What Being an #American Means to Me #Respect

 It used to go without saying that being an American meant you respected many things we enjoy in our daily lives.

Let’s talk about freedom. Americans do not quite understand what freedom really means in their daily lives. The freedom to travel. Free to speak your mind. Free to visit the resources such as our national parks, rivers, streams, lakes and more. The freedom to vote in an election. The freedom to take advantage of what our nation has to offer: transportation, schools, military, public libraries, postal services, social security, Medicare and Medicaid, just to name a few.

Then there is what I find missing in our lives as of late. Maybe it was decades in the making, but now people are profoundly malicious and violent.

I miss respect.

Respect for each other, for our friends and family. Respect for elected officials that do their jobs well. Respect between the political parties, heck, I remember when bills and acts passed in Washington DC. And respect for the value we hold in life itself.

Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois shared a letter with the media this past weekend that was sent to his home, addressed to his wife. The letter writer threatened to kill their new family! I won’t post the picture of the letter, but here is a link from the Washington Post, it’s a gift link so you won’t need to be a subscriber. https://wapo.st/3HGqTmV

Who does this sort of thing, threaten a young wife with a 5-month-old son? Just because Mr. Kinzinger demonstrated he has the courage to speak out against wrongdoing this person felt they were entitled to threaten violence. The content of the letter was despicable. How did America get to the point where we dig in and refuse to learn the facts about issues?

I know it is difficult to listen to people that believe in the conspiracy theories in the media right now. My advice is to not engage and know that someday their bubble will burst.

#Truth #Respect #Freedom