GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH! That's it? What about integrity/honor/truth? They're not worth dying for but liberty is? Are you NUTS?

People look at a plant.  One person says "behold the beautiful gift of God".. Another says "oh that plant contains chemical compounds we can use to treat cancer. A third  thinks "well its toxins would poison my dog if by chance he ate it".  A fourth says "that plant gives me hay fever so it should be eradicated".  Now all those viewpoints are true.  And that is what freedom is about. If we do not have freedom then we are stuck believing whatever viewpoint someone else dictates to us as "truth".  When in fact as we have seen there is no single truth. 

Now perhaps being able to have one's own viewpoint does not matter to some people. So they give up their freedom or sell it for - food, clothing, shelter, the basics of life, or the luxuries of existence, not having to think for themselves or work for themselves.  In which case they are no longer free so no longer have any choice. 

Integrity is a personal choice we make out of our freedom.  Remember if we do not have freedom there is really no integrity because we have no choice in the matter.  We just are. If you recognize a lack of integrity in yourself would you then commit suicide?  I don't think so - that would be being awfully hard on yourself as well as others who care for you.   Now if you expect integrity from others and you don't get it would you then commit suicide?  Again I doubt it.  Because that would be having much too high expectations of others.  So it would not be "give me integrity or death". 

"Honor" is more difficult to understand and I can't help but think of groups of men clapping one another one the back and praising each other's "honor".  Guess that would pretty much be in the eye of the beholder. 

With all due respect to Patrick Henry of whoever came up with the "give me liberty,,," phrase there are billions of people around the world who for whatever reasons are unable to enjoy the full liberty which God gave us.  Yet they value life so they cling to it as best we can.  Those of us who value our liberty value the ability to choose, of self-determination, of making up our own minds, of following where our genius leads us.  Which is why we hate to see a single viewpoint, a single attitude, a single code of conduct, a single way of thinking and acting, advocated and promulgated.  Now if we had to live under such totalitarianism chances are we would not commit suicide, but neither would we have a very good time.