Today is July 4th 2020 and a good time to talk about life in a free country.  Before we go any further lets make sure we are clear about what the word free actually means.  A country cannot be considered free simply because you were born there.  Nor can a country be considered free just because its people are less enslaved than people in other countries. According to Noah Webster's dictionary the word free means to be unrestrained, not under compulsion or control, liberated from the government, or the control of parents, or of a guardian or a master, like water flowing through an open canal, or a breeze of air passing through a house whose doors and windows are open.

In a free country you can do anything you want so long as you don't violate anybody else's rights.

In a free country you can ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet, and do it legally.

In a free country you don't have to be licensed by the government before you can cut people's hair.

In a free country you can smoke in a bar.

In a free country you can drink raw milk if you so desire, even buy it and sell it.

In a free country you can board a plane without being poked and prodded by pedophiles.

In a free country you never have to worry about your children being kidnapped by your own government.

In a free country you can collect and store the rainwater that falls on your own roof.

In a free country you don't have to pay thousands of dollars to the government for permission to build on your own land.

In a free country the supply of land is not artificially restricted to maximize tax revenues.

In a free country housing is affordable, not because of any government programs but simply because there is no one to make it unaffordable.

In a free country no one is forced to live behind bars for the so called "crime" of smoking a plant, or for selling a plant, or even for snorting a plant.

In a free country "no victim, no crime" is not just a good idea, it's the law.

In a free country if you do an honest day's work then you receive an honest day's pay; a living wage.

In a free country you can afford to go to college without having to go in debt for life, or signing up to kill people overseas.

In a free country there is no taxation without representation, therefore if you are old enough to pay taxes, then you are old enough to vote. By the way, in a free country, if you're old enough to vote on who the president is, then you're old enough to buy your own beer.

In a free country you can feed the homeless all you want, without getting into trouble with the police; of course in a free country it would be hard to find any homeless people to feed.

In a free country you can defend yourself in your own home without getting into more trouble than someone who came to rob you or to rape you.

In a free country no one in government sets a maximum size for the soft drinks you can buy, or tells you what hours you are allowed to buy alcohol.

In a free country a child can set up a lemonade stand in front of their house without violating dozens of ordinances.

In a free country the laws are few and the laws are just, written in plain language and easy to understand.

In a free country you are yours and I am mine. In a free country everyone is the rightful owner of his or her self.  As owner of your body you have the right to defend it or to put it at risk, the right to heal it or to harm it, it belongs to you, not to the state or corporations or the banks or insurance companies.   You have the right to the natural world, the land, the sea, the air, and the water; the rightful inheritance of all mankind.   As owner of yourself you have the right to life, liberty, and property.  The right to work, the right to travel, freedom of speech and of thought and expression.