Liberty?

What is Liberty?

Liberty is defined as-  The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life.

The state of being free.... within society.... from oppressive restrictions.... imposed by authority.... on one's way of life.

Now my college professor always stressed that the root of the sentence is all that IS the sentence.   The rest are only clarifiers, adjectives or adverbs and although there to help the sentence they sometime tend to muddy the waters.

I say that the very simplest of sentences is always the simplest to understand and to comprehend. 

Liberty is- The state of being free from oppressive restrictions on ones way of life.

Nahh... simpler still.

Liberty is-  THE STATE OF BEING FREE.
Did you know that the basis of liberty comes from the feudal systems of our neighbors to the east?  A "liberty" was a parcel of land that while still being inside the kingdom, was free from the rule of the king.  That's pretty easy to understand, right?  Brings new meaning to the phase "sweet land of liberty" doesn't it?   

So why then is it so hard for our government to understand this very simplest of concepts?