Freedom Trumps Safety

                The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the simple fact that freedom trumps safety.  Our freedoms come from God.  With those God-given liberties, our Founders created our government to protect freedom.

                A famous quote from Benjamin Franklin  states:  “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” 

                Judge Andrew P. Napolitano wrote an interesting article entitled “Liberty and Safety,”  and I encourage you to read the entire article.  Here is a short quote from the Judge Napolitano:  “The Constitution was created by free men to define and limit the government so it can defend but not threaten our freedoms.  Since only free persons can consent to a government, the government cannot lawfully exist without those consents.  Here is where the modern-day tyrants and big-government apologists have succeeded in confusing well-meaning people.  They have elevated safety – which is a goal of government – to the level of freedom – which created the government.  This common and pedestrian argument makes the creature – safety – equal its creator – freedom.  That is a metaphysical impossibility because it presumes that the good to be purchased is somehow equal to the free choices of the purchaser.”

Judge Napolitano continues by explaining why liberty and safety cannot “balance” each other because they are not equal.  “Liberty is the essence of our natural state.  Liberty cannot possibly be equal to a good we have instructed the government to obtain.”