When I was young, I remember when President John Kennedy said, “ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” To this day I believe his words have a profound meaning for each of us. For myself, I believe that to keep our country Strong, it is up to each of us to give back to maintain the freedoms we each value so highly.

Some believe it is their right to have these freedoms. Not something you earn, but a right to have them and use them in any manner they see fit. Even if that right takes away from others.

Our country and how it views a person’s rights is changing. We should be a country where the words in the Constitution and Bill of Rights should be fundamental in all the values we share, while understanding those rights are shared by all.

In 1991, Russia’s leader, President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned after a coup failed against his reforms. The largest country in the world had begun a change to allow more freedoms. Those new freedoms beyond the communist ideology spread over the land and younger people began living a life that gave them rights and freedoms to choose their futures.

Along the way the old hardliners and those people in Russian society who missed being told how to live their lives, did not welcome democratic freedoms. When the hard-liner leaders promised them a return to order under the state’s control, many welcomed it. They welcomed not having to be in charge of their own lives. The leaders of the renewed communist party would be in control. Those citizens who spoke out wanting personal freedoms went silent and disappeared. The right to speak or print an opposing idea had grave consequences.

Today in America a new idea of freedom is emerging. Freedom of the government to tell you how to think and what you can say. If a person or public institution doesn’t go along, the full weight of the government can come to bear on those opposed to the new control by a central leader.

One thing is true; it is the will of the people who voted. The majority of those people wanted a strong authoritarian leader who would bring our country in line with the rules that benefit the elite in our country. They want to return to a time in the past when people knew their place and stayed in their given guidelines.

Today judges are being arrested, and duly elected politicians are being pointed out as the problem in America. We see protestors arrested. And we are told no ill voices will be tolerated in blue states. And yet, 1,600 protestors who damaged the capital and injured police were released, pardoned, and spoken of as true patriots. The rich and famous TV stars who don’t pay their taxes are released from prison and return to society. The current government says they were mistreated by corrupt judges. A million dollar donation to a political campaign may have had something to do with their release.

We are returning to the 1950s, and 60s when we were told there is a communist behind every tree, and they want to take away our freedoms. Today we are being told there is an immigrant behind every tree and anyone who doesn’t believe in the code of being MAGA, is threatening our world. Most every statement from the government tells us if we believe in the Constitutional law of the land, we are WOKE. Interjected in the statement is the fact our present national condition is because of the past president. There is always someone to blame for every situation.

Our Forefathers wrote the Constitution and gave it the flexibility to endure as time passed and society evolved. But the writers of the Constitution believed that wise men and women would use common sense as time changed to keep our country’s basic rights free and just.

The one thing I am sure of, in a couple years the midterm elections will be held. Voters will choose those who sit in public offices by the things that matter to them. The cost of living, affordability of schooling, freedom to say your piece of mind, affordable medical care, veterans treated with the respect they deserve, and are you better off than you were.

When the votes are counted, we will know whether our country is going down the road to more control by one man and his puppet government, or will the country choose to be led by a three-branch government that represents “We the people…” Will we see a new future Through the Lens?