By Courtney Pierce
Who knew I'd become an activist for the Constitution at the ripe age of 62? I surprise even myself, but that document means more to me now that at any time in my life. As a pre-teen, back in the 1960s, my participation in protest events and social causes fell beyond the boundaries of parental permission. Besides, back then I didn't fully understand the importance of our Bill of Rights, especially our right to free speech. Freedom, like vast wealth, can be squandered.
For nearly forty years, between the 1970s and 2010, I took our freedom for granted. Of course I could speak freely about anything. Of course I could go anywhere I wanted in this great country—by foot, by car, or by airplane. While we were working, raising families, saving for retirement, paying bills, and building careers, our country succumbed to deep corruption through greed. We trusted too much, looking away because we were overwhelmed by daily life or in denial. Once our votes were cast, we didn't hold our elected officials accountable for their promises.
Fast forward to 2021. Now we're paying the steep price of apathy. A bit too late we're waking up to the reality of a foreign infiltration to strip us of our divine sovereignty. The result is unconstitutional tyranny, division, and censorship.
Big Tech has given us a social score by reporting users who enter select key words or subjects into search engines. We're being tracked, monitored, and entered into a massive database. The distressing part of this is that those search parameters haven't been disclosed to the public. We don't know what can "eliminate" us with the push of a button just for researching the truth. And what about labeling parents as "domestic terrorists" if they dare question their kids' curriculum and mandates imposed from their local school boards? I never thought I'd hear of citizens being denied healthcare if they didn't get an experimental injection. No VAX, no new kidney. These are only a few examples of the injustices in play today.
Does this sound like America? Have our now-fearful leaders read The Nuremburg Code? The culprits most complicit will be held accountable, but we citizens (aka sheep) are not off the hook. But we are sheep no more.
The mistakes of history are doomed to be repeated unless we, the people, stop crimes against humanity in their tracks. We must take back our freedom before it's too late. The good news is that we can take our country back if we band together. Elected officials report to the collective "us." Fear-mongering won't work with Americans—Republicans nor Democrats. Political parties mean nothing anymore.
Let's come together to reject division based on race, politics, medical status, religion, age, or gender. The more the corrupt side of government tries to slice and dice us, the faster we'll heal to keep fighting for what our country stands for. It's coming. Our moral compass will remain strong in our belief that light eclipses dark, and good wipes out evil. That's not political. It's human.
They say that as goes the U.S., so goes the rest of the world. America is the defender of freedom for the whole planet. That's a heavy responsibility, but it's time for us to step up.
Ronald Reagan gave us an important message in 1964, but we didn't heed his warning closely enough. His words wrap us with more meaning today:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free."
It's up to us, this boomer generation, to claw back our freedom for the next generation. and the next generation after that.
Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com. Check out all of Courtney's books:
New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."
Coming in 2022!
When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.
