Freedom
: Demonstrations of freedom are often trivial.
I spent a month in Berlin before the Wall fell and I went over to the other side often. Every time I returned, I remember a Coca-Cola sign as a sign of choice and freedom — and no, not because it’s an American icon but simply because the GDR cola was so utterly disgusting and worse when it was warm (which it always was). Freedom sometimes means being able to pick from Coke and Pepsi. Or freedom means taking your shirt off.
This from Blue Bird, the teen girl who just left her native Iran and is now in Europe:
Yesterday we went to a park nearby. The parks in Europe are way different than the parks in Iran. In Iran the people have to sit or walk. In Europe they can lie on the grass; women in bikinies, men shirtless. They can ride boats on the lake without being afraid of falling into the water. They can kiss under the trees and no one will ever care. They can sleep under the sun and …
This is freedom. Freedom is a word full of meanings. In some places freedom is closing the doors to music but letting humans breath. In others freedom is having a life with no remarks, no forces that tell you what to do, how to dress, or what not to write. I come from a country without freedom. That’s why I know what freedom actually is.
