Freedom

Sometimes I think it's great to have such freedom living in a democracy like we do in North America. These days, I'm finding North America to be a pretty oppressive place and I find it a bit sad. Maybe 9/11 had something to do with it but it seems like you can't do anything these days without some kind of authority regulating, searching you, fining you or taxing you to do it. From airports, highways, city streets and even up in what is supposed to be the last frontiers of cottage country, I find myself oppressed in endless ways by the great monolithic wall of bureaucracy that regulates our lives.

I guess that's what I like about remote areas like the ones I hang out in Costa Rica, nobody tells you what to do, there aren't any speed traps, nobody is going to fine you for mowing your lawn and your neighbors don't give a shit what you do. That sounds more like freedom to me, sounds like something we lost here. Maybe it's something that we never had, who knows? How sad.