Freedom isn’t debateable

Today, and every day in history, we debate things that aren’t debateable. There’s no moral debate about slavery, but there was. There’s no ethical debate about free movement of people, but there is. Human rights aren’t up for debate, except they are.

While we’re stuck in history, the fact is that some rights would make some people uncomfortable, but that doesn’t make them any less right. People have the right to be free. It’s always right to be free.

If you hear a thousand reasons why it’s wrong, remember that there aren’t two sides to the right thing. There’s only a few simple rules a human being needs to understand. One really.

Do onto others as you would have done unto you. The golden rule. It’s an old one. All it means is to have empathy. If you face a general debate, put yourself in that specific situation.

Would you want to be enslaved? Would you want to migrate if you want or choose to? Do you want to have your children sold? Do you want to have your children imprisoned? It’s suddenly not so complicated when you’re there.

There are simply people that are very wrong in this world. They are hurting human beings, hurting families, hurting children, hurting the Earth. They want to have a debate about it like there’s two ethical sides, but there just aren’t. There may be two sides, but only one of them is ethical. It’s right vs. wrong. Literally, it’s extending rights to certain human beings or not.

There’s no debate about LGBTQ rights, those people either have rights or it’s wrong. There’s no debate about migrant rights, it’s either rights or wrong. There’s no debate about women’s rights, it’s either rights or wrong. There’s no debate about justice for the poor, it’s either rights or wrong. There’s no debate about the rights of all of our children to have a livable Earth, we either preserve those rights for the future or it’s wrong.

Don’t get lost in history and don’t get tricked by people who are using the language of reason to advocate the unreasonable. You can dress up cruelty and injustice in the cloaks of power and media and free society, but if you’re debating the very idea of freedom, it’s still wrong.

Everybody deserves to be free. The poor, the marginalized, the different, the stranger, the helpless child. That we have debates about these issues is because we’re stuck in the amoral soup of history, but morality is still there and it’s still real. Our rights are inalienable and they are real, even though they are debated and denied.

We are all God’s children, or creatures of no-self, or generally equivalent apes, however you want to look at it. We all deserve to be free and we need to love each other like God loves us. If you don’t believe in God just imagine some source of love, it could be a houseplant, I don’t care.

These political debates we have aren’t that complicated. Just be nice to each other. Help each other. Be kind. I tell my kids this stuff everyday but we forget it as adults. No biting, no hitting, share.

There aren’t two sides to the right thing. There is right and wrong. We have to fight for it fearlessly, not get caught up in the middle ground between good and bad. That’s still bad. Freedom means freedom for everybody. That’s it.