Regarding Freedom and Responsibility, My personal philosophy of freedom is that it should be main foci of every individual, equally distant

from liberty, justice, and equal opportunity to all the people of society. To be able to speak, to argue, to protest and to live our minds needs to be the fundamental rights and basic principle, and equally distributed should be the true definition of freedom. Being a citizen of any nation gives you the responsibility to fulfil the demand that your society needs of protecting individual freedom of rights and justice of others, including yourself. Every human being should be able to practice and cherish the universal law that we all are born under the same rule of law of nature, with freedom and the rights to pursuit happiness. No one is above other, and all are created equally. So should be the other factors that encompass the human life and the individual freedom, such as political freedom to express your thoughts, economic opportunity in pursuit of happiness and liberty and justice that dignify ones value of life must be equally distributed among the people. And while speaking of freedom, it has greater price than itself to be paid by every responsible citizen of a nation. The famous American singer Bob Dylan said that, I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom (pg. 141). He implies that those citizens are the real hero of our society who has an urge, devotion and vision in essence of freedom to protect it from evil minds and corrupt governments that can destroy the every basic individual freedom and rights in any given moment. From time to time, so many of these heroes, reformers, revolutionist, thinkers, philosopher, philanthropist and all great people have acted upon their sheer belief in fundamental human rights and freedom, and with wisdom and rational intellect to overcome obstacles, in any forms and way they were to make differences in so many peoples lives around the world. The purpose of these great citizens were to make this world a better place to live, to grow and to flourish for many more generations to come, so they can share the same spirit and responsibility that comes with it in pursuit of happiness, freedom and liberty with equal rights and opportunity. Henry David Thoreau puts on his words that, That government is best which governs least (pg. 147). He means that he does not seek to see any governs at all by the government. As he speaks of less government action, better the chances are of less tyranny and abuse, and hindrances on common peoples right to speak and protest against such unjust laws. The ideals of Thoreaus Civil Disobedience, a thought provoking, rationale, logical and intellectual conscience to defy the unjust practices of social, political and economic customs by governments are the huge part of learning for me from this section of our course materials. His essence of freedom to speak and write freely against the tyrants and government abuses and not kneel down before them, but he urges all the conscience, rational mind to be responsible to fight against such evil and corrupt government. He speaks of civil disobedience and shows us why and how, we must participate in pursuit of democratic freedom of rights and liberty, to ensure that each and every individual and minority groups are free of unjust legal practices and power abuses by the government or any other majority group for that matter. Before I took this course, I knew what humanity is, but after learning I felt what humanity is. I understood Thoreaus civil disobedience, Dr. Kings dreams of

same nation without discrimination based on race, ethnicity or religion, FDRS Four freedom speech, Lyndon Johnsons great society speech and Jeffersons memento of declaration of independence, but mostly I have learned of how these big words of freedom, liberty and justice have become a clich unless we achieve it in true sense. I have gained knowledge of truth, the requirements and the consequences of finding freedom and justice, and the virtue that it requires to lead in between the two extremes of good and bad experiences of human civilization. The importance of true meaning of individual freedom lies on the implication in real life and living by it day by day, by being a responsible individual towards equality, justice and freedom. This is what I have learned to be an ardent, curious, reluctant and critical thinker on the matter of individual freedom and rights to argue, protest and speak, and to apply in real life ever since being in this class this semester. The matter of Japanese concentration camp in 1942 during world war two, by the executive order of president, was a war crime against the humanity and the violations of citizens rights of Japanese people. That experience of learning such horrible actions by our government shows the cruelty of our government and those who supported it. It was the most influential learning experience for me. I belong to the South Asian minority group. Hence, it has a great deal about rights and justice of the minority people like me who could end up in an intermittent camp just like Japanese people were hold off for no reasons, but because of skin, color, race or ethnicity. The other experience of learning was what happens when no one speaks or feels responsible while such inhumane crime against the individual freedom and justice occur. Such was the case in Japanese concentration camp and during Hitlers regime, as a result the evil won and so many lives were lost in despair of ethnic and racial war. No one spoke, or had anyone to protest that they were wrong and unjust proved destruction of millions of Jews to be killed, and fate and future of thousands of Japanese were lost in the desert. So for this reason, as Gandhi revolt, Martin Luther King marched and Thoreaus argument suggest always speaking, protesting and arguing against unjust laws and illegal, inhuman social practices that must be disobeyed and fought with human dignity and integrity. Hence, I would like to end my reflection of thoughts on this course being a very informative, educating in a real, true sense that will always inspire me to do the right things as a human being and, guide me through my life on how to become that right human being. Works cited: It Begins with Our Questions, Paul Allen, PhD et al, 2003.