Are we free to go and to come?

Are we free to go and to come?

The Brazilian Constitution guarantees that all Brazilian citizens are free to go and to come and I grew up believing with all my forces in that statement. I remember preparing my bag to go to a friend’s house to spend an afternoon at the swimming pool and my mother without asking anything just said that I wasn’t allowed to go out. What was her surprise when I said just like: “Even the Brazilian Constitution guarantees that I can go and come freely”. I was 11 years old when I said that and I left. Until now, it is a joke in my family!

Well, I really believed that I was free to go and to come, until the day I needed to ask permission to do it. There is a pseudo freedom in the world and it just makes me so mad. We really can’t go and come freely as I want to, as I believed to.
My first terrible experience with it was when I moved to the USA. I had a principle and I needed to break it to go…

One day, taking philosophy class at Radford University, my former professor Dr. Martin asked if we were free to go and to come! Imagine my face when I heard that question! I was like the Donkey in Shrek, “Pick me! Pick me! Me! Me”. However I kept in completely silence and unmoved.
Having the class full of United Sates citizens (I’m from South America, so I’m an American too. That’s why I don’t call United States citizens “Americans”) Dr. Martin wasn’t surprise with the massive answer from his students. All of my classmates said that they were free to go and to come. Then he asked if we were sure about it and repeated the question: “Are we free to go and to come, or we need something else for the realization of that act?”
About 70% said that we needed just money and the 30% left said that we needed a plan to travel. They were not playing dumb or something. Since there are many fake truths producing by governments all around the world, independently of the politic system by them adopted, sometimes we just believe in things that are not true at all, forgetting that we are manipulated almost always!

So, being the only foreign at the class, I raised my hand and I just said “VISA”! I spoke out in a completely disagreement with my classmates for more than 25 minutes. Dr. Martin then asked me why I had such a strong position relating to that subject without agreeing or disagreeing with me or with my classmates and I explained to them all my indignation about it, how I hated being in lines at embassies waiting for some complacence from embassy’s employees who in general are training to make us feel humiliated, embarrassed, and very uncomfortable!
Well, it took 2 classes in that subject. Dr. Martin after my long exposition said that unfortunately I was completely right and that truly we don’t have the right to come and go freely and that we never will.

Once again I’m stuck with going and coming. Once again I’m depending of a permission of just one person to go and to come… once again I’m anxious because of this pseudo freedom! Once again I can't dream…