Freedom
home for thanksgiving, we were talking about the development of the suburbs and highway system post WWII and i pointed out how the inefficient and decentralized design of the suburbs made it necessary for people to rely on their cars to do EVERYTHING, at the expense of our environment, among other things. my grandma said, “yes, but the personal FREEDOM that cars provide…” it gave me pause. interesting to think of the ability to drive oneself anywhere at any time (as opposed to having to, say, take public transportation) as “freedom.” to me “freedom” is the ability to think whatever i want, say whatever i want, be whatever i want. and yes, to GO wherever i want. but not necessarily whenever and however i want. at what point did the soaring, eternal promises of the constitution become equated with materialism?
we NEED to get out of this 1950’s paradigm in this country and we need to do it NOW. attention america, you don’t have a RIGHT to drive an SUV everywhere and eat meat everyday and throw away whatever you want and buy a bunch of plastic shit you don’t need. that’s not “freedom”. and it imposes on future generations’ “freedom” to breathe clean air.
