My Neighbor is Free

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My neighbor believes in freedom. He is free to have the biggest eyesore in the neighborhood. He is free to destroy the sidewalk and make it his own private driveway. He is free to have a forty foot flagpole in his front yard that is illuminated from atop his house. He is free to have his light shine on my house. He is free to alienate his children due to his beliefs and attitude. He is free to have the loudest voice in a crowd. He is free to tell people that he was in Vietnam when he was not. He is free to think that he is a good American. The "real" America. He is free to camouflage his boat, his bike, his truck. He is free to have dogs that lived their lives at the end of a six foot chain.
I always thought of freedom as being, "Do what you will but harm ye none." And I guess that he does too. After all, he has not shot at me with one of his many guns.
Perhaps I am influenced by such as my ex-P.O.W. Dad, who was not impressed in the least by my neighbor's military worship. Or perhaps by my two daughter's boyfriends that have both served in Iraq and that just look at him and shake their heads.
And the glitch is, I like him. I respect many of his talents. I know that he has a great distaste for me. And I know that he has spread the cement of my dislike onto others. And I am quite certain that his wife who works (and lives) for the town newspaper has also helped to spread his cement of my dislike. But they are a good pair. Her hypocrisy in her columns has been head scratching to say the least.
Many months ago I subverted some plans that were very important to him. I did so not out of spite or malice but out of a sincere belief that he was not the man that he represented himself to be. I am still paying for that. It's subtle, passive-aggressive, and in ways that I will not share with you.
Yes, my neighbor is free. And good for him...

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