Two thousand and nine might be a good time for all of us in this country to think about freedom — and how much of it is left.

We talk about freedom all the time, but just now it seems that various forms of it are either slipping away or at risk.

Freedom may mean different things to different people. But for the present purpose it means the freedom to do what you want as long as it doesn’t clearly hurt anybody else, without the government or somebody else with power constantly telling you what to do or egging you on to improve.

Government is a never-ending source of rules that aim to keep people from doing some things and force them to do other things. Right about now, the forces of compulsion and restriction seem to be in full flower in the name of “sustainability.”

Government at the state and federal levels are doing their best to drive up the cost of energy — such as electricity and natural gas — by insisting on new and greener forms of generation and wanting to reduce a substance we all breathe out, carbon dioxide.

In Oregon the legislature will be asked to consider a program of checking the energy efficiency of homes and other buildings, then be forced to attach a label like the ones on appliances.

The concept may sound sensible, but it imposes new burdens on individuals and companies, burdens that a free people would likely reject.

“You want me to measure and then state the energy efficiency of my home?” a free person might say. “That’s my business and not yours. Go away and don’t bother me again.”

But if laws are enacted as proposed, citizens will be forced to do what the energy police say. Another part of freedom down the drain.

We are already familiar with all the other burdens on liberty that have been imposed in recent years, all for the common good, of course.

You can still think what you want, even if it’s mistaken or otherwise wrong, but you can’t say certain things without risk of being fired for harassment or prosecuted for hate crimes. You can’t smoke anywhere, just about, including soon within a certain number of feet of an air intake. You must fasten your seat belt in a moving car or risk being stopped, possibly searched and hit with a heavy fine.

In America, the freedom to move about unbothered by restrictions has already been lost. You must produce papers before the authorities let you get on a train or a plane.

You can’t even get a driver’s license without proving your identity and submitting to face-recognition software. The technology exists to track you anywhere.

At some public meetings in the mid-valley, it is customary to recite the pledge of allegiance. During this coming year, it might be worth thinking about what we actually mean by liberty when we come to that word in the pledge. (hh)