Freedom Rings

The Beacon headline today is "Freedom Still Rings in Clear, Bold Tones."  The article is then a series of individuals describing what freedom means to them.  One narrow-minded pastor stretches this question to respond it means the freedom to protect the unborn.  A 27 year-old advertiser says it means the ability to sing the national anthem any way a singer wants.  A gun owner says it is freedom to carry heat. 

Our freedoms are (as always) tenuous, but what is worse is that we no longer have even the slighted idea what freedom means or how we might best protect it.

Others in today's Beacon, like my UA colleague and friend Walter and Greg Coleridge, are more thoughtful, but I was stunned to see these included with the former, on equal footing.  Journalist's tendency to confuse objectivity with a requirement that they treat any insane idea as just another idea, and to always suggest 'both sides are equally right or wrong on this one,' even squanders our July 4 news.