This is the Mark of a Free Country

   The mark of a free nation is not that it doesn't take freedoms away, but that it only takes freedoms away when there is good reason to do so. A nation that is not free rips freedoms away on the whim of the dictator. The decision to take them emanates from the power to do so. The dictator does not need to justify why he is taking the freedoms, he only asserts that by virtue of his being the authority figure, he has the power to do so.
  In a free country, by contrast, there must be reason for taking freedoms away. To do otherwise is to mark yourself as not completely a free country.
  And, I will point to an example of the U.S. not being completely a free country, if we are to using this definition. We prohibit some immigration based on our power to do so. We say we do not have to let others in, because it is our country -- we are the rulers, in essence -- and, therefore no more than that is necessary.
   It might be argued that it is not with power, alone, that we ban immigrants. We might, indeed, argue that we take away their freedom to come to America because they are taking our jobs, ruining our economy, overrunning our land, stealing our welfare, and committing murders and rapes and thefts once they get here. I would differ. I suggest that while we accuse them of all these offenses, we still assert that we need no more reason to lock them out than that it is our right to do so. We say this is our land, not theirs, and it is simply within our authority to say whether they come.