2-18-25

Did you see the news?.....the recent events in which members of the Trump

cabinet had to remind the world that freedom of speech is actually a thing….a

valulable thing…..freedom of speech is a thing worth fighting for….and really, a

thing that many have died for…..Vice President JD Vance went to Europe in one of

his first state visits……Foreign Policy magazine says that Vance left the European

leaders at the Munich Security Conference “gobsmacked”…..that’s a great

word….Vance left them gobsmacked…..because he told them what they didn’t

want to hear….he offended their righteous sensibilities…..he scolded them

publicly for violating the natural law, the basic fundamental rights of people in

free nations everywhere….the right to speak….without fear of government

reprisal……his speech was not received well…..At one point Vance made note that

suppression of speech was a tactic of the former Soviet Union who’s looming

threat had hung over Europe for decades…. He said, “The Cold War positioned

defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent.

Consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that

canceled elections—were they the good guys? Certainly not, and thank God they

lost,”….nobody was spared….he called out Germany’s raids on people posting so-

called hate speech online, Sweden’s jailing of an activist who burned the Quran in

public, and “safe access zones” around abortion clinics  in the United

Kingdom….….it is said that European elites were apoplectic…..one German leader

actually came to tears during his follow up speech…..bless his heart…..but I don’t

Vance said it just for the leaders…..I believe he said those things so that he people

of Europe would know that they are seen, and heard, by America…..that we can

see from afar that they are not being allowed the basic freedoms that their

forefathers fought for just 80 years ago…..the people of Europe need to be

reminded that the suppression of speech is never okay and that we don’t agree

with how they have been treated in recent years……

Vance spoke…..Then came Secretary of State Marco Rubio who interviewed with

CBS anchor Margaret Brennan who tried to get Rubio to renounce Vance’s

words…..with a straight face she opined that Vance uttered those words while

standing in a country in which Hitler’s Nazis once “weaponized freedom of

speech” to commit genocide……she really said that….and he really took her to

task for it…..it was an epic fail on her part…..but it begs the question….what is

happening to the free world where speech is demonized…..the ability to have

unfettered and open discourse is one of the hallmarks of a free society….look,

since the time that the 300 Spartans stood in the Hot Gates at Thermopylae to

fight the Persians Europe has been diving in and out of totalitarianism and it

always began with the shutting down of speech…..From the time that the United

States became a world power the US and its European allies have always stood for

the idea that a free society is marked in part by whether its citizens feel like their

words and opinions are allowed…..we can’t lose that

If you’re not familiar with the artist Norman Rockwell then I encourage you to

look him up…..he was at one time said to have been as familiar to Americans as

Walt Disney for his ability to speak through images…..his paintings were used as

the cover art for the Saturday Evening Post for decades which at one time was the

most widely read print media piece in the nation…..he painted originals for use by

the Boy Scouts on their annual calendars and their magazines……his works were

on postage stamps, and war bond posters, and hung in troop barracks,

classrooms, city halls and even churches……he was a prolific artist with over 4000

original works and every single one of them was a detailed, realistic, thought

provoking, and often inspiring piece that told a visual story of America……he

could, with the stroke of a paint brush capture emotion, sentiment, weather, and

most often patriotism……

But there was one series of works that Rockwell is perhaps most famous for…..a

series of four paintings that he said took an emotional toll on him, saying the

works were "serious paintings which sucked the energy right out of me like

dredges, leaving me dazed and thoroughly weary"…..unlike many of his works this

series of four paintings took months near the onset of World War II…..they were

inspired by a wartime speech by President Franklin Roosevelt…….and they

captured the minds and hearts of Americans everywhere…..once they were

revealed millions of requests for reprints flooded in…..the US Government made

them into inspirational posters with the phrase “this is why we fight” and they

were hung on walls everywhere….postage stamps were issued using this

artwork…..by the end of the war Norman Rockwells four-part series of posters

that merely depicted the blessings of life in the United States had been reprinted

over 4 million times…….

The series of paintings that I’m referring to is titled “The Four Freedoms’……each

one depicts a scene from Americana: they are respectively titled “Freedom of

Speech”…..”Freedom of Worship”…..”Freedom from Want”……and “Freedom

from Fear”……they just show Moms and Dads, and kids, and people at church, and

tucking their children into bed, and assembling at the town hall, and sitting down

to family meals……but its what you read in the nuances that makes them

speak….the emotions, the worry lines in the faces, the weathered hands, the

headline on Dad’s paper about the fighting over there……but the one that always

stood out to me as being more memorable is the first of the four…..the one titled

“Freedom of Speech”

It’s a simple imagery, but its’ really very profound……the image is of a town hall

meeting……folks are sitting in old school wooden pews shoulder to shoulder and

in the center of it all one man has stood to speak…..faces have turned to see and

hear the speaker……just to the lower left of the man who stood you can see the

look of pride on a old man’s face as he watches the young man stand…..Rockwell

was apparently inspired for this one when he witnessed a similar scene in which

one man had stood at public meeting to be the only one to speak out on an

issue……the speaker that Rockwell described is just the every-man…..work

clothes, an old jacket, a flannel shirt, but the look on his face says he knows that

its necessary for him to speak and he’s okay with some of the dubious looks being

thrown by the others……

Here's the thing folks…..that image is playing out now worldwide…..there is a

reason why Rockwell’s four freedoms series struck such a chord over 70 years

ago….because our nation was at war with a force that did not believe in those

four freedoms……especially the opportunity for freedom of speech…..but that

same anti-freedom sentiment has been rising again …..there is a true movement

afoot to stifle speech….and if we cannot speak freely….if we are not allowed to

stand in the midst of our moments and say those things that we believe then we

really aren’t free at all…..throughout time….and even in recent memory….the

great tyrants of the world have started their oppression by silencing dissent and

letting their subjects know what was or was not acceptable speech……that is not

us….that is not America….and it should not be America’s allies either….. there is a

reason why the first amendment was the very first amendment…..the freedom of

speech is not to be taken lightly…..

Do we question? Yes, and we should…….do we speak out? Yes, and we

should……is it possible to actually have a disagreement and it remain a civil

discourse? Yes, and we should……but progressives here and abroad have decided

that such dissent….such questioning…..such…..speech……is unreasonable and

must therefore be quelled……Normal Rockwell hit a nerve for a reason…..because

the world, the whole world, was on edge and considering what could happen if

fascism…… real fascism……if fascism could win the war…..the right to speak would

be gone……

I’m glad that Vance and Rubio had the chance to say what they did….and that

they took hold of that chance and spoke….and I’ll be honest, it was needed….not

only for the leadership elites but for the people…..

So do not sit still…….stand…..and speak……and by God we will be here

tomorrow…..Freedom of speech is a precious thing…..a thing worth fighting

for…..even dying for……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!