Feature

The essence of our own self is our soul, mind and spirit. We are all free to change our thoughts and attitudes, improve our understanding and knowledge and alter our beliefs-the inner parts of each of us.

Folks, all of us need to remember that they are all free! Living in a free and liberal environment is the best times of our lives. Also, the worst times too.

The consequences of the freedom given to the youth of our country are most of the times bad. As mentioned before, all of us need to realize that we are having the presence of the freedom of thoughts, attitudes and so on. But when we have more of the so called freedom we want, than it often results to the worse of us.

Worse of us in the aspect that if it actually did us some real good, then we wouldn't have had this much of our generation engrossed in activities like chain smoking and drunk driving. Because when investigated, it has always been proven that they had been UNBOUND freedom which ultimately resulted to their own destruction and devastation.

But many questions often arise in my mind. Is that what we call FREEDOM? Freedom of smoking? Freedom of driving drunk? Freedom of drinking in the first place? Freedom of destroying and devastating our own lives? When has the meaning of freedom changed like this? When has anyone given us the right to rampage OTHERS lives too?

Some may say that it changed over the generations. Some may say that it changed for the illusions of the young generation. Some also say that one started it and the others followed. All of these ideas are neither impractical nor visionary. They are right in their very own places.

Actually, the root of the problem (irresponsibility) is so ingrained, that slogans and speeches cannot possibly explain the profound meaning of this one word 'freedom'. At best these would merely embark a spark to seek new information in us but even that is temporary.

As mentioned, one needs to start it for others to follow. If one person lights the candle then the others will ultimately start doing the same. The only thing we need to work on is to keep the candle glowing. The easiest method of knowing what freedom actually means is to let individuals improve their own selves. This is the most patient and quietest way of changing the society because it concentrates on the improvement of men and women as individuals. As we all change as individuals, the society will change itself. Because the society is definitely not formed by aliens from other planets you know! So in a very simple line, if we take care of the means, the ends will take care of themselves.

Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It's not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to people. The people who have known freedom and lost it, have never known it again for freedom is an instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond.

I would like to end by asking the question I asked at the very beginning of this essay.

“Do we really deserve it?”

(Student of Bay View School.)