Freedom? What's does it really mean?

This blogger discovered a long time ago, it sometimes depends on where a person is standing: Geography. IF you peel away the rhetorical onion, Freedom is the RIGHT to safely and peacefully live ones own life FREE from religious or political fear. Not the fear of the unknown, which will always be a part of our own humanity, but the RIGHT to search for & perhaps discover for ourselves our own individual truth.

FREE from the burden of fear.

This may be the reason why the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of expression, was 1st. From the seeds of this one simple idea, all the other freedoms enjoyed by Americans followed...

While the United States of America cannot solve all the world's problems, at the very least, as a country & as a people, we must never compromise our values & ideals for liberty & freedom.
It's from this light... 
all hope shines.

...perspective...

"As we debate how the United States can best influence the course of the Arab Spring, can’t we all agree that the most obvious thing we can do is stand as an example of a nation that holds an individual’s human rights as superior to the will of the majority or the wishes of government?" 
~ Senator John McCain
May 11, 2011
The Washington Post

Photo of Senator John McCain taken by Peter Rimar in San Antonio, Texas (January 2007).
The Fall of the Berlin Wall:
The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 (Paperback)