I am confused, we are told that we live in a free country. However, we are constantly told we cannot do things

Question

I am confused, we are told that we live in a free country. However, we are constantly told we cannot do things that we should be allowed to do. When we are charged with a crime we are told that we are innocent until proven guilty but are not treated as such. When we do finally get a trial to be judged by a jury of our peersthey are instructed that if they have ANY reasonable doubt that they cannot find us guilty. How does someone convict someone and NOT have a doubt? Unless I was there to see the crime myself I would always wonder if I sent someone that was innocent to prison."

Answer 1

Land of the Free! - unless otherwise noted.

Answer 2

More people need to read the Bill of Rights to understand how far off track we've gotten. The Bill of Rights doesn't grant people liberties; it states what liberties the government *can't take away* from us. The government is supposed to be the servant, not the master.

On the other hand, nobody ever said liberty means "anything goes." Living in a society means abiding by an implicit contract saying that your rights end where another person's nose begins. So although liberty is not absolute, we *have* drifted a long way from the notion that you should be able to do whatever the heck you want, so long as you're not harming anyone else. In fact, we probably never quite achieved that ideal, but we're certainly a lot further away from it today than our founding fathers' generation was.

And it's really our own fault. We've let the government take away our freedoms, a little bit at a time, over a long period. Just look at us post-9/11. People are willingly forking over their freedoms in exchange for same vague promise of "security."

We also give up our liberties when we can't handle them like adults. With rights come responsibilities. The Second Amendment doesn't mean you can drive a tank down the street or put a nuclear bomb in your basement; it means you have the right to protect yourself and your family against intrusions and violence, from private citizens and government alike. The speech clause of the First Amendment wasn't written to protect racists and pornographers; it was written so we could freely speak our minds about our government without fear or reprisal. (The post-9/11 GOP and its followers especially seem to have forgotten this. Political dissent is the cornerstone of free speech.)

Keep two sayings in mind when you're voting for your leaders:

"They that can give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

"Liberty is not license to do what you want to do. It is the freedom to do what you ought to do." -- unknown

Answer 3

Imagine if everyone was really truely free and we could do whatever we want. This country would be in shambles, and people would be dying all the time. Everyone would be so reckless. We need to have limits set on us, because most of us cant be trusted to make good judgements, or to care for the safety of other people, or of ourselves. People would steal, because we are free, right? Eventually the economy would be in ruin. We'd rather not have to work, and steal to get what we want. We just need to have the limits there, we are freeer then a lot of countries.

With the crime thing:
I think that most cases have a substantial amount of evidence that leans in the guilty, not guilty side.
Sure, innocent people do go to jail some time, but so do guilty people. Maybe its a chance worth taking? maybe not?
Thats why there is such a large amount of people in a jury. So the options can be weighed from so many different viewpoints, so that the likelihood of a innocent man going to jail is lower then what it could be.

Answer 4

You have to remember the original context of that phrase.
It was written when America was an English Colony. Freedom meant freedom from foreign rule, not freedom as we think of it today. Foreign rule has been replaced by a corrupt government. Instead of coming from an outside entity, it now comes from within. I totally agree that too much of our freedom has been lost lately. We can take it back however.

I am a little confused by your question though. The fact that we even have a judicial process and that we are not automatically guilty of a crime says alot about our freedoms. In parts of the world people are imprisoned without any trial. If we weren't free, the police or government would pass judgment and sentence without any input. The fact that we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty says alot about freedom.

Answer 5

Sorry,but there is no totally free country-remember we
live in a majority rule system and this cannot provide
freedom for all(the minority for example).

And we must be told we cannot do things; for you may like
do things which i dont like to do,and so to the groups that
abound. All are subject to the law/laws;usually bad,and
after a while the real bad ones are changed for better
ones(and repealed/superseded/etc-you get the drift).
And yes,some innocents are wrongly found guilty;we
should all feel some bad because of this.

Answer 6

1) freedom is relative. Anarchy is complete freedom until someone decides to use that anarchy to suppress your freedom. Hence we have laws to protect our freedoms and prevent that, which may seem like lack of freedom to you, but sure sounds like a good idea to me.
"Reasonable" doubts. Everyone doubts. But reasonable doubts are based on evidence/facts. That's a whole different level.

I, for one, do not wish a country based on anarchy, nor has this nation ever been meant to be one. Go take a few courses in government and you'll understand the "WHY" we do things the way we do much better.

Let us know how your thoughts develop.

Answer 7

I know why you are confused. You are mixing a perspective from 50,000 feet and other parts of your question are at 10,000 feet and then you compare with view from the runway. We live in a free country means you have rights. Your rights end when another persons rights begin. The questions on the "runway" about due process need a lawyer to answer but somehow this question could never be answered the way it is written because there is a different answer at each level of perspective.

Answer 8

Even though we live n a free county, nothing is absolute. You do not have the absolute right to do something if it bothers someone else. For example young people think they can play their music as loud as they want they say they have that freedom, but they should understand that they do not have the freedom to distrube someone else. Their right to p[lay their music loud stops when it bothers some else's right to be in peace and quiet.When they believe that there music is not too loud then it is left up to the court to decide who is breaking the law.

Answer 9

True, but you always need to take into consideration that you are allowed to do whatever it is you want to do AS LONG AS this does NOT infringe on other people's rights. This is the key.

As far as your second question is concerned I agree with you... but the line needs to be drawn somewhere and the law needs to set examples for others who may be thinking of committing the same/similar crime..

Answer 10

We do not live in a freedom society we live in a society with liberties. We live in a republic not a democracy. We traded our freedom in exchange for security. The only way this is a free country is that we are free from oppression from a dictator for example. Hope this helps

Answer 11

This is no longer a free country. We need to get permission for almost everything. Tracking and surveillance occurs on almost everything. They are fast tracking more of the police state initiatives.

The War on Terror is really justifying a War on Our Rights and Freedoms.