Each generation must fight for their freedom

Vox Pop

The people in Russia offer us an example of what it would be like to lose our freedom. Russians are fed a constant stream of lies and propaganda from the statecontrolled media. They cannot speak freely nor assemble peaceably. Their young men are sent off to kill and be killed in Ukraine. They suffer financially because of sanctions. And, perhaps most importantly, they have no ability to select their leaders. We need to always remember that our freedom is extraordinarily precious.

When we think of our freedoms, we often turn to those enshrined in the Bill of Rights to our Constitution: freedoms such as of speech, and of the press, and of religion. These are certainly very important, but I think an even more fundamental aspect of our freedom is our ability to elect our leaders in free and fair elections. The mayoral candidate, for example, who receives the most votes takes office, not the candidate who finishes second.

Unfortunately, we came very close in January 2021 to losing this the most fundamental of our freedoms. The November 2020 Presidential election was fairly close, but Biden was the clear winner. Biden received about 81.3 million votes to Trump’s 74.2 million. In the Electoral College, Biden received 306 votes, and Trump 232. These results were challenged by Trump’s attorneys in over 60 different court cases, many of which were presided over by Republican-appointed judges, yet Trump lost every single one of them. Still Trump refused to accept these results. He placed intense pressure on Republican election officials and Republican politicians to change the polling results. Some of these officials and their families received threats of violence. If it were not for the courage and integrity of these individuals, including Vice President Pence and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, we might have lost our freedom.

A minority in Congress, 8 Senators and 139 Representatives, voted late on January 6, 2021 and early on January 7, 2021 to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. Specifically, they voted to reject the official Electoral College results from Pennsylvania and Arizona. Our representative in Congress, Tom Tiffany, was one of those who voted to overturn the election.

I can forgive Tom Tiffany for being human and making a mistake. We all make plenty of mistakes in our lives. I certainly have. But as a political leader, as a member of the Congress of the United States of America, we should never forgive anyone who tries to take away our freedom. I suggest that political conservatives in Northern Wisconsin nominate someone else to run for Congress -- someone who will respect and defend our freedom.

Like many Americans, I’ve often taken our freedom for granted. I assumed that we would always have our rights. But I was wrong. Each generation of Americans must fight anew for their freedom. There will always be power-hungry individuals who will be only too happy to take our freedom away from us. If we are not strong enough, they will succeed.

— Jim Weber, Marshfield