POL200 "How have the definitions of the words "freedom" and "equality" changed (if at all) over time?"

Given the history of the U.S. and the behavior of U.S. government, how have the definitions of the words "freedom" and "equality" changed (if at all) over time?

My essay 776 words submitted 1/24/20 1:44pm:

Government, as our textbook begins and many agree, originated from a need to protect the people, establish order and uphold laws. Law is maintained to protect the rights of persons in the society. Our government has six purposes for its formation: Unity, Domestic Tranquility, Justice, Defense, and securing Liberty for All.  Liberty defined by American Heritage Dictionary as “being free from confinement, servitude or forced labor… free from oppressive restriction.”

When we look at the stained history of African slaves and the genocide of the Native Americans, we find a common denominator; greed. One party had something another wanted. African people provided a source of labor and Natives of the New World provided the land. In deeming whether the definitions of “Freedom” and “Equality” have changed, I propose it is not the words, rather the qualifying recipients of those terms. The recipients change based on who is in power to regulate the interpretation, and to what benefit the interpreters gained. Greed and power indeed create blocks to freedom equality. If our nation we to actually use the real definitions of the words freedom and equality then we are woefully lacking in fairness of those terms. Former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton states it succinctly: “We have to knock down the barriers erected by greed, special interests, powerful forces.”

White male patriarchy in wealthy upper-class lineages, for illustration of this point, remain ubiquitously unchanged. Black men and women, white women, to offer two examples, still struggle as minority, even though they are both as a class “free” and “equal” under the law.

For example, from Patterson’s We the People (our textbook) in 1886 “the Court decided that corporations were "persons" within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, and thereby were protected from substantial regulation by the states.” The book goes on to indicate that the law giving social equality to former slaves was instead used to grant corporations equal status, while denying said former slaves the rights that the law intended.

Priyamvada Gopal (Faculty of English) at Cambridge University advises that “We need to guard against turning “freedom” into a weapon of smugness, cultural certainties to be wielded against apparently lesser cultures rather than a tool constantly sharpened through speaking truth about and against power.”

Thomas Hobbs, English philosopher who in 1651 penned a now famous book titled “Leviathan”. Speaking about the necessity of governments in society, Hobbs says without a government authority, life would be “nasty, brutish, and short”.

Professor Liljeblad provides: “Some claim that these values are still misnomers, and that it is even now dubious if we have achieved freedom and equality for these affected peoples.” I opine that we have not, and are a far way from it. I am particularly appreciating exact word usage here, and I shall offer it as an important matter for study: “Misnomer”, as the American Heritage Dictionary will advise, is precisely defined as “Misnomer is not a fancy, more elevated word for mistake. Nor is it a synonym for misstatement, misconception, or misunderstanding. As the word's Latin etymon nōmināre ('to name') tells us, a misnomer is a special kind of mistake: a wrong name. “

That being clarified, we are essentially questioning whether “freedom” and “equality” are essentially the wrong words to describe what we have, provided by our government. Implying, according to Miriam Webster, “a usually permanent removal from whatever binds, confines, entangles or oppresses.” That African Americans are still being oppressed, and Native Americans are essentially still confined on reservations is a base fact the leaders of this nation (majority white male from upper class) continue to deem, by their actions to uphold the current state of affairs, satisfactory.

That the emancipation proclamation of 1863 was still hindered by the Jim Crow laws which were legally in force another 75 years (1890’s until 1965) after supposed emancipation which as we recall is a synonym of freedom. Proving that indeed, the freedom of African Americans was not attained 157 years ago, nor was it attained even 55 years ago. To this day racial discrimination hinders most descendants of that epic. In fact most all persons with melanin differences are subject to profiling and cynicism in some fashion. How can a person be free if they are hampered thus? There are freedoms for many, but the entire collective does not experience them.

In closing, the words freedom and equality have indeed change in their meaning. And it is done in this way, as our textbook by Thomas Patterson reiterates: “leaders did what others have done throughout American history: They developed a constitutional interpretation fitted to their political purpose”

Bibliography

Gopal, Priyamvada. "University of Cambridge ." 30 Oct 2015. Cambridge, Research, Opion: How free are we really? 24 Jan 2020. <https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/opinion-how-free-are-we-really>.

Heritage, Dictionary American. Wordnik, Words: Liberty, Misnomer. n.d. website. 24 Jan 2020. <https://www.wordnik.com/words/liberty ; https://www.wordnik.com/words/misnomer >.

Hobbes, Thomas. "YaleBooks, History, Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes." 5 Apr 2013. Yale Books. Ed. various. Yale Books. 24 Jan 2020. <https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2013/04/05/thomas-hobbes-solitary-poor-nasty-brutish-and-short/>.

Liljeblad, Jonathan. "Canvas, Course POL200, assignments ." n.d. 24 Jan 2020. <https://mendocino.instructure.com/courses/6461/quizzes/23508/take >.

Miriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. n.d. 24 Jan 2020. <https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/free>.

Patterson, Thomas. We The People. 13th . New York: McGraw, 2019. page 76, 79. 24 Jan 2020.