Kevin’s Journal: It Feels Like We’re at War With our own Country

It feels like tensions in our country have been boiling over for years now. When Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, or Alex Peretti disarmed and killed just days later, the lines that have been in the sand for many people became concrete.

According to DHS policy, agents should not put themselves in the way of harm. This includes placing themselves in front of a moving vehicle. Another angle of incident shows her running over the agents foot, but this video, pushed by Trump and other right wing outlets, is controversial because of how far away, leading to questions of authenticity.

This tragedy is just one of many things that are taking place in our country today that could shift our country into an undemocratic state.

This should not have been our country’s wake up call. We are long gone from those days. We need to wake up swinging.

This is not a call for violence, but for advocacy. When we look at the state of the world, how we want it to be left to our children, how do we want them to react to how past generations acted against the atrocities of today?

I get it. In today’s world, we are surrounded by obstacles that make it seem like change is impossible, and that we could get punished if we speak out.

We are still in one of the greatest countries in the world, we must be allowed to speak out against injustices. We must be allowed lawyers and a free press in order to get the due process we deserve. It may seem like a far away dystopia where we get jailed for our beliefs or ideas, but it is coming a lot sooner and it is happening right now.

Gaza protestors advocating for a free Palestine and a safe Gaza and being arrested, suspended, and in some cases having rubber bullets shot at them. It is hard to stand up when the ideas and values being attacked aren’t necessarily your own, or even those that you disagree with, but when one of our beliefs are being censored, we all are being censored.

It is a scary time for people right now. We may not know how to handle every situation, but you have to try your best to not give them a reason to arrest you. If you do get detained it is better to say nothing at all rather than saying too much.

When we start to defend our democracy, in a way that is not in a debate or social media war, we will start to see that we have a lot of similar goals. It is going to take mass movement to help us defeat what is happening in our country, they want us voters to be idle, illiterate, and ignorant.

In order to fight this, we need to speak up. Even when the issue doesn’t affect us directly, or we don’t care about it personally. We need to speak up, because it’s not just about us, it’s about our democracy.