Last week I explained in this space why I am a conservative. This week, the flip side.

But first, a word about the word. Liberal means different things, depending on where you live. In Europe, a liberal is one who believes in individual freedom with minimal government interference. In America, it often means just the opposite. How did that happen?

The place to start is with the Latin word from which not only the English word liberal derives, but also the words liberty, libertarian, liberality, and libertine. The word is liber, an adjective meaning free. All the words deriving from liber have to do with freedom.

So how did so many Americans come to use a word meaning free to refer to someone who dislikes free enterprise and wants the government to interferes in every aspect of your life, tells you what you can and can’t do, and would take your money to give to people who haven’t earned it and don’t deserve it, thereby creating a permanent class of lazy good-for-nothings who wouldn’t take a job if offered one?

I think I know how that happened. To be free is to be able to do what you want, and that takes money. Centuries ago, only the nobility had money, so only the lords and ladies were free. Wealthy people were also the only ones able to make large gifts to charities and the arts, so such gifts came to be called “liberal” donations — gifts from the free. The word liberality became a synonym for generosity.

In the 18th century, some European philosophers suggested that everyone should be free, able to do as they want. They were known as “liberal” (freedom-loving) philosophers, and since implementing their ideas required major changes in how European governments and economies worked, the word liberal came to refer to someone favoring change.

Now to 20th century America. Franklin Roosevelt proposed Social Security, the W.P.A., the T.V.A., the F.D.I.C., and other measures to provide the means for all Americans (or at least most of us) to be free. This was a major change, so Roosevelt was called a liberal, i.e., someone favoring change. Eventually the word liberal, in America, came to refer to someone seeking equality of opportunity through government action. And that’s how we got where we are today.

I’m a liberal, unabashed and proud. I’m free and I like it. I do as I wish with what is mine — my property, my money, my body, my time. I live where I want, eat what I want, travel where I want, worship where I want, give to what I want, and associate with whom I want. That makes me a liberal — one who is free.

I’m free because I’m reasonably well off in the richest nation in the world. Some of my neighbors can’t say that. You can’t be free to eat what you like if you can’t afford food; you can’t be free to live where you like if you can’t make your mortgage payments. But I want my neighbors to be free, too. Hence I give to charities and educational institutions and vote for political candidates who (I hope) will seek to spread freedom around.

I know that not every effort to spread freedom around achieves that end. Sometimes private enterprise (people competing to achieve things) works best, sometimes charity (individuals helping other individuals) works best, and sometimes a government program (everyone working together) works best. And some efforts fail completely.

But as one who is free and believes in freedom for all (that is to say, a liberal), I’m not willing to give up. I want us to keep trying to lift people out of poverty and hopelessness, or better, make sure they have the means to lift themselves out of poverty and hopelessness.

What will that take? Good schools for all. Good health care for all. Good jobs for all. Good pensions for all. Healthy families. And a nation at peace. Maybe we’ll never arrive there, but I want us to keep trying, and that makes me a liberal.

But isn’t that what conservatives want, too? I thought so. So let’s quit throwing stones at each other and make it happen.

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.