I Choose to Die But Once as a Free Man, not a Little with Every Breath I Take Under the Rule of a Treasonous and Ruthless Dictator
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart
As an original baby boomer, patriotism was all around me. My
father had returned from a ship in the Pacific in 1945. He had survived the war
to prevent the spread of fascism. I was born in Lewiston, Idaho, in 1946. With
jobs now plentiful in Los Angeles and other major cities, my maternal
grandparents, me, my mother, father, my little brother, and one of my uncles
moved to the City of Angels in 1952.
In the fall, I was sent to St. Mark’s Elementary School to
attend 1st grade. Every morning our teacher, a nun, had us face the
American flag standing in the corner and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Those
words, and their meaning, will live inside my head for the rest of my life.
However, in 2025, they mean nothing to the orange buffoon defiling our White
House.
Today is the first day of 2026: a new beginning which offers
hope for the return of democracy, and freedom to all people living inside the
United States of America, regardless of race, sex, religious preference, or the
color of their skin. I can only hope and pray this happens, and soon.
Nearly 500 million American men and women gave their lives
to defeat fascism. Trump is now nothing less than a fascist dictator who has
the full support of our military leaders in the Pentagon.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, watching John Wayne war
movies on a nine-inch black and white television, made me proud to be an
American. Reading about the courage displayed by those who served in our
federal government was inspirational.
Reality slapped me across the face when I was a junior in
high school. I was allowed to leave Catholic school and attend a public high
school. Unlike Parochial school, in my classrooms were girls and boys and girls
who were Black, Hispanic, Asian, and others who I learned were from places I
had never heard of before.
It wasn’t long before I learned that there were “two
Americas.” The freedoms I enjoyed as a young man were not the same as those of
my Black friends. At a very early age, they were taught how to act when confronted
by law enforcement or walking through an all-white community. This began a long
list of differences between us. My education had begun.
Two events were instrumental in making me the man I am
today: the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the
escalation of the war in Vietnam.
On November 22, 1963, I was a high school senior walking
between second and third period classes. After all of the students had taken
their seats, our teacher informed us about the tragedy which had just occurred
in Dallas, Texas: President Kennedy had been murdered. For the next three days
the only thing to watch on the TV were reenactments of the tragedy and
subsequent events, including the murder of the alleged killer, Lee Harvey
Oswald by Jack Ruby. I cried multiple times over those few days.
In a strange way, the death of the first president I felt
like I had known, personally, increased my interest in America’s history and what
happens in Washington.
On September 11, 1964, I was sworn into the USAF. The recruiter
who convinced me that joining the Air Force would offer me a beneficial
education for the future, had failed to include a pre-existing health
condition, and I was discharged for medical reasons on March 9, 1965.
It was that year when a war in southeast Asia, which had
begun with French fighters in 1955, began to escalate with the involvement of
the United States military. Today, more than 60 years after our leaders decided
to draft thousands of young men to fight a war halfway around the world, no one
has presented a viable reason for America’s involvement in a war we could not
win.
This did not inspire me to become ‘radical.’ However, it was
the beginning of what would become my last “career” as an author of 10 novels,
and a political writer and activist.
Fears related to the future existence of my beloved country
began in the first months of 1981. President Ronald Reagan ordered his party to
abandon the decades-long practice of honest deliberation and compromise. His
primary rule for all Republican politicians was a promise to support his
policies without question or dissention. Over the next few months, he began his
wars on the working class, women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, and all
non-Christians.
However, the end of the once Grand Old Party was not
complete until 2016 when cowardly members of the Republican Party, with
ambitions for great power, nominated Donald John Trump. The least qualified and
most anti-American man in the world would become their party’s leader.
Beginning in 2015, I began to expose the real Donald Trump.
However, after his illegitimate victory on November 8, 2016, he established
policies which were far more vile and destructive than I could have believed
possible.
You can only imagine my level of fear and hopelessness when
Putin’s Puppet was given a second win on November 5, 2024, although it is
obvious that Russian Hackers secured his illegitimate victory.
I warned my readers about his fascist manifesto, Project
2025, but only a few listened. With the assistance of a corrupt Supreme Court, Trump
has established himself as the Fuhrer of the United States of America. Fascism
is alive and well in America, and it’s hugging a flag and pretending to be the
leader of 340 million people while destroying the First, Fourth, Fifth, and
Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.
Until 2016, hope for my country remained alive. I am pleased
that I am 79 years of age. I will not be on this planet long enough to experience
the full extent of damage one man and his puppeteer will cause in the next decade.
I continue to cherish the freedoms promised to all Americans
by our Founding Fathers at the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1789. I
will never accept Trump as my President.
I was lucky to have been born into the ‘dream,’ the ‘great
experiment.’
You have to deeply love freedom and be willing to do
anything to protect your rights. It is not easy, and can easily be taken away.
Ignorance is unforgivable. Democracy demands vigilance and being informed.
I found it all worthwhile until six members of the SCOTUS
began to repeal decisions by previous Courts and rewrite laws to serve the
extremists on the right side of the aisle.
I have lived by a single quote, all of my years, and will
continue until I take my final breath.
"Loyalty to your country always, loyalty to your
government when it deserves it" - Mark Twain
Op-ed by James Turnage
Follow my blog and be informed
Sources: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/there-is-no-freedom-livin_b_11331342
https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/qz4vrr/an_attempt_to_discuss_freedom_freedom_is_just/
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