Treasuring freedom
By Letter to the Editor on February 25, 2021.
ditor:
The Second World War ended in 1945: Many silly little life-style restrictions also ended in Japan. I was an incorrigible weirdo in seventh grade. Free at last! I decided to grow my hair. Under the war-time regime, all school boys had to keep their hair very short.
Only one shaggy head among several hundred cropped hairs must have stood out. I was called to the principal’s office. They asked me why I had not cut my hair. I said, I got tired of cutting hair so often. Besides my hair would not offend anybody only making me look weird. They knew they couldn’t force me to cut my hair. I got away.
Many people seem to have a problem wearing face masks. Is it the same challenge as length of hair? Is it an attack on human rights? We wear a mask to prevent us passing virus to other people. But some people don’t see it that way. A face mask is uncomfortable. Maybe some people simply don’t like to be told, like the grade seven boy.
We do have the rights to liberty but we do not have freedom to endanger people’s lives. It’s like ignoring the traffic lights or texting while driving.
Gun ownership poses the same problem.
Of course freedom is our right. It’s the hallmark of liberal democracy. It’s also what makes us creative and dynamic. Autocracy stifles creativity. It is a particular American dilemma. The U.S.A. is proudly a land of liberty. Freedom is sacred. The Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms against arbitrary measures.
That’s why Americans are creative and their society violent. Americans have won the largest number of Nobel Prize in many fields.
Meanwhile it’s where the largest number of people killed by the guns held by fellow Americans: the second largest number of deaths after traffic accidents.
I treasure my freedom. I hold dear the same spirit of a long hair wierdo. But I want to live a longer life too.
Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
Lethbridge
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