Symbols of Freedom in The United States Essay Example

What is freedom? Anyone could gather a multitude of people and ask them what freedom means. Consequently, everyone will have a different meaning for it. For some people, freedom means the ability to go anywhere they like, for some, it means to speak up when they want, and for others it means the liberty to do whatever they want. There are several different meanings of “freedom” but freedom to me means the power or the right to act or speak, or think as one wants without restraint and the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. A good phrase I like to come to when thinking of freedom is “freedom is not what just makes dreams come true, it makes dreaming possible.” In America today the favorite symbol that shows freedom is an individual figure, “The Statue of Liberty”. A few other things that display freedom in America are things like the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, or even the story of Oluadah Equiano. 

One source that we can identify freedom in, is the Declaration of Independence. A phrase that I like to look at in the Declaration of Independence is “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that are among the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This line can be interpreted in many different ways, the phrase gives a few examples of the rights that cannot be given away or taken away, which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their creator. This means that no one is born with the right to rule over others without their consent. It also means that governments are obligated to apply the law equally to everyone. Moreover everyone will have the same freedoms and everyone will be treated equally. 

The Bill of Rights is a well-known document that came about 1789. The Bill of rights consists of the first ten amendments. This was written by James Madison and it was officially added to the constitution in 1791. This document was founded on the principle of freedom and without the Bill of Rights being added to the Constitution we would not be guaranteed our freedom. The first amendment in the Bill of Rights states that “everybody has freedom of speech, press, and religion.” I believe that the first amendment could be the most important for us because it gives us the right to speak freely about our feelings to our government. This right does affect our lives whether we are kids or adults. Other freedoms the Bill of Rights give us is the right to bear arms, a trial by jury, as well as reserving the right to the people and the states. 

Another example of freedom for us was talked about in the story of Oluadah Equiano. In his story he tells us about all the brutal things that happened to them and how they were not treated fairly or equally compared to others.