Not Venezuela

I wanted, so badly, to post a great victory today. Yesterday, Hugo Chavez, one of the most evil men in the world, won the right to unlimited power in Venezuela. He has been in power so long already that he has managed to muscle out everyone who opposes him. Now, he has amended the constitution so that he can remain in power as long as he wants. He has solidified his position as a tyrant. This man banned all alcohol on Valentine’s Day so that people could focus on voting for his ridiculous amendment. Then, his people made comments about how that was good because then everyone would be able to vote. Are you catching the problem here? This is not about whether alcohol is good or bad. This is about the fact that people think it’s good that their choices have been taken away. Unfortunately, I cannot declare victory today. The people of Venezuela continue to vote away their rights.

I promised to keep this blog positive, so I can’t focus on the situation in Venezuela. Instead, I want to take a brief moment to reflect on the history of freedom in America. People like to talk about how liberty was the basic premise that our country was founded on. It wasn’t, not really. How can we claim that when there was categorical, legal discrimination from the beginning? The fact is that the cause of liberty has been fought for over the history of this country as we evolved into an understanding of what it means to be truly free. We defeated the laws that discriminated against women, minorities, religious groups, etc, as this country grew to greatness. We continued to define liberty as we worked to understand what it really meant to be American.

But let’s be quite clear on this, the goal is equality under the law. It is not to eliminate individual identity. The government has no right to tell people what to believe any more than they have the right to tell us whether or not we can drink alcohol on Valentine’s Day. The premise of liberty is that we have the right to make our own mistakes and live the consequences of those mistakes. I never drink alcohol, but that is my choice. I would fight for your right to choose differently. America, stand up and be proud that we still live where we can make our own choices and live with our own mistakes. Take responsibility for yourself and fulfill your own obligations. Vote for liberty and responsibility rather than for babysitting and forced obedience. We are not Venezuela, yet.