"No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority." --Joseph Addison

We all love freedom. However, the concept of freedom is something that politicians and pundits use and abuse for their benefit. The Founding Fathers never intended freedom to be a spectator sport or something that professional politicians would usurp for political gain.

One distraction we have is the problem of living in an age that is excessively politically correct. We are all so worried about not offending anyone that we learn not to have any opinions and we don't learn how to argue our points and therefore don't have to defend our side of an argument or our beliefs, and therefore, we aren't empowered or informed to the extent that we could be. When you truly know an issue, only then can you defend what you believe to be true. And only by engaging others, can we learn and understand our differences.

Everyone's so afraid to offend that we have become a nation of mutes. Instead of making our voices heard, we go along to get along. Silence and submissiveness overtake people and those in power take advantage of our silence and frame the issues to their advantage.

One of the biggest offenders of this requirement of our submission (in my opinion) is the police. They have simply forgotten that their duty is to protect and serve. Their job is not to see how much compliance they can wrestle out of everyone they come into contact with.

The following story illustrates what I mean.

I came across an article in The Oregonian entitled "Four Sue Police, Alleging 'Dirty Tactics'".

One of the four plaintiffs, Frank Waterhouse, is suing the police department for unlawful seizure with excessive force. In his allegations he states that the police fired a Taser at him and bean bag rounds as he was videotaping the police search his friend's property.

He claims that the police came after him and yelled at him to put the camera down. As he was running away, he was saying, 'Don't come after me.' Seconds later he was shot with a bean bag gun and a Taser and fell to the ground.

Officers wrote in their reports that Waterhouse ran off, they chased him and then bean-bagged and Tasered him. One officer wrote, "He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon."

Wait a minute. . . he was running away and somehow he was still threatening to them? Crazy.

When good people keep quiet because they believe it is the 'politically correct' or 'safe' thing to do, then they get whatever their "handlers" or the authority figures give them. I'd say it's high time to begin using your persuasion skills to let others know what you think. Don't let this happen to you.

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.