Further thoughts on tyranny

About 75 - 80 years ago we fought against and stopped a tyrannical and ruthless dictator who attempted to dominate the world through fear, destruction and hate. The destruction was beyond most people’s ability to comprehend. Now we are witnessing another tyrannical dictator, using tactics we thought the world had psychologically outgrown, attempting to dominate another country. Should this dictator succeed it’s the beginning of the use of these tactics by major dictators throughout the world. Must we go through this again? Must we continue to repeat history?

What can we do?

First, we must support Ukraine in any way necessary to keep Russia from taking over their democracy.

Second, there is no doubt that Russia has sleepers and agents in our country. The more powerful position they can gain in society the more influence they can wield.

Don’t support or vote for anyone, for any office, who displays dictatorial or tyrannical attitudes or tries to twist truth to conform to their agenda. Some signs of this are saying one thing in public and another in private, denying truth as established by legal means, calling news “fake” when they don’t agree with it, claiming elections that have been legally verified are “rigged” and other actions designed to gain or maintain power. Look at those closely and do not support those who support these individuals or actions.

Third and most important, our founding fathers debated as to whether or not common man was intelligent enough to govern himself. We must learn to seek truth in the purest form we are capable of and sort it from the massive torrents of misinformation our enemies throw at us. There is no other option. If we can do that and use that information to vote for those who will keep our morality level acceptable, we will maintain our freedom and democracy. If not, we will lose it. We’re all concerned about doomsday or mutually assured destruction (MAD). But we’ve faced that before in the early 1960’s and the bully Khrushchev backed down. Imagination can only tell us what our lives would be like if John F. Kennedy had not stood up to that bully. Putin and those around him do not want to die or destroy their country. The truth is what the world would face, if we do not stand against this bully now, may be worse than MAD – freedom chained.

Truth is still truth and lies are still lies. Sort it out and keep in mind that “The Golden Rule” is the basis of all morality.

Bill Rhoads