San Diego. Vacation!
ReplyDeletefarting in public without a care in the world.
ReplyDeleteFreedom means sleeping without wearing any underwear...what? It's true! I don't do it because I'm scared of a house fire in the middle of the night and running out in my bare bum, but gosh, it would feel great to roll around the sheets without elastic wedged up my butt. Do I win the prize?
ReplyDeleteFreedom is putting my high heeled wedges on and dropping my kids at school, then making my way to WORK.
ReplyDelete:)
or maybe it's just being able to SAY THAT...:)
have fun seeing the EP, that sounds amazing. Wish I could go!
I live in California. Always have.
ReplyDeleteAnd every time we drove past the relocation camps at Manzanar, my mother would point it out to my sister and me.
And then we'd have to talk about it. And how our country, while potentially well-intentioned - has made some terrible mistakes.
Makes terrible mistakes, still.
We always knew the talk was coming and we'd roll our teenaged eyes.
But I'm so glad we had that mom.
Have that mom.
And also this freedom.
Freedom means you're allowed to be a bigot. And that I can call you out for it.
ReplyDeletewhen you mentioned the butt crack of dawn, I immediately thought of this as a viable use for duct tape.... There now you can get weird search results too!
ReplyDelete