Biggest Threats to Freedom are Mandates not Truckers

Questions! Are the liberal and questionable mandates being imposed on citizens moral and lawful? No matter what side of the political fence one sits, I ask the reader if these mandates are unempirical, half-baked, spiteful, mean-spirited, and promote segregation? Do not “We the People” have a moral obligation to oppose unjust laws and mandates? Preventing people, specifically truck drivers from bringing essential goods into and out of the U.S. and Canada because of their vaccination status when those drivers are sitting alone inside their cabs, and when the Omicron variant is already on both sides of the border, is really the height of absurdity. Biden like his Canadian counterpart, Pierre Trudeau is attacking personal liberty and threatening everyone’s ability to get foodstuffs and other necessities on grocery shelves and thus, family kitchen tables because of their overreach on vaccine mandates. Consequently, they may very well be the biggest threat to freedom in America and Canada.  

New Axis of Evil

Russia Announced War Games with China and Iran that Will ‘Encircle’ Europe. Moscow’s Ministry of Defense announced that Russian leader Vladimir Putin plans to hold naval drills in the Atlantic, Arctic, Mediterranean and the Pacific oceans this month and next, alongside China and Iran. These exercises, including those on land in Belarus, will essentially encircle Europe at the time when Russia is also amassing 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders for a potential invasion. The war games will involve “more than 140 warships and support vessels, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 pieces of military equipment, and about 10,000 servicemen,” the defense ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. Now I ask the reader, is Russia, China, and Iran the New Axis of Evil? If so, what should our congressional representatives and our 46th POTUS and those within his circle of advisors, to include his Secretary of Defense, military branch secretaries and Joint Chiefs of Staff do in preparation for the inevitable coming conflict that is on the horizon. If not today, then tomorrow? Following an Amry Airborne career spanning 30 years (65-95), I now believe that war is never inevitable until it starts, but there has been a great proclivity in human history, and including in recent history, for war.

Empty Words Go So Far

Russia’s purported plan to install pro-Kremlin leadership in Ukraine is ’deeply concerning,’ says the White House. If the Biden Administration is really concerned, they would have already sent the type weapons, armor vehicles, communication and intel equipment needed to detect and/or deter a Russian invasion/incursion. Joe, your empty words and “promises to retaliate” are a day late and a dollar short. Lest we forget, empty words only go so far... Actions speak louder than words. If the past is an indication of what we can expect from any Biden administration pronouncements, they will speak great swelling words of emptiness.

The Man, The Dream, The Appeal

MLK’s “I Have a Dream" speech is divided into three parts. Part one is an appeal to the nation to live up to its great founding principles. Part two is an appeal to black Americans to rise and act accordingly in the noble cause of the pursuit of liberty and justice. Let’s not drink “from the cup of bitterness.” Part three is an appeal to the ideals of the Christian soul of the nation. Dr. King quoted the prophet Isaiah that “the crooked places will be made straight … and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Biblical truths and ideals have been regrettably lost to “wokeism”, which has for all practical purposes become an irreligious religion. The indictment of the “woke” movement is that America is the problem. King offered up America as the solution. He talked about the “magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'” The problem is not America or the eternal truths that were brought to bear in its founding. The problem was the failure of the nation to live up to the challenges of its great founding principles. That was the heart of Dr. King’s message. He appealed to the nation to realize the dream of its Founding Fathers, not to crush it and bury it, as we hear today.

The problem is not white people. “The marvelous new militancy … must not lead us to a distrust of all white people,” he said. And, of course, the most memorable and oft-quoted line of the speech, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Let’s honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by revisiting and taking to heart the great truths he spoke in his “I Have a Dream” speech. They are great truths that have very sadly been cast to the side and replaced with the religion of politics and power. Let us honor King by seeing America as he presented it then, as embodying the ideals of a free nation under God.

The Right, Wrong, and Worst Thing, When Countering the New Normal

The beginning of the New Year should be a time of rumination and resoluteness. It is a turning point to consider where we have gotten the wrong end of the stick, better stated; erred during 2021 and what steps to take as we begin 2022. The New Year brings a freshness that says change is achievable. Indeed, sometimes the impetus from resoluteness creates a useful routine or penchant that remains for life. Every New Year brings challenges that depend on the state of the nation and the current phase of our lives. While years tend to be similar, 2022 will be very different. The civil disturbance, economic woes, supply chain disruptions, Coronavirus pandemic, political chaos, misinformation, government mandates... of the last two years have changed so much that we dare not use the word normal to describe our current America, and for that matter our world. There is not even a “new normal,” such is the perpetually evolving nature of things. Thus, we must settle on preparing for “not normal” times. Surviving in 2022 will depend on agility, strength, certainty, faith... Doing nothing is not an option, since we risk being overwhelmed by the turn of events. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”