What is Freedom, and what is it's price?...

Okay my last post got off a topic in the comments section, but the last comment really made me think about the words that European wrote but obviously did not think about.

European's first paragraph:

My only true ideals are: love, peace and the right to live. I would include freedom, but it seems to me that this word is corrupted in your country.I'm also an atheist.

These words got me thinking about the Declaration of Independance of the United States of America so I pulled out my history books and re-read the Declaration of Independance of the United States of America (try reading it, European, it might surprise you as to why the United States seperated from England, reading about the past helps in not repeating history, but understanding the heritage of a nation and not wavering from the course set in motion at the first Continantal Congress in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776.) I also re-read the Constitution of the United States of America just for good measure. European's true ideals are: love, peace and the right to live, would European fight to keep these ideals if someone or Europeans government decided that he and his countrymen do not deserve these ideals to which he claims? My ideals are the same as stated in the first sentances in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independance:

We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by thier creator certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - Declaration of Independance 1776

These Ideals I hold onto and guard with jealous vigilance, I will fight those who would try to take these concepts from me, yes I would kill to protect my freedoms from those who would try to take these unalienable rights from me and many other Americans. The Constitution of the United States of America was written after the failure of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution better supports the concepts that were conceived of in the Declaration of Independance and it shows within the preamble of the United States Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic trnquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This was written to provide a stronger government that works for We the People to secure the Peoples Rights. Who are We the People? We the People is All American Citizens, Regardless of race, sex and economic status. (It hasn't always been this way and a war was fought between the states to change the United States for the better.) The government is elected by the People, The government Works for the People By securing the peoples rights as established in the first ten amendments also known as the Bill of Rights. (read the Constitution of the United States of America, European, maybe you will have a better understanding of the concept we live by.) When I enlisted into the U.S. Army I swore an oath to Defend and preserve the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies Foreign and Domestic. Even though I am no longer serving in the U.S. Army, I will still fight for and defend the concepts of this nation that makes us free, Freedom has always had a price and that price has always been the sacrifice of blood and lives of the men and women willing to fight for these concepts of freedom. Where is the corruption of Freedom in the United States that European writes of?

European also writes:

Europe is much more diverse and rich in political ideas. Some of them are obviously wrong, fascism and other kinds of totalitarism. The ideas of fraternity, freedom and equality steam from the french revolution (I'm not french).

As I look at Western Civilization History book, I see that Communism is a totaltarian concept that destroyed itself and nearly 40 million lives within a 70 year period of time (destroyed single handedly by Joseph Stalin). I see the facist dictatorships of Hilter and Mussolini, that destroyed the lives of millions of Europeans, that finally were defeated by allied forces under the command of a United States General. I see socialism, a nanny system that is just another perversion of communism, that is doomed to failure; as I see it. I see some nations that are democracies that work hard for the state but not for the citizens. I do not see a lot of diversity or political idealism at all.

European, most ideals of The French Revolution of 1789 was inspired and/or encouraged by the American Revolution,

The example of the American Revolution showed them that it was plausible that Enlightenment ideals about governmental organization might be put into practice. Some of the American revolutionaries, such as Benjamin Franklin, had stayed in Paris, where they were in frequent contact with the French intellectuals; furthermore, contact between the American revolutionaries and the French troops who had assisted them resulted in the spread of revolutionary ideals to the French.
-wikipedia

and the major part of those concepts of freedom that was won through the French Revolution was fought for by the common French citizen who shed blood and killed for those fundemental concepts. Something that common european citizens are unwilling to do now because they are willing to lose their freedom.

European writes futher:

Our history text books are much more thick, full of examples of good and bad ideas. Thouroughly tested. The one that doesn't know history is condemned to repeat it, they say. Confused by consumism, technology and false morality, america lives in the 18th century.

Your history books are about the same thickness as any American history book, and appearantly another form of(and I am thinking you meant to write) communism is repeating itself in Europe, in the ugly guise of socialism. I think you are to blind to see it for what it really is and will get bit by the hand that feeds you. As for being Confused about Communism, Technology and supposed "false" morality, I think that most Americans have no confusion at all (I know that I don't) about these concepts, better than one certain European thinks in the 21 st century.

Freedom is about the choices that we make and what we are willing to do to keep our freedom. This concept is not corrupt, it is only corrupt if we let it out of our grasp and are not willing to fight to keep it.

Evan