As a teen, I believed I had the whole world in my future.  I could do
anything If I only tried hard enough.  Time passes on. Work consistently
long and hard.  Everywhere is the same.  "Success", I defined was more
hollow than when I began.  Somewhere along the way, learn "it" is not
all about you despite our desires for it to be, even with the most noble
of professions/causes.  How many times have you stepped on a family of
ants that annoyed your random path.  Those ants may have had their own
"anty" consciousness, but who cares.  The are after all only mere ants
regardless of how they think or feel.  We do what we do.

  We want to think we have control, but in the end we do what we have
been programmed to do.  Whether it is genetic, environmental, combination
of both, circumstances, etc.  Ants sting because it is in their nature.
They can not help it.  Maybe they are also quite noble at times, but they
can not change the fact they are an ant no matter what they want to be
instead.  Neither can we.  Everything has already been done but just not
acted out as of yet.  Feeling as if we have some choice in the matter is
irrelevant, except it may help one feel better about their ant nature.

  Ahhh, Free Will. To Believe or Not to Believe. I didn't use to believe. I was
too intent on trying to reconcile the difference between it and "fate", or to
be more romantic, "destiny".  What is free will, and how do I get it, or do I
have it already and don't know it.  Hmmm, only your hairdresser knows for sure.
(from an American commercial - for those wondering what the heck she's talking
about). 

  I believe we DO have free will, both collectively and individually. In response
to the hard-hearted comment that the wealthy may make with regard to the beggar,
I would say who is to judge the intrinsic value of the life of the beggar. Let
every soul walk its own course. Who is to say that the beggar is not happy in
his soul. Or, if he is miserable in his current position in life, who is to say 
that his soul (or higher teacher, or whatever you want to call it) is not on
the exact path it is supposed to be on. Perhaps the beggar will learn more
compassion as a result of his suffering. We all suffer. We all choose how that
suffering will affect us. That is where our free will comes to center stage.
We cannot control the world around us. We cannot make it fair. We CAN control
our response to the world. If we see a beggar, we can CHOOSE of our own free
will to meet him in any way we desire. Perhaps we give him the proverbial fish,
or perhaps we go further and teach him to fish for himself!  Perhaps we mock
him and hide behind our own guilt and say, "if I were him, I'd do this..." I
would support the choice which makes ME feel the best about myself. The joy I
receive from this coupled with the joy the beggar feels for having experienced
another person considering him worthy of respect will combine and I guarantee
healing on some level will take place. And all because of a free will choice.
:) :) :) :) :)

  Of course we have free will! Whether you believe in fate or destiny or  
not! The simple (or not so simple) fact is that if we are all fated to
travel a certain set of tramlines through life, we are still travelling
on an incredibly foggy day!! In other words if there is a fate, whichever
divine being that created it was wise enough that we don't see it until we
are upon each life defining event, which basically gives us (a pseudo?)
free will! The tramlines theory has to have a fog to travel through, for
who would choose to travel the path to their sudden, untimely demise, when
on an alternate "visible" path, they met only fame and fortune...? A very
strong or very unwise person...? Who can say?

 If on the other hand, you don't believe in the fate type thing, then of
course you have free will, for how else would you propel yourself through
your life?

  Free will? Unfortunately it is hard to see what free will we have during
our infancy and childhood when we are moulded by our parents, the
environment we grow up in, and the lessons we are taught. Evidently it’s
these first experiences of life that set’s down the foundations that make
us the people who we are today. Sure we learn from experiences later on
in life when we can really hold a consciousness of our surroundings and
the world we live in, but even then we still have the fundamental morals
and ethics that we acquire day in, day out through our upbringing, how
easily can those ideals be changed? For example how can a child expect to
empathise with a crying school friend if his own cries have been silence
by his abusive parents? It’s likely to lead to him reacting in the same
way his parents did with him and act aggressively too the teary child.
To him it’s a completely natural reaction. He has no knowledge or
understanding of empathy. This can’t be considered free will!

  If Free will is our freedom of choice to how we respond to the world
and predicaments we encounter in life, then doesn’t it depend on how
we’ve been prepared and taught to react to these situations? What free
will do we have over these significant lessons?

  There seems little I can do, other than chew it over, and maybe
'program' my children with better values than my own.

  I feel that what little free will we have maybe in parenting. There is
nothing you can influence more extremely than when you are a parent or
guardian raising a child. Teaching them the lessons of life through your
experiences, laying down their moral foundations and the way they will
grow to perceive the world. As the teacher and not the student is where
free will is found.