There are many things that divide Americans today. \u00a0Issues like race, religion, gender identity (or even the concept of gender identity), politics.\u00a0\u00a0America today seems more about the divide than about the union.\u00a0\u00a0But there is one \u201cnotion\u201d that we all hold dear:\u00a0\u00a0Freedom.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter what side of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle we stand on (and some of us over time\u00a0shifted from one towards the other), we can all rejoice at the freedom of surviving hostages, taken on that desperate day of October 7th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0Edan Alexander, a twenty-one year old Israeli\/American was released this week, after eighteen months of captivity. But fifty-eight hostages remain unaccounted for. As many as twenty of them are believed to be still alive.\u00a0\u00a0The joy in his face, and the emotions of his family; reminds us all that there are ties that bind us together, regardless of our politics:\u00a0\u00a0family, life, hope, and just as important, freedom.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s something that Americans often take for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems that certain generations in our history are called to defend freedom, and other generations get a \u201cpass\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0My parents understood this on a fundamental level.\u00a0\u00a0They faced the stark threat of Nazism, Mom as bombs literally fell on her home in England.\u00a0\u00a0She lost many friends, even her fianc\u00e9, to the battle against Hitler.\u00a0\u00a0And she answered the call of her country to serve in the Special Operations Executive, the clandestine service of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And my Dad answered the call of his Cincinnati Draft Board. He served in the US Army that went to Europe to save Democracy.\u00a0\u00a0It was a simple as that.\u00a0\u00a0At a young age, barely older than Edan, they placed their lives on the line for freedom.\u00a0\u00a0(And they met, fell in love, married and survived the World War).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Freedom is at risk today here in America.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no other way to put it.\u00a0\u00a0Our freedom to speak out against the government is being challenged.\u00a0\u00a0When the Mayor of New Jersey\u2019s largest city spoke out against a private prison in his jurisdiction, the Federal Government placed him in custody.\u00a0\u00a0A US Congressman standing beside him protested the arrest. She is now charged with the Federal crime of obstruction.\u00a0\u00a0A judge directed a defendant to take a back entrance to the Court. She too is charged with a Federal crime.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Federal employees speak out to defend the laws that created their positions and agencies, illegally violated by the Executive Branch, they are fired.\u00a0When Wal-Mart and Amazon state the plain fact that their prices will go up due to the President\u2019s tariffs, they are attacked and threatened.\u00a0\u00a0And when foreign students in our Nation demand accountability for American actions, they are swept up and removed.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cBully Pulpit\u201d of Teddy Roosevelt, has become just the \u201cbully\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And most of all, there are people, legally resident, living in fear in our country.\u00a0\u00a0They are afraid of the \u201csecret police\u201d, abducting folks on the street or at their workplaces, placing them in custody without the \u201ccommon\u201d rights of counsel and judicial review.\u00a0\u00a0Many are taken to jurisdictions far from their homes and alien to their backgrounds.\u00a0\u00a0And some of those residents find themselves sent to the worst Hell holes in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Our Nation, the United States of America, is spending millions of our dollars to fly to these \u201cspecially selected\u201d prisons in El Salvador and other foreign nations, the \u201cDevil\u2019s Islands\u201d of our current era.\u00a0This isn\u2019t the infamous Gestapo, or the Savak, or the KGB:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s the United States Federal Police tasked with immigration enforcement: ICE, INS, and HSI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is our present generation required to do?\u00a0\u00a0We can choose to follow the path of meekness, turning a blind eye to the depravations of our government.\u00a0\u00a0We can justify it: \u201cWell, they aren\u2019t really Americans, they don\u2019t really have \u2018rights\u2019, they haven\u2019t \u2018earned\u2019 the right to be here\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s all just excuses to avoid the obvious.\u00a0\u00a0Freedom is hard, it has to be won, and defended, and won again.\u00a0\u00a0It is beyond clear that our Freedoms are threatened by our own government.\u00a0\u00a0Like my parent\u2019s generation, we all really recognize this on a fundamental level, excuses or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we must stand, as my parents did, and as other generations stood at risk to defend the ideals that make the United States a different kind of Nation.\u00a0\u00a0We must speak out, we must march and protest, and yes, perhaps some of us will go to trial or jail along with the Mayor and the Congressman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Because if we don\u2019t, our generation will have failed the ultimate test.\u00a0\u00a0We will have failed to defend our Nation and our Freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s something we should ALL be united about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greatest Generation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bully<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Three Letter Secrets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Our Duty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n