Freedom from fear is probably the freedom we take most for granted. I read a little about the Program for Survivors of Torture, founded in 1995 by Dr. Allen Keller. Via volunteers the program offers medical, psychiatric, legal, and social services for immigrants who have been persecuted or tortured in their homelands. Dr. Danielle Ofri runs the medical clinic of New York (NY) City’s Bellevue Hospital and has first-hand knowledge of the atrocities experienced by the people coming through the program. She’s treated patients from Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Serbia, Turkey, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Iraq that have been trying to make positive change in their countries and have suffered greatly.
We do have our poor and on October 14th, Diane Sawyer reported on the Lakota Indians of South Dakota who live in trailers with leaky roofs and broken floors. The neighborhoods are cluttered with junk and they live like they’re in a third world country. There’s no shopping mall, bank or other corporate business. They have an 80% unemployment rate, 80% of the adults are alcoholics, there’s an epidemic of diabetes and 2/3 of the kids drop out of school. Nearly 50% are living below the poverty level and there’s an agonizing history that created a dependency on Welfare. The new generation doesn’t want to live this way and want a helping hand not a handout. But for the rest of us, we don’t know what a wonderful thing we have as we complain about the price of gas and other things that in actuality are so trivial.
Yes, we had a Civil War but Pearl Harbor and the September 11, 2001 attacks are probably the most fearful events that we as a country ever realized. Yes, we have the Wall Street protests granted by our 1st amendment to our Constitution and because of this we know on a daily basis that human rights abuses do not occur at the hands of our government employees. Our government goes to great lengths to protect us from the atrocities of other countries. Our laws prohibit anyone from inflicting gruesome injuries, deaths, rapes, and unsupported attacks on its citizens. Unfortunately, there are some that take advantage of their position but, in this country when they’re caught they are prosecuted.
Dr. Ofri says whenever she scans the newspaper headlines and laments of the political squabbles of the day she thinks about her patients that are emissaries. She says they are blunt and intensely human reminders that we cannot take what we have for granted.
It’s these freedoms that truly make our country great as it provides us with opportunities to choose the life we dream of; it is not the wealth or freebies that are associated with this country. It is not up to the 1% of our population in the military to keep us safe and protect our freedoms. It is the responsibility of us all. Those of us not in the military and protecting our freedoms in other countries should be protecting us here. This means fighting against those that commit criminal acts which would include telling on your neighbor, friend or child if you have knowledge that they committed a crime.
On September 9, 2011, ABC News spoke with a Homeland Security representative who said that over 70% of the attacks detected were discovered by a citizen seeing something that they thought was unusual. They also spoke with Bill Bratton, former police chief in NY, Los Angeles (LA) and Boston who said to look for people bundled up on a warm day, delivery vans and trucks that are parked for a long time (don’t deliver), someone trying to stuff a large package into a trash can; people in stadiums: taking pictures or sketching security devices, or an unusual interest in talking with maintenance personnel, have question about air conditioning and ventilation systems; at shopping malls: watch for someone who wants to get on the roof or is paying unusual attention to emergency drills and multiple false alarms are a red flag. Wherever you’re at, have an escape plan.
I say it shouldn’t take a catastrophe for us to come together as a nation. We’ve been in worse situations and we will continue to stand strong and survive if we do it together and not let the weak or worst of us control. I also believe that anyone not willing to support this country should not be here, they need to move to a place that suits their inability or unwillingness to assume some responsibility to their own safety and human rights.
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