BCIFV home > Media Releases > April 3, 2001

For Immediate Release: April 3, 2001

Contact: Penny Bain at (604) 669-7055 or toll-free 1-877-755-7055
Email: pbain@bcifv.org

Opinion:

Restoring Balance
Freedom is a paradox; liberty has limits

by Penny Bain
Executive Director
BC Institute Against Family Violence

"Give me liberty or give me death," cried the warriors of early democracy. And we, their heirs, have sustained their cry.

But is there any such thing as absolute freedom? Or is freedom a paradox, coupled in equal measure with responsibility? Does true freedom not include self-imposed limits intended to ensure that my freedom never comes at the expense of yours?

Are the freedoms we fight for today the sort of freedoms for which our ancestors were willing to die? Or has freedom become less a cause for which we are willing to sacrifice our own lives than an altar on which we willingly sacrifice the lives of others?

The "others" that we are most concerned about in this instance - although they are by no means the only group vulnerable to having their freedoms curtailed by those unwilling to exercise freedom responsibly - are children and youth. The signs are all around us that they are suffering as a result of the preceding generations' drive for unfettered freedom.

We see those signs most clearly south of the border, where freedom is almost a religion. There, absolute freedom to accumulate individual wealth with little responsibility to share has resulted in a generation of children who are angry, some because they have so little, others because they've been given more than they need - of all the wrong things.

There, absolute freedom to produce violent entertainment and market it to children with no responsibility for its physiological or psychological effects on child development has resulted in a generation of children with little understanding of the real impacts of verbal and physical violence on others.

There, absolute freedom of gun ownership has made weapons so accessible that angry children who have no understanding of the effects of their actions can taunt and bully other children mercilessly, to the point that the latter bring weapons to school and open fire.

But if the situation in Canada is less dire than in the US, it is not by much. Canadian children are also angry and have little understanding of the impacts of violence; they just don't have easy access to guns. Instead of opening fire on school grounds, Canadian kids beat their victims with their hands and feet, sometimes to death; or taunt them with their words, sometimes to suicide.

Of course, most Canadian kids aren't bullies, just like most of their adult role models aren't criminals. Lots of Canadian kids express their lack of understanding of a need to balance freedom and responsibility in other ways; for example, by thrill-seeking, sometimes with drinking and drugs, sometimes behind the wheel of a car - sometimes killing themselves or others in the process.

And if the situation here is slightly less dire here than there, it is only because some among us have fought uphill battles for legislation that draws a line between responsible freedom and excess, and punishes those who cross the line.

Those who oppose gun-control laws and/or legislation to limit entertainment violence and/or laws protecting children from sexual exploitation and/or consequences for parents who don't supervise their children's activities, claim such laws infringe on their freedoms.

But such laws do not infringe on anyone's freedom. They protect the freedom of a group too vulnerable to do so for themselves: children. Such laws protect children's freedom to grow into complete human beings, able to feel, understand, express and work with their full range of emotions - including their anger - and to appreciate the lasting impacts of their actions before they make irreversible, life-altering, sometimes life-ending mistakes.

Such laws protect children's freedom to grow up.

Absolute freedom is a myth. True freedom is a balance between liberty and limits. Lack of willingness to curb the excesses of some is as frightening a threat to freedom as too great a willingness to curb the liberties of all.

Canadian society is out of balance. Canadian children are paying the price. Those who call this an exaggeration are those who would send a child down a mine shaft to look for the canary that didn't return. Those who say it is simply a matter of holding individual children to account for their actions are sidestepping the matter of who should be held to account for our society's inaction in protecting our youngest citizens.

There is no quick fix for this imbalance. The problem of children hurting children did not arise overnight and will not go away in a day. It is not the responsibility of any one person or group and it cannot be made better by holding any one person or group accountable. As a wise person said, there is a simple solution to every complex problem - and it's invariably wrong.

We can only get it right by admitting that the goal we've so unremittingly chased is just a dream, and shifting our focus to a vision that's real, achievable and balanced.

Let's start trying to get it right.

For further comment, contact Penny Bain, Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence at 669-7055 or 1 877 755-7055, or online at pbain@bcifv.org or www.bcifv.org.