Freedom to Live.

Freedom to live as you wish within the legal framework of the Constitution. That basically means that you’re still not allowed to commit crime and stuff, but apart from that, you can do as you please. If you want to go watch a movie and you have the money, go do that. No college to attend and a lot of time to spare? You could go for a bicycle ride around town! Want to learn how to do chainsaw art and got the money? Live as you wish!

I get the feeling that most of you might be confused. Isn’t that what we’re already doing, you’re wondering. Well, I disagree.

My life is controlled by my parents. I don’t mean it in a way that will make you think I’m a whiny teenager. What I mean is this: since they have the money and I don’t, they decide what I do, not me.

Some of you may say, “Get a job!” but that wouldn’t work out for me because my father has strictly said that I’m not to get a job.

I even tried to work around that and try playing gigs. Technically, it’s not a job and I still get money for it. So I started playing gigs. Or should I say, gig. That’s how far I got anyway. He found out that I had a gig planned for February and he personally called the manager of the café and got it cancelled.

Now, I don’t agree with that. Music is a big part of my life. That man stopped me when I got into UCLA and I wanted to study theatre and he’s stopping me now, when I did so much work to get into the local scene.

And he can do that because he has the money.

But if we had Freedom to Live as a fundamental right, do you see how much of a difference it would make? Of course, there would have to be conditions like “only applicable to people above the age of 18” etc because everybody knows, high school kids will exploit the right to glory and well, our country’s population is already 1.2 billion. Sometimes, I can feel the land sinking under the weight of 1.2 billion people. If any more people come along – and knowing high school kids, a lot of people will come along – India can become a part of the Indian ocean forever.

I’m talking about Freedom to Live in a very sensible sense. Of course, people will try to exploit this right, but honestly, which right have we not exploited? I challenge you to cross your heart and tell me that you’ve never exploited an advantage before.

Maybe we could have government offices that grant permission to do whatever you want to. Heck, it would increase employment. But mostly, it would finally give people a boost in spirits to do whatever they want to. And if anybody tries to stop them, they mess with the government and then, they get imprisoned or have to pay a hefty fine or whatever.

It’s just not enough to have a fundamental right for employment or speech. We need one for living daily life too because honestly, this is what we do the most and we need to live a happy life.