Is it Legal?

If we don't know, why do we ask?

*Maybe*:

I would like to paint the inside of my home.

I would like to change the outlets and light switches in my home myself.

I would like to update the plumbing in my home myself.

I would like to grow a tobacco plant.

I would like to distill whiskey and brew beer.

I would like to grow a cannabis plant for personal use.

I would like to remove a wall (not a retaining wall!) in my home myself.

I would like to put a rock garden in my front lawn.

I would like to collect rain water.

I would like to have chickens in my fenced in back yard… you know, just a few.

I would like to adopt a pet from a neighbor and not get a “license” (permission slip).

I would like to… be free!

Okay, so all of us don’t necessarily need (or even want) to do anything in the list above.  I’m only using the list as examples of things that are, or have been, “illegal” in America and in other countries (and I promise that list is hundreds of pages long… things that we aren’t “allowed” to do).   Things that don’t hurt anyone else.  Things that give people a sense of freedom. Things that give people a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Personally, I do what I want to do.   If I know what I’m doing doesn’t bother, disturb or hurt someone else… I do it! 

But here’s where we are in this so-called “free” society:  We have a population that has been trained to ask, “but, is that legal?”   People have become so accustomed to it; they ask permission for pretty much everything anymore.  People are bound and determined to police themselves right into their own personal jail.  A jail with invisible bars and walls.  They relish their bondage.  They beg for it.  And then complain they aren’t free. 

It’s our fear of “maybe” consequences that keeps us from living a free life. 

Yep, we might get a fine.  Yep, we might even go to court or jail!  Oh well! 

Guess why most people get in trouble for living free lives and doing things that do not hurt anyone else?

They tattle on themselves.  They broadcast what they do to their neighbors, friends, and family.  

Why?  No one really needs to know what we are doing.  The more people who know about the things we choose to do, the better chance there is that some busybody is going to say, “that’s illegal” or “that should be illegal”.  Almost all the freedom we lose is because we give it up. We turn ourselves in for not doing anything wrong because we have been made to feel ashamed and “guilty” just for living the lives we want to live.

If we want to live free, sometimes we must keep what we are doing to ourselves! 

Should we have to hide the things we are doing to live free?  In a perfect world… no!  But we are not in a perfect world.  We are in a fallen, corrupt, unstable world.  A world where there are way too many people who just can’t wait to “tattle” on someone thinking they are going to get a doggie biscuit from their master.   Unfortunately, they cannot see that the biscuit they get is only temporary.  When their usefulness is used up, there are no more biscuits. 

The people who say, “If you don’t have anything to hide, you have nothing to worry about” are jealous of us. Jealous of the value we place on privacy and our personal freedom. Jealous of our *courage* to be free people in a world that more and more seems to thrive on bondage.

Is it legal to be free?  I don’t know.  And I’m not asking.