By LAUREN L. GLISSON
lauren@newsroom.byu.edu
Freedom can usually be considered a daily experience for the American people, yet there are multiple meanings for this common thread of the American experience.
Americans can usually create an impromptu definition for freedom, but find it hard to describe the meaning of freedom. International visitors to America have developed a meaning of freedom by comparing the previous lack of freedom to their current experience in America.
According to Scott Cameron, associate dean of the BYU Law School, the definition of freedom is both the right and the capability to make a decision regarding one's life, one's family, and one's property without physical, mental, or emotional coercion from the government, its agents, or other citizens.
Cameron said he finds the meaning of freedom through his role as a lawyer. 'Lawyers preserve freedom, by making certain that no decision is made absent the protection afforded by due process and equal protection,' Cameron said.
International students at BYU have a great appreciation for the freedoms they experience in America. Ying Ying Cai, a senior from Beijing, China, majoring in information systems, appreciates America's safe environment.
'In America you can openly speak about anything. You don't have to worry about someone punishing you,' Cai said.
Cai has lived in America for three years and has found meaning in the freedom America offers. 'Only after living in a country can you really understand,' Cai said.
Students from other countries realize how many freedoms their country lacks once they have lived in America. Cai, while living in China, wanted the freedom to learn about the rest of the world.
'I hoped our media,(in China), would tell us more about our world, without so much propaganda. I just wanted to know more true things,' Cai said.
Katja Herrendoerfer, a junior from Berlin, Germany, majoring in business management, said, 'A lot of Americans are ignorant that a lot of other countries don't have the same freedoms.'
Do Americans recognize the privileges and freedoms they experience daily? Kristal Williams, a junior from Laie, Hawaii, majoring in broadcast communications, said, 'We have freedom, but how many people really use it? I think Americans take their freedoms for granted.'
Herrendoerfer appreciates the possibilities for personal progression in America. 'If you have a special talent (in Germany) nobody cares. There aren't opportunities for clubs, social interaction and talent development. You go to school from 8 to 2, and then you go home,' Herrendoerfer said.
Ben Barlow, a junior from Milwaukee, WI, majoring in international studies, explains that freedom gives us the opportunity to make our own choices. 'I can make my own choices about my future. I decide what I'm going to become,' Barlow said.
Along with the other privileges we enjoy in this country, freedom can be abused or taken for granted. 'Some people use their freedom to express awful things. There is good freedom and bad freedom,' Williams said.
Vernon Dickson, TA for American Heritage classes, explains that too many people think that freedom means you can do whatever you want.
'Freedom is learning to accept the consequences for our actions--it's moral self-government,' Dickson said.
American Heritage professors teach that the people who govern themselves the most need to be governed by others the least.
'It's about learning to make choices that innately bring the correct consequence. We have to be responsible for the consequence,' Dickson said.