Do you think we have More of Less Freedom than ever before?
337784
Less....\nIn our city.....they're starting a new 'prohibition' on smoking.\n\nIt's causing small privately owned businesses [bars, small restaurants] that would allow smoking [most of their clientele were smokers] to go out of business....some that have had them for 30 years!!\n\nI'm a non-smoker and feel it is not right to have this prohibition on smoking.  \nIf I don't want to go in a bar/restaurant with smokers...I don't go.  \nWhy cause the businesses to go out of business??\n\nIn addition...the stupid politicians don't realize that all the smokers are going to the bars/restaurants in the suburbs that allow smoking.  Also, the city raised the taxes outrageously on cigarettes....so...everyone is going out of the city/state to buy their cigarettes.  This guy on my block takes cigarette orders from everyone on the block and goes to Indiana to buy them. They chip in for his gas and they still end up paying less for the cigarettes than in our city.  The only ones the politicians are burning with the high taxes are the low income people who don't have a car, but smoke.\n\nSo...by the politicians having the new prohibition they will be losing revenue...which will then cause them to raise other taxes such as real estate taxes.\n\nAND....MARIJUANA is now cheaper to buy in our city than cigarettes!!  So that will be great for our young'uns!!\n\nGood going politicians!!!\nThey never think things through!!
261250
Absolutely not. That's when we NEED those freedoms the most.\n\nWe need to be able to say that "I don't like the way the administration is handling things" without fear of someone putting us in prision. \n\nI may not agree with someone else's opinions. But I'll fight to the death, to make sure they can state those opinions.
479301
When I was a child in the 50's I think we relied on our parents more for entertainment etc as we didn't have all the after school activities etc that there are today.Parents were definately the head of the household whereas today life seems to revolve around the children.There also seems to be more freedom to access the world via affordable travel so that families today are very well travelled.The one thing that has not changed is the way we all love our own families even though lots of things are different today than they were then.
672587
Sure. If people are given the freedom to whatever they want like they want to, it turns out they'll just sit around being bored. How true it is.
1163645
there is no totall freedom cause:\ninternational socity is baised  on   money, usefulness for community  and other factors which make us more and more limited,restricted and dependent ...\n\nunfortuatly that's the way it is .... and I have no answer why we shoulde live like this.it is totally ridiculous.
616298
I don't see how it is giving us freedom either. But I do respectfully disagree with your statement that we are just as free today as we were before. Our freedoms have been greatly hampered since 9-11, and the powers that be are steadily trying to chip away further at our freedoms. IMHO...
173840
Very.\n\nThe US has gotten way too conservative since 9/11. We were attacked by terrorists, that doesn't mean its time to freak out and turn the US into a Christian version of the Taliban.\n\nWaaay too uptight. \n\nThe pendulum will swing back at some point though. We won't put up with this ultra-conservative nonsense forever.
864623
Basically, the story of freedom is still an unfinished story, it isn't a single event, but a series of steps taken and yet to be taken to continue to try and acheive this ideal.  You could even make an arguement that we have regressed at times and may even be doing so now...
258818
I think our country and our goverment are corrupt, and the country mainly because of the government.The war in Iraq is having a huge effect on today's society, and the fact that a lot of federal funding is being used for a war that i see as huge mistake isn't helping. Taking the federal funding is lowering the funding used on disease control and cancer research. And then all the money going to rebuild New Orleans isn't helping either. Today's society is based off of money and power and eating. Many people's lives revolve around computers and the internet. People wonder why we have an obiesity problem and there's your answer we have to much so close to us. With the internet people don't go gain experience and do research which doesn't help with people's attitudes. America seems to be a corrupt and war based country. We say we're fighting for freedom when really we're trapping ourselves. The more wars we get into the more "national security" we have. We're watched like dogs we no longer truly have freedom because of the  securities we have. Benjamin Franklin once said, and i'm paraphrasing, that those who would give their freedom for security don't deserve freedom or security. And that's the majority of the people in the US today from what i've seen people would gladly be protected and watched then have the freedom that our forefathers fought so valiantly for. This is what i think, i'm not trying to start anything so i hope nobody takes this offensively, I am a US citizen and a republican i'm saying this about my own country, maybe i can open some eyes to what's going on in the US today.
591665
I am a U.S citizen by birth and know exactly what you mean. The U.S at one time was the "land of the free" but no more.\nWhen I point out the U.S. isn't so free anymore, more likely than not I am met with knee jerk hostility and hear some programmed phrase like, "the U.S. is the best country in the world, we have every freedom here, etc." Americans are so stupid. And their lack of THEIR own history not to mention the history of the world is sickening.
429416
I think that if we continue to give them more and more special rights, we are more separating them from everyday society and I feel that is kind of counter-productive.  It ends up segregating them more. They should be able to live in and enjoy the good and bad of society like everyone else...or as close as they can get.  \nI hope this helps.\n:)
990225
My opinion would be yes, but recently we have become minsguided.
1011800
As powerful as the lobbyist and 'powers that be' behind the scenes are, there is really nothing you or I can do but watch our freedoms erode.\n\nSure, we can be vocal and kick and scream and protest, we can sign petitions, we can call our congressman. Where has that gotten anyone, though? Slowly, piece by piece, one small thing at a time, it's still slipping away. \n\nFreedom in America has always been a relative term, anyway. Right now we are already a slave country and our masters are the central bankers who own us.
286090
Less and less free, we have really lost many rights in the last 5 years.
984399
I would say both. The American values are  being lost based upon apathy of the American public who are more concerned about the high definition TV than they are about world conditions. There is less religion in the home, less manners being taught, less parent involvement with their children, less self discipline. There is more of self serving gratification, have to have more bling bling and toys to play with. Less caring for fellow man and your neighbor. What is rightfully termed as the "Me Generation". Little accomplishments, less education and poor production within the work place. \nDon't get angry I am pointing out a analysis that was done some years ago called Work Force 2000. It pretty much summed up these trends and they do seem to be taking place. \nAs far as personal freedoms go that is based upon the current administration and the security scare tactics which has put into place the patriot act to control the masses. I might add that few  people got upset over their rights being diminished. Per Ben Franklin "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either".
1044856
Your real freedoms are not being taken away by Uncle Sam... its the state governments who are doing it, one right at a time.  It looks like its all for the common good; seat belt laws, no cell phones while driving, child seats, the state taking children for suspected abuse, gun control, zoning ordinances...\n\nBut little by little basic freedoms are being erased in the name of common good.  Soon it will be so common to have restrictions placed on our behaviors and activities that we won't notice when our personal freedom is slowly taken by the state not for the common good, but as a means of control.\n\nSo don't look at the feds but at the statehouse and local government.  Its the local government who will excercise eminent domain and give you assesed value, not market value, for it so a political crony can build a strip mall or another McMansion.
803991
Absolutely not. Men and women fought, died and were horrifically wounded in 2 world wars to ensure freedoms that included a range of civil liberties that we now take so much for granted that we seem to care less as they are being progressively eroded by those in positions of power in this country. We are the most spied on citizens in the "free" world, and our freedoms are being taken away by the day. Those vociferous people who constantly repeat the politician's and police mantra that "if you have done no wrong, you have nothing to fear" will be the first to complain when we are subjugated, monitored and controlled to such a degree, in the not too distant future, that they are no longer allowed to even voice their protest.  We are calmly sleep-walking into a totalitarian police state, and most of the responders in this forum appear to think that's fine. I despair for our future, and our liberty, when you have so blithely let it go.