“So, let’s get free!”

These are a few different thoughts about freedom on this July 4th. Police violence, the creeping authoritarianism of the current political administration, ongoing, systemic racism are attempts to constrain our freedom.

Constraining freedom is an oxymoron.

Freedom, generally, is having the ability to act or change without constraint. Something is “free” if it can change easily and is not constrained in its present state. In philosophy and religion, it is associated with having free will and being without undue or unjust constraints, or enslavement, and is an idea closely related to the concept of liberty. A person has the freedom to do things that will not, in theory or in practice, be prevented by other forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom

I met Mat Davis at the Kheprw Institute (KI). I’ve admired his work and how eloquently he writes. I like his expression, “so, let’s get free!” because it expresses freedom as something that must be fought for. It is usually not bestowed without a struggle.

Throughout the protests and demonstrations which have been taking place throughout the city for a month, organizers and leaders are calling on those in the crowds to understand the history of the United States and the systemic racism that many say still permeates modern society.
At a demonstration at Military Park and IUPUI June 19, Mat Davis, an organizer from the Indiana Racial Justice Alliance, told the crowd about this history of Juneteenth — when individuals enslaved in Texas two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation learned they had been freed. Davis told the group of roughly 45 people that they were fighting for the same thing as enslaved individuals and those who fought during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s were fighting for: freedom.
“So, let’s get free!” he exclaimed at the end of his address.
‘It’s not my day of independence,’ perceptions of July 4 changing By BREANNA COOPER BreannaC@indyrecorder.com, Indianapolis Recorder, Jul 2, 2020

The president ignored multiple efforts by native peoples to tell him he is not welcome on the land that is even recognized by the courts as belonging to native peoples. As a last attempt to register their disapproval, three vans were parked across the entrance to Mount Rushmore. Wheels were removed so the vans would have to be towed away. My friends Foxy and Alton Onefeather were there. Warning, there is some strong language in this video.

My live feed from today. Got maced and I would do it again helping to defend the Black Hills. Trump’s minion cops are bullies, that cop literally targeted us. Came in maced us then hid behind his military security. I apologize to my elders for my language in advanced.
Foxy Onefeather