On a cool, crisp Saturday morning, a mother watching her eight-year old son play in a peewee football game becomes dowsed with fear. The safety of her precious little boy is unpredictably risked every play of the game. Even with this large fear for her son’s safety, this extraordinarily loving mother allows her young little boy to freely make the decision to play such a dangerous sport. This mother will allow her boy to continue making decisions freely but not without her own personal safety precautions and oversee to keep her baby boy safe. H. L. Mencken asserts that the average man would rather be safe than having freedom has been challenged throughout history and in everyday life while also holding true to itself. The risks of being free have always been high with little consideration to the possible harm at hand. From the colonies, to wars for freedom, to immigrants facing dangers to be free from a chain staked place, freedom has always in a sense trumped safety.
One of the United States founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, said “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither”. Benjamin Franklin’s statement has held true from the time it was written and could easily be reflected by the actions of humans before he made this statement. Humans that sacrifice their necessary freedoms for a small safety should not have either one.
In 1849, in the latter years of slavery, a woman by the name of Harriet Tubman, as well as many other black slaves, risked her safety and life to break herself and others free from the cold iron chains of slavery. Tubman was always ready to risk her safety for someone else. To protect another field worker, she had once stood in a doorway, blocking it, and took a two-pound weight to the head just to help and protect someone else. Although she had always been this way, what she would do to save many of her fellow slaves would blow this small risky act out of the water. Tubman, on a cold dark night in 1849, ran away from her slave life risking life and limb for a taste of freedom. After she had made it to Philadelphia, she was free but did not keep this liberty, rather she risked her life and welfare once again to rescue her sister and her sister’s two children.
This wonderous woman went back again to her brother and two men. Even after these tremendously hazardous attempts, she decided to go back again and again going back to save the lives of slaves on white plantations nineteen accounted times. Tubman did not stop here. During the United States Civil War she was there with the men, who were fighting, as a cook and nurse and even decided to do another dangerous task becoming a spy for the North. Tubman wanted freedom rather than safety, risking her safety numerous times to be free and to help others become free. The virtue of freedom has always been challenged and done without precautions to safety but at times freedom does not hold its value without a safety net. As fear has grown the concept of safety has grown at a rapid pace allowing freedom and safety to rule together. Every place in the world today has so many safety precautions and regulations that it would seem as if freedom would be impossible. Although there has been a large rise in regulations, freedom is still applicable in the world.
The United States homicide rate has greatly decreased since the 1960s since safety is such a priority in the United States causing the government to spend six times more money on protective services than it did in the 60s (Financial Times). The United States as a country has more freedom than almost anywhere in the world attracting many people from countries with little to no freedoms. This freedom has safety incorporated into it especially after the tragic events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The United States has liberty and safety working together to keep the country together, a prime example that safety and liberation are able to be used together and is accepted by the average man. During the late 20th century and the 21st century safety became an enormous topic in American schools. With the rise of dangerous acts being taken out and people becoming softer, schools have had to raise their safety standards. Campuses, high school and college, across America have often banned speakers of controversial topics so that their students feel “safe” in their campus (Financial Times).
Compared to standards in the mid to late 1900s when activists were thriving, these are much harsher and stronger regulations. The regulations for safety have raised with lockdown drills, limited ability to do acts like speak on a controversial topic, a dress code, and many other precautions and restrictions. Even with these, American schools still have their freedoms but only with a few limitations. American schools are another example where freedom and safety work together. The students of these schools have their freedoms with safety factors to keep them safe from dangerous or offensive acts. Freedom and safety and now not used separately rather together working together to have both you need both. Only one of these two specific topics in a society would be disastrous to the society.
North Korea is one of the most dreaded places on earth. North Koreans have nearly no freedom but safety is very high with no recorded terrorist attacks on this country (Huffington Post). Complete safety yet no one wants to live in a place with no freedoms. On the opposite side of a scale, a completely free place would allow people to run free. This freedom would allow many dangerous acts to be held out without any consequences. This setting would be a dystopian, apocalyptic place. The perfect setting is a place with both liberty and security working together. Freedom and safety are not two words on the opposite side of a scale rather they are two words that interact and intertwine with each other. Both of these words are needed for the other, freedom and safety, safety and freedom.
The proposition that these two consequential words or, rather, concepts work with one another should be taken into careful consideration. The important suggestion that freedom and safety work together allows a person to live contentedly being protected as well as having the ability to be independent. A setting where safety is ineffective, creates useless freedom while a setting without the ability of liberation, causes the irrelevance of security.
