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It is all of us who are being singled out and forced to be smaller, to see the world as an us versus them. We may not be the bullseye—for now—on the target, but we are closer to it than we realize.
What those who are supporting policies to ban books, expression by trans, or gay, or cross-dressing, or denying water to thirsty voters, or closing voting stations, or cutting back on historical studies, any of that… What they don’t get is that they are cutting their own expression, their own freedoms.
We are one country and what you do to cage the freedom of one fellow citizen is a cage for yourself as well.
Each of us is probably a member of some unusual group of one kind or another. Each of us is a minority in some way and whether that is racial, political, religious or whatever, moralists and theocrats and autocrats simply want everyone inside the lines they believe in.
“They” want control because they can’t stand freedom. Your freedom.
To say “they will be coming for you next” could be true but they already are coming for you because anyone or any class who is subject to the powers of government and curtailed, singled out and made to hide or change, any one of those things happens and it happens to all of us.
Because we are now either running from it, fighting it, ignoring it or enforcing it.
It is all of us who are being singled out and forced to be smaller, to see the world as an us versus them. We may not be the bullseye—for now—on the target, but we are closer to it than we realize.
Peter Kjenaas
Peter Kjenaas is an author, screenwriter, theater director, producer, chef, AirBnB host, parent and caregiver extraordinaire. And now he adds travel writer to his resumé as he sets off across the country in a 1971 VW camper bus. But first and foremost he is a caring and productive human who has graciously allowed us to post some of his writings to this site. See his latest book at PeterKjenaas.com, and his travel adventures at Riders on the Storm Bus.
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