Happy Birthday America!! How’re we doing with that Freedom “thing”?

We certainly have all the right slogans for freedom. “Live and let live.” “You do you.” “Choose your own adventure.” “Don’t tread on me.”

And here in New Hampshire, we go full drama with “Live Free or Die,” which sometimes sounds less like a state motto and more like something a guy yells while standing shirtless next to a snowblower in February.

Americans absolutely love the poetry of freedom. We love the music of it. The symbols. The mythology. The flyovers and the flags and the bald eagles staring thoughtfully into the middle distance while somebody narrates a truck commercial in a gravelly voice.

But then somebody actually exercises freedom in a way that makes us uncomfortable, and suddenly everybody starts reaching for clipboards and regulations.

Freedom for me. Guidelines for thee.

Because “live and let live” sounds wonderful right up until somebody lives differently nearby. Then it becomes: “We need restrictions.” “Some oversight.” “Standards.” “Community character.”

Yes, some rules really are necessary. Human beings sharing space will always need some structure. But I think we underestimate how often our desire for control has less to do with genuine harm and more to do with emotional reassurance.

We want predictability. We want to know the neighborhood will stay familiar. We want the economy stable. We want our kids safe. We want cultural norms we understand. We want other people to behave in ways that make the future feel easier to anticipate.

That impulse is incredibly human. I have it too.

Every person who has ever muttered “there oughta be a law” after surviving a bumper-hugging zipper merge on 101 through Bedford has felt it.

The problem is that freedom and predictability are natural enemies.

A genuinely free society is going to feel noisy sometimes. People will make strange decisions. Communities will evolve. New ideas will show up before anyone feels emotionally prepared for them. Other people will use their liberty in ways we personally find objectionable.

That tension is not evidence that freedom has failed. That tension is freedom.

Two hundred and fifty candles on the cake this year. If we haven’t figured this out by now, then when?

This article first appeared as an OpEd in the Union Leader.