SACPA speaker argues freedom intertwined with responsibility

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on February 23, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs welcomed Tad Mitsui to their Wednesday session to talk about “Democracy, Freedoms and Responsibilities: How are they intertwined?”
Mitsui spoke about the subject from his experience while living in Japan and South Africa, where he saw many fight and die for freedom.
In Japan he lived through a transitional period from autocracy to democracy in 1945 and saw all these process through the eyes of 13-year-old rebellious, lawless young boy. In southern Africa for eight years, he worked and lived with many colleagues and students who were fighting for freedom.
“We all have to remind ourselves that freedom…some other expression, liberty, it’s not free, you pay the price of that freedom by being responsible to your fellow citizens,” said Mitsui.
He said we have a responsibility to honour other peoples’ freedom. Freedom and responsibility are two sides of a coin and one does not exist without the other, because no one lives alone, we are in this together.
“Anarchy and chaos are the enemy of freedom and democracy. They work against freedom because it threatens other people’s freedom without responsibility,” said Mitsui.
He said someone’s freedom does not allow that person to kill another person or harm another person or drive a car without a driver’s license. Even with a driver’s license that person’s freedom does not allow them to go through a red light. If they do that, if they ignore the basic rules and all responsibility, they are forfeiting their freedom.
Mitsui spoke about his time in Japan as a 13 year old boy who decided to stop cutting his hair and getting detention as it was against the dress code.
“The dress code for all the school boys at the time was like Nazi Germany, all of us were obliged to wear military style uniforms as a school uniform and were forbidden to grow our hair, we had to cut our hair very short like a U.S. Marine Corps recruit in the boot camp,” said Mitsui.
He also joined a group of other 13 year olds and tried to pass a motion about not being punished for cheating on exams – which did not pass.
“What this civil servant from the Ministry of Education forgot to tell us is the fact that personal freedom had to be exercised within the bounds of basic rules to protect common values,” said Mitsui.
He said many years later he learned other lessons about freedoms when he lived in South Africa, where he met many people who perished.
“They paid a very heavy price for being involved in this struggle for freedom,” said Mitsui.
He said the president of the student representative council of the university simply disappeared one day, and another active member in the university Christian movement was beaten to death in prison.
“Another student I became quite close to escaped into the neighbouring country in Botswana, but one day he opened a parcel that was a letter bomb and he just disappeared. He was blown to bits, nobody could find any of his body parts in Botswana,” said Mitsui.
He said another student was shot while opening the door simply because he married someone from a different race.
“Freedom came to South Africa in 1994, but at what a cost. Freedom did not come cheap, struggle for freedom was not a picnic, nor a hot tub, no freshly fried donuts. It certainly was not the personal gratification of having fun refusing to go to get the vaccination, they died for all South Africans,” said Mitsui.
He said we have to protect our freedom and in order to protect it, we have to take responsibility to defend the same rights for the community, from all people around us. Democracy is for all people, if one person is not free, all of us are not free.
“When I think of those friends and students it makes me angry to hear people demanding their own freedom regardless of cost on innocent and law abiding people. It is irresponsible action, harms the cause and freedom. Freedom loses credibility if it is applied irresponsibly,” said Mitsui.

Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter