Category Archives: Freedom

This undated illustration depicts President Abraham Lincoln making his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 19, 1863. (AP Photo)

We have this trinity of holy civic documents underlying our collective life together in America: the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Gettysburg Address.

We have the Fourth of July as our high-holy civic Christmas commemorating the birth of our republic through the Declaration. Lincolns Gettysburg Address makes sure July 4 will be forever intertwined with Thanksgiving, which essentially is our civic Easter for its role in the resurrection of freedom for all Americans.

Thanksgiving should be celebrated more as a memorial and covenant to the born again America that Lincoln talked about at Gettysburg than solely being remembered for Squantos kindness towards the Puritans.

American history can be divided metaphorically into the Old Testament life when slavery was allowed under the Constitution and the New Testament under the amended Constitution after slavery had been defeated. It was at Gettysburg 158 years ago that Lincoln announced the philosophical and spiritual Good News for what America was going to become after the horrendous conflict was over.

Author Gabor Boritt wrote The Gettysburg Gospel to explore the profound religious undertones and themes easily recognizable to 19th century Americans, which Lincoln adroitly deployed in his understated, yet immaculate Gettysburg Address.

He gave his address on Nov. 19, one week before the first national day of Thanksgiving while suffering from variola, a mild form of smallpox. Two months earlier, he had declared the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens for the Union victory at Gettysburg.

Lincoln was routinely derided as a hick from the Illinois sticks for his lack of formal education and awkward appearance and gait. But he knew exactly what he was doing when he delivered his 271-word speech around 3 p.m. on a clear crisp late autumn afternoon at the new Soldiers National Cemetery on the Gettysburg battlefield, still-bloodstained four months after the previous July 4 weekend battle.

Lincoln used every literary tool in his arsenal of memorized quotations, themes and rhythms from the King James Bible; every Shakespearean play and Pericles Funeral Oration to paint a sublime portrait of the new Born-Again America to come.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Fourscore and seven was a familiar reference from Psalms 90. Brought forth, conceived and shall not perish in the closing line evoked biblical images of physical and spiritual birth, death and eternal life.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

Lincoln wanted the American people to look beyond the horrors of war and recognize the unfinished work they would have to accomplish together as free people, both North and South, white and black alike, in order to form a more perfect Union with malice toward none, with charity for all.

Lincoln knew about an 1858 lecture by transcendental abolitionist minister Theodore Parker of Massachusetts, who wrote: Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.

In Lincolns word construction, Parkers observations became the closing line of one of the most powerful speeches in human history.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Give thanks this Thanksgiving for the blessings of the rebirth of freedom in 1863. Pray for a new rebirth today. Amen.

Originally posted here:

HILL: The Gettysburg Gospel, Thanksgiving and the rebirth of freedom - North State Journal

The mainstream media is creating a lasting and damaging impact on how Americans define freedom. Some official news sources are becoming no more reliable than your Instagram or Facebook feed and Americans are so caught up in their differences to care. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a front row seat to the media we consume, causing an irreversible divide in our nations beliefs.

This past year we have seen how the word freedom itself has been morphed into a term used for selfish personal beliefs to prevail instead of a global health crisis being averted with any grace in the United States. People are seen abusing the word freedom to justify endangering the lives of those around them, supporting racist policies, in their own ignorance to the deeply rooted horrors of Americas systems. What a privileged take on a word that was supposed to stand for equality, new beginnings, the ability to think freely without unfair reprimands.

Some media allows people in power to warp the meaning of the word freedom, and citizens who look to those in power for guidance fall into a never-ending cycle of misinformation that is shaped to fit political narratives instead of factual information.

Throughout American history the word freedom has taken on a lot of different meanings. When the country was starting out, freedom meant being able to live by our own rules, to have democracy. Later freedom was applied to the plight of slavery, freeing people from literal chains and being considered less than human. We have fought wars over what freedom means to this country, and far too often there have been wars waged by the privileged.

There is a history of real oppression in this country that is spelled out by indigenous and POC Americans, but covered up by the whitewashing of our history. That has given white people in this country a false sense of what oppression really is or feels like, and therefore has aided in creating ignorant ideas of what freedom means.

With misinformation about the roots of freedom in America running rampant in our history, of course we have ended up making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to public safety. The media platforms that have gained American trust over the past few decades have created an opportunity for that media to create chaos through misinformation. While the media and politicians of our country have the American public pointing fingers at one another and causing people to choose selfishness and fear over public safety, the true value of freedom is being thrown down the toilet.

So how does this happen? How are people so convinced that their personal beliefs are backed up by hard facts, statistics, and science? Well for one, some of the news sources we are supposed to be able to rely on for information and world views have been politicized to a point where there is almost no common ground between far right and far left. News channels having different headlines for an issue that affects the entire country is not something new to the 2020 election or the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been going on for years.

Harvard Political Review was reporting the polarization of cable news in 2014 when Barack Obama was the hot new topic to mold. The article talks about how the political leanings of Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN caused different reactions from each set of viewers because of how they each portrayed topics differently.

In all the discomfort and unrest throughout America over the past year, people surprisingly refuse to question why everyone can be so divided on such a life or death issue. To me there is only one answer, that too many people have faith in their media consumption. One of the biggest arguments that Right Wing media has created recently to convince people they are justified in their ignorance, is claiming that it is an infringement on personal freedom to wear masks. That is giving people a false reassurance that harmful opinions are factual, and this has created a group of people that has complete faith in their own media, while they cast away all other sources without a second thought.

It is important to take a look at how the media has the disturbing power to impact the livelihood of an entire country just by abusing the meaning of one word. Freedom has been turned into a weapon for selfishness and division instead of a call for unity and equality. This should not be ignored as we continue to march toward an irreversible rift in this country.

Whitney Durgin is a student at the University of Maine at Farmington, and this piece was written as part of coursework in Incarceration Nation class.

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Whitney Durgin: American definitions of freedom are being manipulated by the media we consume - Lewiston Sun Journal

By Latrishka Thomas

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The two women charged in relation to the infamous Freedom Fighters protest where participants were tear gassed and rubber bullets were fired will not be entering pleas until next year.

Donette Simon of Tindale Road and Shenel Williams of Villa were among several persons arrested after the August 8 demonstration which saw residents come out in droves to express their disagreement with several Covid-related policies.

The women were jointly accused of organising a prohibited public meeting and participating in said event.

Williams was also charged with incitement and encouraging unlawful behaviour.

When the duo appeared before Magistrate Conliffe Clarke three months ago, they were accompanied by a team of lawyers to include Leon Symister, Wendel Robinson and Charlesworth Tabor.

The lawyers requested that a plea not be taken because they needed the police file and other documents.

But yesterday Attorney Michael Archibald relayed on behalf of the absent lawyers that the defence still hadnt received the case file they requested.

The prosecution was then given 21 days to provide disclosure and the matter was adjourned until February 8 at which time the defendants will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty.

Simon, 34, and Williams, 29, are currently on bail, having been granted temporary release in the sum of $15,000 with a $1,000 cash component at their first court appearance.

They were also asked to satisfy the $1,000 cash component of the bail, surrender all their travel documents, provide two Antiguan sureties, remain residents of their current abode, report to the nearest police station three times a week, and to notify the police three days prior to moving to a different address.

Excerpt from:

Case adjourned against women charged with organising Augusts Freedom Fighters protest - Antigua Observer

Letters

By Gail Travers | on November 24, 2021

To the Editor:

I was amused by the one-sided column about the proposed cannabis store (Cannabis Store Unwelcome in Small LBI Beach Town, 11/17). The writer brings up all these crazy points because he thinks the store will cause undue harm to the community, basing his conclusions on all the articles he supposedly researched. Has he ever done the same research on the effects of alcohol and tobacco?

You can walk into a number of convenience stores on the Island and see multiple brands of cigarettes behind the counter, but thats OK. You can see liquor stores and even alcohol on the shelves in some markets, but that is OK. Has he ever checked on the number of accidents due to alcohol or the number of people with liver disease, but that is OK because they are from good stores.

Has he ever done research on how many people die from lung disease due to smoking and how addictive cigarettes are? He even wonders if the cannabis store will ask the users if they are pregnant or if they have any other conditions, yet has he ever heard that question asked in any liquor or convenience store? I would think not.

My point is this. He has been told by the media that alcohol and tobacco are acceptable by adults, but cannabis is a drug and therefore must be bad. The voters of New Jersey fortunately did not agree with him. The voters understood that adults should have the right to choose for themselves if they want to consume alcohol, tobacco and cannabis products. By allowing the sale of legalized cannabis products, responsible adults now have the option to get products that are not sold on the black market by organized crime and from questionable sources.

As a taxpayer I would welcome a business that will help to contribute to tax revenues of Beach Haven. Taxes in New Jersey are already the highest in the country, so lets be sensible. We should allow liquor, convenience and cannabis stores for those who want them. I resent anyone trying to protect us using the idea of protecting the children as their reasoning. What makes this country great is giving us the freedom to choose. Lets keep it that way.

Paul Ackel

Beach Haven

See the rest here:

Freedom to Choose - The SandPaper

OMAHA, Neb. Violators parking in handicap parking spaces increases in the winter. With more spots being reserved for curbside pick-up, the spots are even more of a priority for those who are disabled.

The sticker on Nia Karmann's van reads, "You can take my spot if you also take my disability."

She is the President of the Nebraska Spina Bifida and says the increase of people parking in handicap parking is frustrating.

"When you park in those handicap parking spots for just five minutes because all you are going to do is go in that still takes away my ability and my freedom to be able to do things independently on my own," she said.

She says in the winter months, they see an increase in people illegally parking in spots for the disabled.

"There have been a couple of times where I have had to skip going to the store or going to the mall or going anywhere because there were no handicap spots available," she said.

With more spots now being designated for store curbside pickup, spots designated for those who are handicapped become even more important.

"It's very frustrating and what people don't understand, that to us, it is a huge deal because again, we are left out. We are not included, we are not able to take advantage of something that should be available to everybody. We live in such an able-bodied world that doesn't think of the necessary needs for disabled people," she said.

She says another reminder, that is appreciated, is for people to pay attention to the designated spacing around the handicap spots and not park too close to their handicap vans. They need space to get their wheelchair out of the car and have enough room to roll away.

Handicap parking violations can range from $150 dollars for a first violation up to $300 for a second violation. If you get caught using an unauthorized handicap permit the fine is $200.

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Local driver with handicap asks others to not limit her freedom by parking where they shouldn't - KMTV - 3 News Now

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: Religious exemption is on the chopping block under Xavier Becerras aggressive new plan.

At the time of Xavier Becerras confirmation, the Register warned his appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) posed a grave threat to the religious freedom of believers. We based that warning on a sober assessment of his disastrous political record in California, where he earned the notoriety of being possibly the most flagrant dissenter on abortion and LGBT issues of any Catholic in American public life.

The situation is now becoming even worse than we feared. In mid-November, important disclosures by the Register and other media outlets made it clear that Becerras HHS has declared open war on individuals and groups who, on the basis of their religious convictions, oppose the agendas of the abortion and LGBT lobbies. In fact, hes extending this war on religious liberty even beyond health care, into the domain of faith-based adoption agencies.

The most significant of these media disclosures shows how HHS is collaborating with a host of progressive activist groups to impose a new rule mandating radical agendas in the provision of health care with no religious exemptions allowed. The reporting is not speculative: Its based on the contents of court documents brought to light by the Catholic Benefits Association. These legal documents indicate that HHS is currently in discussion with extremist groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign and the Southern Poverty Law Center, working with them to craft an expansive definition of discrimination on the basis of sex.

Via this redefinition of sexual discrimination, these progressive groups want HHS to mandate that all health-care entities must participate in the provision of abortions, sterilizations, contraception, gender-transition services and fertility treatments for infertile couples, including for those they call socially infertile, such as same-sex couples and some single persons.

The radical groups are also requesting that HHS move to overturn existing religious exemptions that some Catholic health-care providers have been granted by the courts.

Doug Wilson, the chief executive officer of Catholic Benefits Association whose membership includes 71 dioceses and more than 1,000 affiliated members, including charities, hospitals, universities and small businesses has said that this radical plan would effectively remove all religious considerations from issues around life, family, marriage, the very nature of men and women.

If Becerra had any intention of respecting the freedom of Catholic and other religious health-care entities to provide sound medical care, in conformity with what they believe, he would have told this radical coalition that HHS could not possibly accommodate their demands. Instead, HHS advises in the court documents that it is pushing forward aggressively with an administrative rule that is likely to fulfill their wishes, to be enacted by April 2022.

This isnt a Catholic issue; this is a religious issue, Wilson warned. This will impact everyone religious, and, essentially, theyre saying that your beliefs have no standing in this discussion.

And on the same day that news of these disturbing developments broke, Fox News reported it was in possession of a draft HHS memo that further confirms the federal agencys desire to overturn religious-liberty protections. The memo indicates that Becerra intends to remove the authority that the Trump administration granted to HHS Office of Civil Rights to consolidate religious-freedom claims in one office and ensure proper enforcement of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and of First Amendment constitutional rights.

The very next day, HHS announced it was rescinding religious-freedom waivers granted to the states of Michigan, South Carolina and Texas, and to religious adoption agencies in those states, who object to placing children with same-sex couples or families of different religions. Although this HHS announcement tried to preserve a fig leaf of alleged respect for religious freedom, by maintaining that the federal agency will continue to consider religious-exemption requests in conformity with the RFRA on a case-by-case basis, its transparent that the only reason for the policy shift was to proclaim that, under the Biden administration, religious freedom is completely subordinated to the advancement of the LGBT cause.

Today, the announcement pointedly declared, HHS reaffirms its important commitment to core American values: HHS will not condone the blanket use of religious exemptions against any person or blank checks to allow discrimination against any persons, importantly including LGBTQ+ persons, in taxpayer-funded programs.

One justification cited by apologists for HHS recalibration on religious freedom, under Becerras direction, is that support is diminishing for the retention of religious perspectives in Americas public square. Yet that claim is categorically refuted by the findings of the Becket Fund for Religious Libertys annual Religious Freedom Index. According to Beckets polling data, an overwhelming majority of 79% of Americans support the freedom of groups and individuals not to participate in actions or work that violates their sincere religious beliefs and conscience. And this support isnt declining; its actually a percentage point higher than it was in 2020.

Moreover, the Becket index also found substantial support for religious liberty in the specific area of health-care provision, where HHS appears most bent on eradicating it. Forty-four percent of respondents said that hospitals and health-care systems run by religious organizations should be allowed to operate in conformity with their beliefs, compared to only 26% who said they opposed this freedom.

The bid by HHS to undermine the conscience rights of religious health-care providers is another stark reminder of why the U.S. bishops have been forced, over the course of this first year of the Biden administration, to discuss how dissenting Catholic politicians like Becerra and Biden can be drawn into communion with what the Church teaches regarding the sanctity of all human life and the reality that an individuals biological sex is immutably male or female. Its almost beyond comprehension that these two prominent Catholics not only deny these truths, but are even going further by seeking to deny Catholic medical personnel the right to refuse to participate in the grave evils of abortion and gender-transition procedures.

At the same time, its important to remember that its not a done deal with respect to Becerras ambitions to undermine HHS current religious-freedom protections. Its incumbent for all of us as individual Catholics to work as hard as we can at the political level to forestall these actions and to join at the spiritual level in fervent prayer that they will not come to pass.

God bless you!

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Here We Go Again: HHS New War on Religious Freedom - National Catholic Register

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary, October 26, 2021. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo

Register

BUDAPEST, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations' top expert on freedom of opinion and expression expressed concerns about a "distorted media environment" in Hungary, saying on Monday that reporting around elections due next year must be fair and impartial.

U.N. Special Rapporteur Irene Khan also told reporters during a visit to Budapest that the "freedom of expression which political candidates have should not be abused to create a toxic environment of violence (and) hatred".

Allies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party control large parts of Hungary's private media, while the public media largely serves as a government mouthpiece. Dozens of newspapers and broadcasters that had criticised Orban have changed hands in recent years.

Register

His government has repeatedly denied undermining press freedom. It did not respond to emailed Reuters questions on Monday.

"I see a distorted media environment in Hungary where pluralism, diversity and independence of media is being questioned," Khan said.

"Therefore it is important to ensure that in the context of the elections, there is fair reporting, there is access to all the candidates on a fair and equal basis, and that public service media ... maintains an impartial approach to the different parties and candidates."

Next year's election will be the first in which Orban has faced real competition since sweeping to power in 2010.

His nationalist party has increasingly appealed to conservative voters by rejecting western liberalism and multiculturalism, and Orban has ramped up his rhetoric this year regarding LGBT people and immigrants.

U.N. rapporteur Khan also echoed European Commission concerns that state advertising is being channelled to pro-government outlets, leading to indirect political influence over the media.

The highly skewed distribution of state funds for advertising has "major consequences, not only for the health of the media sector but also for democratic freedoms that independent media nurture", she said in a statement on Monday.

Register

Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Catherine Evans

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

See the original post:

U.N. expert raises concerns over media freedom in Hungary ahead of 2022 vote - Reuters

New Zealand was one ofonly fiveeconomically free countries in the world, as measured by The Heritage Foundations2021 Index of Economic Freedom.

For years, the people of New Zealand have enjoyed robust rule of law, clear regulatory efficiency, and free and open markets. The size of the government has been relatively small, which is a boon to economic freedom.

Recently, though, the government of New Zealand hasdisregardedpeoples economic freedom in an attempt to eradicate all traces of COVID-19 from the southwest Pacific Ocean island nation.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, the left-leaning government of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardernsrestrictive pandemic response policieshave destroyed the livelihoods of service professionals, retailers, and small-business people, among others.

Many of those people dont agree that they should bear such high costs related to the governments fight against COVID-19andunderstandablyso.

Kiwis have been ordered to stay in their homes for long stretches of time during the pandemic.Most recently, this applied to nearly 1.7 million peoplein Aucklandfrom mid-August to early October. People subject to the lockdowns have not been allowed to meet with family members who do not live with themor even to meet with them outdoors or go to beaches or parks.

Businesses have been forced to permanently shut down. One small-business owner in South Canterbury, New Zealand, told theTimaru Herald:

We cant get through another year. This year has been really bad, and another school holidays have just been and gone.

We had five staff, and we had to let them all go. Its heartbreaking.

There are a lot of places in Twizel that have closed down, a lot in Tekapo that have been mothballed or gone under.

In October, the government of New Zealandfinallygave up on the policy it had since the pandemic began of seeking to eliminate every case of COVID-19 in the entire country. But severe restrictions remain in place and are decimating businesses, including the once-booming tourism industry.

Many in New Zealand areprotestingin the streets because of the lingering restrictions.

Reuters reported from Wellington on Nov. 9:

New Zealand beefed up security measures at its parliament on Tuesday as thousands of people gathered to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and government lockdowns aimed at controlling the pandemic.

All but two entrances to the parliament building, known as the Beehive, were closed off in unprecedented security measures, as mostly unmasked protesters marched through central Wellington and congregated outside parliament.

While the demonstration was peaceful, many people were seen holding signs and placards with messages like Freedom and Kiwis are not lab rats and shouting slogans as they demanded the government roll back compulsory vaccination and lift restrictions.

The response to the coronavirus pandemic by New Zealands government, which has been so devastating to small businesses, has not eradicated all COVID-19.

The economic costs to individuals and their families due to the response should not be ignored or assumed to be worth it.

New Zealands continued status as one of only a very few economically free countries in the world now depends on Kiwis successfully exercising their democratic authority over their government and its officials. The return of New Zealand as the land of higheconomic freedomis much needed.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal

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COVID-19 Protests in New Zealand Are All About Economic Freedom - Heritage.org

Madam Chair,

I wish to thank the Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Ms Teresa Ribeiro, for her report. We welcome the focus in this Autumn report on the description of her work. This provides a good counterpoint to her Spring report that was, usefully, more analytical in format.

The current report highlights the extensive and important activities which the RFoM and her staff have been undertaking on behalf of all participating States. The United Kingdom welcomes the RFoMs recent participation in various regional and thematic conferences, as well as her country visits. Like the RFoM, we agree on the importance of direct contact with national authorities, as well as senior politicians, media actors and civil society. We also welcome the RFoMs continued focus on the Safety of Journalists, an issue which continues to be of concern in the OSCE region. The work on Safety of Female Journalists Online is to be particularly commended the use of the RFoMs materials for wider training and educational programmes is testament to the importance, and quality, of this work.

We also welcome the RFoMs focus on disinformation which poses threats to democracy, to security, and to wider societal cohesion in the OSCE region. It is a complex subject deserving of attention. So too is the issue of legal harassment, where actions in the spheres of both civil and criminal law are of concern.

Madam Chair,

It is regrettable, but understandable, that the RFoM continues to see a bleak picture on media freedom in the OSCE region. As we prepare to celebrate next year the 25th anniversary of the RFoMs mandate, it will be important that we remind ourselves, collectively, of the importance of the role of the RFoM. It remains a critical institution for the OSCE region. Its success depends on all participating States offering the direct, open and productive contacts that the RFOM requires.

We thank you, Teresa, for your efforts and reiterate the UKs full support for the important work undertaken by you, and your excellent staff.

Thank you

Link:

OSCE's Representative on Freedom of the Media: UK response - GOV.UK

"White freedom" could bring the ultimate ruination of America. By that term, I do not simply mean "white privilege" or "racist" behavior that violates social norms and is considered unacceptable or aberrant. White freedomis much more powerful than that: it is acoreorganizingprinciple of American society.

In his recent book "White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea,"Tyler Stovall explains this concept as "the belief (and practice) that freedom is central to white racial identity, and that only white people can or should be free."

Contrary to what many Americans would like to believe, the country's foundingwas not a project dedicated to universal human rights. Instead, America's "democratic" experiment was based on a racialized understanding of democracy and of who counts asfully human and who doesnot.

In the 18th century,full citizenship rights and "democracy" wereexclusive to white men who owned property.As Charles Mills, Edmund Morganand other scholars have documented, Black and other nonwhite peoplewere theboundary against which "democracy" and white freedom were to be demarcatedandbuilt upon. In his 1999 book "The Racial Contract,"Charles Mills summarizes this as:"Whiteness is not really a color at all, but a set of power relations."

White freedom is everywhere in America. Black and brown people (and some white people as well) condemn it as a manifestation of the lies which undercut any claims that America is an "exceptional" nation and the world's greatest democracy.

RELATED:How higher education can win the war against neoliberalism and white supremacy

Many or most white people, however, take white freedomfor granted and are likely todeny its very existence, even as they remainextremely protective of its power. This is but oneexample of thelies that are central to race itself, and the transhistorical project of making and remaking whiteness.

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, and his acquittal on all charges, offers one of the most recent high-profile examples of how white freedom functions in America.

Last August, Rittenhouse, who was then 17years old,traveled across state lines, armed himself with an AR-15 assault style rifle, joined forces with a local militia groupand put himself in the middle of the civil disturbances caused by the police shooting of a black man named Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two of them, allegedly in self-defense. When he attempted to surrender to police they ignored him, and then he was cleared of all legal responsibility in a criminal trialwhosejudge was blatantly biased in his favor, and based ongun laws and definitions of self-defensethat advantage white defendants. He is alreadya right-wing media star, and will likely soon become awealthy celebrity.

Consider the fact thatRittenhouse was not shot dead by the police as he walked down the street with anassault rifle, immediately aftershooting three people in the street. That is an iconic illustration of white freedom'spower over life and death in America. White vigilantism is perhaps the ultimate expression of white freedom.

I asked Tyler Stovall to share his thoughts about the role of white freedom in the Rittenhouse saga. He responded by email:

The recent acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse by an essentially white jury for murdering two unarmed men simply underscores the widespread belief in the fragility of white privilege and the overwhelming need to preserve it.Rittenhouse's argument that he acted in self-defense proved compelling, even though it was not backed up by any substantial proof, and the jury simply ignored the facts that he chose to enter an area armed with a high-powered rifle and became the only person to kill another human being that night. Rittenhouse's trial became a textbook case of the need to preserve white freedom, to prevent a tearful young white man from going to jail even though he permanently deprived others not only of their liberty but of their lives. ...

One only need imagine what would have happened if Kyle Rittenhouse were a young Black man who claimed to have shot others in self-defense.Consider the case of Tamir Rice, shot by Cleveland police in 2014 at the age of 12 for holding a toy rifle. The claim of the police, upheld by the judicial system, was that his murder was justified because he presented a possible threat.If Rittenhouse were Black his victims would doubtlessly be seen as justified in attacking him, in self-defense, because he held a rifle (a real one), and Rittenhouse would most likely have been convicted of murder.But Rittenhouse is white, and self-defense works in his case because it is ultimately a defense of white power, white privilegeand white freedom.

Rittenhouse's actions were easily avoidable: If he had simply stayed home, no one would have died in Kenosha that night.That human tragedy also offers an example of the wayswhite freedom is central to alarger dynamic of escalating right-wing political violence and other threats to American democracy.

The ongoing Republican coup and Jim Crow 2.0assault on multiracial democracy is an act of white freedom, in which Black and brown people's civil rights are being usurped as part of a larger plan to create a new American apartheid system. Moreover, white freedom is so powerful that these fascisticattacks on multiracial democracy are largely legal or at least occur on the debatable margins of legality and cannot simply be corrected by enforcing existing laws.

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The coup attempt and attack on the Capitol lastJanuaryby Donald Trump's followerswas also an example of white freedom. The insurrectionists felt emboldened in their violence, overt racismand anti-democracy fervor because they believed, with good reason, that white freedom granted them the "right" to act with impunity.

Trump and the other plotterswho planned and executed the events of Jan.6 -- and many other aspects of the ongoing coup against American democracy -- have not been punished for their evident or likely crimes. For the most part, thefoot soldiers arrested in the wake of Jan. 6 havereceivedrelatively light sentences for their crimes against democracy and the rule of law.

All of these events are part of a much larger campaignagainst democracy, whichlaw enforcement and national security experts warnmaylead to a violent insurgency against the Biden administration, the Democratsand other groups targeted by the far-right"patriot" movement. This too is another example of white freedom.

Black and brown people (or "leftists" of any race, for that matter) would never be allowed to operate with such impunity, or withreasonable assurance that they would face no serious punishment. They certainly would not be described in empathetic detail by voices in the mainstream news media as people who were"angry," "upset," "confused" and likely"misunderstood."

