I am a big Twitter user. I will make a confession here and now and that is I get most of my writing ideas from Twitter. I do not use Twitter to research my subjects but I use it to measure the pulse of what is going on. I use it to express my feelings and the follow back that I get. Most of it is good but it is the bad responses that send me off doing my research. In fact I wish I reached more people with opposing views so I would know what to learn about. As I write and try to show a different point of view I am also learning myself. It is definitely a interesting journey that I have started myself on.

One subject that I always seem to come back to week after week is the subject of freedom. The journey to discover what freedom is one of the most important journey an American can make. It is also a word that has evolved over the last 250 years. What was the freedom that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson fighting for? They were fighting for the freedom of self rule. The freedom to form their own government based on representation of the people. They fought and won their freedom and then wrote an amazing document called the Constitution of the United States of America. That document may have been written with a pen but it was able to be written because of the blood of brave patriots that enabled its writing. Every politician has sworn and oath to protect that document since its creation. A white supremacist may point out to you that it was white men that won us our freedom, that the patriots of the revolution were white. That will not be a true statement. Most historians agree that 10 to 15 percent of the soldiers were black. In fact the first man killed at the beginning of the conflict was a black seaman in Boston named Crispus Attucks. The history of the United States and Black History have always been intertwined as have many other minorities that contributed to the formation of this great nation. 

When I see someone like Ted Cruz walk across a stage and yell freedom I really get confused of what freedom is he talking about. Is he talking about having the freedom to form his own government? No because I think he wants to be President of this government. Could it be just a hollow word that he knows if he yells it you will think of him as some type of Patriot? Let me assure you that man and men like him are not patriots. They talk about studying an accurate assessment of history will make me hate my race? Really? I am going to hate my race because of the Tulsa Wall Street Riot or the Rosewood Riot. No, I would never hate my race. That would be racism. You can laugh, but yes, it would and I work every day trying not to be a racist. Bigoted people committed racist crimes and history should be giving us an accurate assessment of those riots and crimes. Because we work so hard at hiding history it is often repeated.

I know that Ted Cruz when he is yelling Freedom he is not talking about the freedom to vote. He is very much in favor of voter suppression. In Texas where he is from they don’t seem to hide the fact that their voter suppression is about winning and not stopping voter fraud. Freedom has nothing to do with the voting laws in Texas. It seems like Republicans will do anything in Texas that will help them retain power and suppressing the freedom of other people does not seem to bother them. Breaking their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution does not seem to bother them. They are not interested in their message getting those votes. The real problem is that it doesn’t bother enough of the people of Texas.

I have just figured out the freedom that he is talking about. That is the freedom to get other people sick. The freedom to take away the freedom of life from someone else because you are too selfish to wear a mask. The freedom to put children in the ICU because you don’t want to get a vaccine. That is Ted Cruz’s freedom. It really has nothing to do with real freedom. Ted needs to go to Google the Freest Countries in the world. He should then go to the World Atlas site which I would say is not a very political site and look at who they say are the freest countries in the world. They explain the criteria that they use to determine their list. We are not in the top ten. Almost all of the top ten would be called Social Democratic style of governments. You know that type of government that people like Ted Cruz say would take your freedoms away. Like having healthcare that would follow you from job to job so you could leave that dead end job that you only work at it for the benefits. That folks is real freedom. We need to do a better job of defining what real freedom is and not let the people Like Ted Cruz that want to suppress our freedom do it for us.

When people cry freedom today I begin to get a little suspicious. My first thought is freedom for whom? Freedom for everyone or just a select few and the hell with the rest of us. Freedom for women to choose what to do with their own bodies? Freedom that our forefathers fought for which were representative government and my right to vote for it? No most of the time it is just a hollow word meant to hide the real motive which is suppression.