Read at your own risk

Land of the free? The last two decades or so politically have been interesting, to say the least. There has also been a lot of clamoring about how the U.S. is this thing or that thing. Depending on where you stand in the political arena that thing is not generally the same. One sameness that seems to come up, regardless where you are politically is freedom. Freedom, we are all supposed to be granted, not by the governing body but, by a higher power. That we are innately supposed to be free as part of the natural order of things, or at least that is what is on the bill. Just so it’s clear the discussion isn’t about free from cost, because ain’t nothing free here. The economic woes of the nation are not the subject, just the concept of being and living freely. The very concept of this nation was founded in freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from tyranny, freedom to be independent. We all seem to agree the U.S. is a nation of freedoms. That is unless you are on the wrong side of the equation. As much as we claim to be a beacon of freedom, we are also a nation which marginalizes and disenfranchises so many of our people. From the very beginning, only land owners and most typically only males were truly considered citizens and protected fully by the laws, everyone else was literally chattel; the property of someone. Some more literally than others. Slowly, and at nearly glacial speed, rights and “freedoms” have been expanded to include more and more people but not everyone. Nearly two and half centuries have past and we are still marginalizing whole groups of people. This is not talking about immigration or how we treat people in other countries. This is right in every town, burg, borough, village and city. These are our citizens, these are “WE THE PEOPLE” being treated unfairly and unjustly. Take some time and think about our history, with the presumption there is some uniformity in how our nation has risen and how those living here have been treated. Every decade and generation there are groups or people who should be protected under the law and have freedoms, but they are denied those rights and freedoms, with vigor. The native peoples of this land can certainly site so many infringements on their rights and freedoms, up to and including this last half decade. We ignore the treaties, marginalize their culture, and we are still usurping their lands. No, we don’t send the cavalry raiding into their settlements any longer…well we still sort of do that, but we only fire rubber bullets and tear gas now. The racial problems in this country have improved considerably but racism is alive and well in the land of the free. If you are not a white Christian, in most of this nation, you have known bigotry, hate, belittling, cruelty and injustice as some point in your lifetime. It may even be going on right now. Brown v. Board of Education should have seen the end of segregation, but it still exists. The Civil Rights movement should have ended disparity in the public entities, however systemic racism is built in to the culture, we do not even recognize the advantages of not being black, brown, etc. Deny it all you want. We are not a harmonious society to non-white people. Depending on when your people came here only certain white people were acceptable, but those were largely based in religious reason, Catholics and Jewish people need not apply. In 2020 women will have been allowed to vote for 100 years, but there are still patriarchal limits on how much freedom women should have in this nation. Yes, we are light years ahead of other places in the world and where we were. Yet women are denied fair treatment daily. Just read the news of the day. How does some doctor abuse young girls on the US Gymnastics Team for decades, unless there is a culture in place that women are considered to be lesser in our society. How is it in the nation that is supposed to be the land of the free that so much oppression is still going on. There is no apology from me for saying what I have said, or any room for debate. We are not the nation we pretend to be. Yes, we are better than so many other places but being better isn’t enough if we are going to beat our chests and stomp our feet and say we are free, shouldn’t all of us be free. Shouldn’t we strive to be the model for the rest of the world to follow. Yet we still see race, religion, gender, sexual identity and so many other things as disqualifiers to rights and freedom not to outsiders but with our citizens. Our Independence Day is coming up. A day we choose to celebrate the grandness of our experiment in a fair and representative governance of the people, by the people. This year think about how much work we still have left to do before we really have a nation which is free. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards