The US is not land of the free

You make some good points but I still disagree with you. For example, yes people did fight for freedom (John Brown, Harriet Tubman) but at the same time, PEOPLE, fought against this. (Racist slave owners) Eventually freedom prevailed but not for 200 years. Yes, I know that you said whether a country is free depends on the modern actions of it, not the past. However, this still continues. (Abu Gharib, NSA, Gitmo Bay, Wikileaks) Those are just a few things in the US that contradict the idea of freedom. And the PEOPLE. Not the majority but a decent amount fight against freedom. (Skinheads, parents of transgender girl, etc.) These people are in every country is something I'm cognizant of and every country does something contrary to freedom. Some of the acts of the US today are leaning towards freedom (pot legalization, gay marriage legalization, environmental protection, illegal immigrant amnesty) You know this since you brought some of those up. However, many countries are changing for the better. So the US is not unique in that regard. The US has a great standard of living and we have it good. (I should know, I'm American) But other countries have it better. They have universal health care, low crime rate, free college. So while the US is good, it isn't the best. Even in voting, you really only have two choices. And about having this great debate without reprisal and having the time for it, well in other places the same can be done. (Canada, most of Western Europe, Australia, NZ) So again, in this regard, the US is not unique. We love our military very much and they do deserve love. However, when they do wrong as they did during the Abu Gharib incident, they only got ten years. If a random citizen did what they did, they'd probably get 30 or 40 years. Regardless, the military is not an oppressive force. However, our politicians make it seem like they are by sending them into these wars that have not much to do with defense (It's called the Department of Defense but looking at US policy, you'd think it should rather be Department of Offense) Whenever a crisis occurs, we always want to shoot first, ask questions later. (Syria, Ukraine) Well now that I covered the military, let's talk about police. Are you sure the police aren't the enemy of the people? The protests in response to Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and many others seem to contradict that. Now this is not about whether the actions of the cops were justified but whether they are a friend of the people. They can't be considered that when you have all these people protesting against them. However, for the most part, the cops are friendly and have good intentions but maybe or maybe not with the persons mentioned above. It seems apparent we think of freedom more than others but the question of whether we have those freedoms and whether that's our mentality, freedom is very questionable. For example, Californians voted AGAINST gay marriage in 08. Yes, voted against something that'd have no effect on their lives if gays did that. Why would you vote against something like that? Why would you deny liberty to others? This will be about your final paragraph of how Americans have dreams and keep pushing despite the odds. This isn't exclusive to the US. In many countries this is done. For example, John Lennon of the great band the Beatles. He was expelled from college and still made something of himself. Or what about JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter? She was once a single mom on welfare and now is living the good life. And people keep on pushing in other countries too. For example, the Arab Spring. Those people wanted freedom and most of them got it. Syria didn't, not yet but it after 4 years, is still fighting. Or what about when the Soviets fell? What about in South Africa with the great Nelson Mandela and Co. who pushed to end apartheid even with the US government labeling Mandela a terrorist? These stories prove that despite the odds, people in other countries keep pushing. Just because you push for freedoms doesn't make you land of the free. For example, what if we called Syria the land of the free because the people there are fighting for freedom? Or should we call Egypt the land of the free because they protest against their tyrannical governments? I believe the US has many freedoms, just not enough for it to get the title of land of the free. It has freedoms but you can't call yourself the best without truly being the best. That would be like Argentina calling itself the best and everyone agreeing. No other country has this label for itself, even the ones with more freedoms. Also, in your final statement, you said the US was THE land of the free. That's not true at all let alone land of the free. I disagree with you when you say that will of the people make it land of the free. Refer to above for reasons. Those changes have to actually happen before you can call yourself land of the free. People in every country strive for freedom but they don't say they're land of the free. Thank you for participating in this debate and may the best man win