My Two Cents Worth, is a play on sense as in making sense and cents as in money. And also as if to make two senses; seeing two sides of every point; as critical thinkers always tend to do.
Someone mentioned to me recently that I need to slow and calm down. Play my cards right and hold it close to my heart because change takes time. Smell the roses he said, and enjoy what life has offered you. Absolutely I replied with a smile. He continued it’s not my fault the world is what it is today. And it’s not fair to put the world’s problem on my shoulders. Every day is a new day. The days before cannot be lived again nor is it possible to undo anything you’ve done. The future is not here yet so don’t dwell on it either. What counts is the here and now, the precious time we have at this very moment. That’s why it’s called the Present. And like a present it’s precious. Nothing is more important than the time you have. Because we will never get it back. And we don’t know how much of it each of us is given. So spend it wisely he said, because unlike anything else in the world, it’ll be gone forever.
I came to the realization of my own mortality. One’s life is but a mere chapter in other’s memories. How that chapter is remembered is up to the individual. Live life as you wanted, how you want to be remembered. Fill in those chapters with inspiration of others that you are privileged to cross path with.
Bodies fade, time lost, but memories lives on. That’s when I came to realize my immortality; living in the memories of others. I’ve long to inspire and be inspired. And that’s what this blog is basically about; for me to share my views, thoughts and stories.
My friend then continued, close your eyes, and breathes in slowly and deeply. Then breathe out with smile. Open your eyes slowly and see the possibilities.
This is my new favourite singer. His music reminds me on U2 and Cold Play who are also favourites of mine. Absolutely loved the lyrics.
Are we seeing the realization of Victor Hugo’s famous maxim, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”? I certainly think so.
Liberty was defined by Thomas Jefferson as "Declaration of The Rights of Man and The Citizen" as: "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law."
However I preferred Patrick Henry’s saying that "Liberty is not the right to do what one wants, but the right to do what one must."
Liberty is the freedom to do as you please so long as you don’t coerce others. This means you have to right to associate with others voluntarily, you have the freedom of speech and publish, practice the religion of your choice or not at all, keep what you earn, run your own business and love and live as you please – as long as you don’t violate the rights of others.
We need liberty to think, to create, and to fulfill our individual and unique potential. Liberty is as essential to our psychological nature as food and air are requirements of our biological nature.
When we are deprived of liberty, economies stagnate, cultures deteriorate, science declines, living standards fall and the human spirit diminished.
As of its compelling and important value, tyrannical dictators in the past have uses liberty in promoting their evil agenda. They pretend to advocate “higher” freedom – such as “national security”, “economic equality” or “the common good”. We all have heard it in the past. The graveyards of history are filled with corpses of those deceived by such claims. Slaves are made by such claims.
From the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany, totalitarian nations have murdered and tortured over 100 million people all the name of “economic equality” and “the common good”. Even the United States imprisoned over 100 thousand American-Japanese descendents in the after math of Pearl Harbor in the name of “national security”.
In 1759, Benjamin Franklin famously said, those who give up their liberty in exchange for government promises of security, end up with neither liberty nor security.
Countries which deny liberty to their citizens are the most brutal, poor, and miserable places on earth. In the end, tyrannies fail because they are based upon coercion, and coercion is fundamentally incompatible with human nature.
It is in our nature to seek and be free. Therefore individual rights must have elements of freedom which include the freedom to live your life in peace. Other rights include: ·Freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly; ·Freedomof association; ·Rights to self-defense; ·Rights to keep what you earn; and ·Freedom of enterprise and the right to own property.
Freedom is not just practical but moral as well. Socialist often argues that liberty would not feed a starving man – implying that liberty is less important than government-guaranteed security. But it is the absence of liberty that produces starvation and poverty. The freer the country, the more prosperous it is. The poorest, most miserable countries in the world – Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, etc. – have an abundance only of government promises, fear and suffering.
From the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and the Soviet gulags, to Cambodia’s killing fields, the 20th Century has witnessed hideous despotisms. But coercive government of every variety – socialism, fascism, and the democratic welfare state – simply doesn’t work and eventually collapses.
Liberty is the wave of the future. The Internet, computer encryption, digital cash and other exciting new technologies have begun to free people throughout the world. With courage and dedication, the 21st Century will be the century of global liberty.
Sooner or later liberty will triumph. Liberty is our destiny – an idea whose time has come.