White freedom is also exemplified by America's criminogenic politics which go back well beforethe Age of Trump in which the wealthiest individuals (nearly all white)and largest corporations (nearly all controlled by white men) can act with impunity, concealing their wealth and income to avoid taxes, destroyingthe environmentand evading virtually any responsibility for theirindividual and collective crimes against society.

White freedom also manifests through collective narcissism. The Republican death cult repeatedly emphasizes the language of "freedom" to encourage its followers not to wear masks and to refusevaccinationagainst COVID-19, not merely risking their own lives but endangering public health on a grand scale.

Across a range of public policies, today's Republican Party and the larger "conservative movement" have advocated and enacted laws that have increased human misery and loss of life among the American people,as well asaround the world. White freedom permits, encourages, enables, protectsand normalizes such antisocial and sadistic behavior.

Neofascism may representthe final form of white freedom in American democracy.Right-wing political violence and other forms of terrorism are becoming normalized. The Republican-fascist movement led by Trump isa political cult prefaced upon using white freedom to attack its "enemies" with impunity. Those who are deemed inferior, according to the ideologyofwhite freedom, are to be denied any fundamental human rights or liberties.

Loyalty to white freedom, and the retrograde reactionary values and politics it represents, empowers a wide range of antisocial and anti-human behavior against marginalized individuals and groups, not alwaysbased on race, color or ethnicity. White freedom by definition is exclusionary, and this form of"freedom" is defined by white people's abilityto define and limit the freedom of others

Leonce Gaiter, who has written extensively on questions of race, masculinityand violence, offered this additional contextfor understanding white freedom and American history, in an email to Salon:

When white supremacy is challenged, white reaction follows. Reconstruction brought reclamation. The '60s and '70s rights revolutions brought Reagan. Obama's election brought the tea party and Trump.

In this nation's 245 years, African Americans have enjoyed statutory equal rights for only 56 since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Think about it. White supremacy and forms of apartheid have been the status quo in this nation for 77% of its history. The very ideas of black equal rights and full black citizenship are shockingly new. This is something we dare not forget. After Obama's election, the post-racial nonsense flew in all directions, flung by white pundits desperate to forget American history. Instead, we got Trumpism and a Republican Party cheering racist violence to maintain white supremacy.

To a large percentage of the white population, their "white identity" can be reduced to "white supremacy." There is no "white" American identity because there is no aspect of American "white" identity that Black and brown Americans have not overtly impacted (speech, art, letters, music, dance, morality, notions of freedom) save white supremacy. "White" is a null identity it was created in opposition to those it wished to exploit. It does not celebrate what you are. It insists on what you are not. Thus the identity is so fragile that any perceived threat requires the appearance of long guns.

Gaiter concluded:

The Rittenhouse trial and verdict a judge coddling the white man on trial for murdering white men seen as black allies an overwhelmingly white jury, white "self-defense" as an excuse for murdering men after overtly seeking violent confrontation it's all America's normal. We are not better than this. It is a large part of who we have always been. Supposed "moderates" and liberals have never had the stomach to sever the diseased limb of white race hatred from the body politic. Until they do, there will always be a Kyle Rittenhouse. His story is the bulk of America's.

Historianshave observed that America's founding rests upon two crimes against humanity: The genocide againstFirst Nations peoples and white-on-Black chattel slavery. White freedom was a partner inthose crimes against humanity, and was largelydefined by them.

America in the 21st century faces an existential struggle for the future of its democracy and society. Matters are becoming so dire that if seems conceivable the country could face a second Civil War. In this struggle for America's future, the neofascistsare carrying the banner of white freedom.

On the other side are those Americans who believe in a true "We the People" multiracial democracy. These two forces cannot logically be reconciled. Unfortunately, the Democrats and other Americans who hope to redeem and renew democracy are consistently on the defensive. To defeat white freedom, we can no longer downplay itor deny its existence. We must name it, recognize it and confront it directly, before it devours us all.

More from Salon on resurgent white supremacy in the Age of Trump:

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After the Rittenhouse verdict: Will "white freedom" spell the ruin of America? - Salon