The Definition Of A Freedom Fighter

Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.

According to google, the definition of freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The Freedom from imprisonment or enslavement from those who holds a person against their power or will. However, when freedom is expressed by an ex-slaved, their views are completely different. Ex-slaves found it difficult to adjust to the liberal freedom because they have to deal with relocating families, no political rights to vote, and the ability to establish land.

Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The soldiers in the American revolution demonstrated this at the Battle of Valley Forge when facing starvation, disease, and hypothermic temperatures.

All around the world people talk about freedom; America has more freedom than Russia, twenty-one years old as more freedom than a fifteen year old. What does “freedom” mean? Many have different definitions of “freedom”. For some it could be the freedom to speak and act as you want and others it could be to go where ever you want.

In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).

Freedom means different things to various groups of people. For African Americans, freedom was being released from slavery and given the same rights that their white counterparts were allowed. For female suffragettes, freedom meant the right to vote, and to have a voice equal to the one that men had. Different groups have a different definition of what freedom means to them.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Will there be a better day for it tomorrow or next year? Will it be less dangerous then? Will someone else’s children have to risk their lives instead of us risking ours?”

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, a rebel is “a person who rises in opposition or armed resistance against an established government or ruler,” (New Oxford American Dictionary, “rebel”). However, a rebel does not have to rise up against an oppressing government or ruler in order to be considered one, and instead can stand up against “...a tradition, a myth, an injustice, or even… [an] idea,” (Ramos 277). In the book Take a Stand, renowned journalist Jorge Ramos emphasizes this point by providing vivid, realistic, and emotional imagery that contributes to the diction that allows the images to convey the meaning of what true rebellion is. To add, Ramos groups the elements of syntax and tone together, having them enable a mutualistic

While there are many types of terrorism there is still no assigned definition of it. Many people believe terrorism to be large open acts of violence that could hurt many people. A freedom fighter is a person or group that takes part in a violent act to achieve a political idea, especially in order to take control of their government. There is no very ideal definition of terrorism and doubt there ever will be. After learning these differences between these two I have decided to call John Brown a terrorist for many reasons.

Rebel, Merriam-Webster defines it as someone who opposes or takes arms against the government. Many Americans believe it is someone from the confederacy or someone who forcefully attacks someone or something they disagree with. This is especially common with the younger generations as most of what they see on the television and in movies is violence and governmental infiltration through violence. A large number of these children, adolescents, and young adults will never realize there is an alternative way of protest other than violence. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. found that way from the inspiration of Henry David Thoreau and his ways of transcendentalism.

Terrorist and Freedom fighter can be separated through there definition, but not through there synonyms that clarify an unjust distinction. It is a mentality that majority of American’s apply whether they realize it or not. Individuals according to Steven Handel believes that we implement “The Us vs. Them Mentality” by extension elaborates the mentality that individuals for instance, Americans, give people who are different than us through race, gender, age, nationality, culture, religion, or socioeconomic status. In his article, The Us vs. Them Mentality: How Group Thinking Can Irrationally Divide Us, Handel maintains that “We see it all the time in politics (Republicans vs. Democrats)” in other words these two groups act irrationally and uncooperative. Consequently this causes the two groups to be blind and fail to recognize other people’s interests and values. Do we as American’s also fail to recognize the interest or values of a terrorist or do we just assume that they are pure evil? I believe that we fail to recognize a terrorist interests and values. The ends justify the means but American’s should not ignore these common differences. Americans should be super mindful of the group that we identify ourselves in and the way we view other people because it might have a negative effect.

Terrorism is an act of mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping, and is a danger to human life. A terrorist is a person or group who does bad actions and events to get there goal. A freedom fighter is a person or group engaged in a resistance movement against what they believe to be an appropriate and illegitimate government. When we compare other terrorist and freedom fighter groups with John Brown, we either consider him a terrorist or a freedom fighter in today's world.

Although "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is today considered the preeminent Northern war song, Union soldiers were more likely to bestow that honor upon "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Willard A. and Porter W. Heaps, writing in The Singing Sixties, call "The Battle Cry of Freedom" `the type of rousing tune which appears seldom during a period of war and but once in a generation.". Composed in haste in a single day in response to President Abraham Lincoln's July 1862 call for 300,000 volunteers to fill the shrinking ranks of the Union Army, the song was first performed on July 24 and again on July 26 at a massive war rally. Composer-lyricist George F. Root recalled years later, "From there the song went into the army, and the testimony in regard to its use in the camp and on the march, and even on the field of battle, from soldiers and officers, up to the good President himself, made me thankful that if I could not shoulder a musket in defense of my country I could serve her in this way."

When we think of terrorist, we might think of radical Islamic individuals or groups who would take pride in killing anyone who is not Muslim. Even more, there are antagonistically people who want nothing more but to destroy the lives of innocence people because of their belief system. Take an individual like Theodore Kaczynski for instance; he was a former University of California at Berkeley math professor. Otherwise known as the “Unabomber,” he was indeed a terrorist because he used explosives that killed three people and wounded eighteen others in a span of almost two decades. Even more, his brother David Kaczynski was responsible for his capture.

Freedom means living life as one wants, everything else is a form of slavery. If a person is not allowed to make his or hers decisions, if he or she is not free to live life as he/she wants than he/she doesn’t have power over his or her existence. If freedom was not essential for every human being than no one would have found so fiercely for it. If it was not important than today we would not be still fighting to keep and extend our freedom.