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On the Frontlines: The People’s Convoy – A First-Person Perspective

Inspired by the massive, 50,000-strong convoy of Canadian truckers who surrounded Parliament Hill in Ottawa, America’s own People’s Convoy began their journey to Washington, D.C., in Adelanto, California, on Feb. 23. I was there, and it was awesome.

It was bitterly cold that morning in Adelanto, near Victorville, as America’s version of Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” prepared to shove off. By 9 a.m., the parking lot teemed with thousands of supporters handing out flags — Canadian and American — hand-warmers, hot coffee and enthusiastic smiles. Music blasted patriotic tunes, and the mood was nothing short of jubilant.

I confess readily a highlight of my morning was meeting “Sweet Pea,” the bottle-fed, 18-month-old goat draped in an American flag. Simply adorable.

Most attendees were there to help load trucks with what appeared to be enough supplies to sustain freedom fighters for many months. The aesthetic visibly resembled a Trump rally, but the vibe wasn’t about partisan politics. It was about class — as in warfare.

In recent years, we have witnessed a fundamental realignment in American and western politics. After well over 200 years championing the laboring classes, liberalism is now exposed as representing the elites. Democrats and liberals no longer speak for the working class. Meanwhile, many would-be elites — who aren’t elite at anything — have proven themselves to be useful idiots. Working people are increasingly left on the side of the road in terms of national policy and decision-making.

Glenn Reynolds wrote an excellent article in the New York Post recently, saying, “Truckers are starting a working-class revolution and the left hates it. So, we’re finally seeing a genuine, bottom-up working-class revolution. In Canada, and increasingly in the United States, truckers and others are refusing to follow government orders, telling the powerful that, in popular left formulation, if there’s no justice, there’s no peace.”

The problem is that our intellectual vanguard really is blind to the needs of the working class. The workers want jobs, a stable economy, safe streets, low inflation, energy independence, schools that actually teach things like reading, writing and arithmetic, and a foreign policy that won’t kill American jobs. Working people are also absolutely against critical race theory and defunding the police. 

Now that truckers and other working-class people are pushing back against the wing-tipped, lap-top class’s nonsensical COVID restrictions, they’re labeled a “fringe,” a minority, a bunch of white supremacists. It’s painfully dumb, and no one believes it.

Elon Musk noted that “If the Canadian government’s positions had substantial support, the truckers would have faced significant numbers of counter-protestors. But they did not. The government itself is a fringe minority, with its only support coming from the loyal sycophants of the media.”

All worthy battles have ceremonial send-offs for the brave and valiant who go to defend freedom from tyranny. Adelanto was one of those moments. The sense of community among patriotic supporters — their collective pride and shared convictions — fueled a movement undertaken at great sacrifice.

We are seeing some of the most peaceful and powerful demonstrations of solidarity and self-sacrifice against tyranny that Americans have witnessed — and produced — in generations. The guys and gals behind the wheels of these freedom rigs are awakening Americans to a clear and present danger while peacefully putting evil on alert that we’re not going to take it anymore. 

Godspeed and full steam ahead.

The Jeopardy of Indifference

There’s a simple difference between indifference and hate. Indifference requires nothing on my part. Hatred requires me to care — to feel something. It stirs something inside of me.

Indifference is apathy. It never has a purpose. It simply ignores reality.

What concerns me most these days is not whether people are on one side or the other but whether or not they care enough to take a position and actively defend it. It’s about a willingness to stand up, speak up and take positions on issues one cares about — education, social problems, health care, families and mental health, the very political fabric of this country, the environment and building communities of compassion and mutual concern.

Most issues require us to care. They do not solve themselves. Indifference seems easy because it does not create enemies. It takes no sides. It is “going along to get along.” But staying silent always has its own serious consequences. Being indifferent is seriously dangerous.

Indifference and neutrality always assist the oppressors, not the oppressed. Why? Because they manifest as silence, blind acceptance. Turning our backs to the injustices suffered by the marginalized, vulnerable and victimized in our local communities and around the world amounts to a heartless admission that the status quo is fine with us  — as long as it doesn’t affect our lives directly.

But here is the thorny catch. It eventually will affect all of us. Unchecked evil and turmoil inevitably land squarely on everyone’s doorsteps, no matter who we think we are.

The real challenge is to move from the stupor of uncaring indifference to genuinely making a difference. It is a moral imperative to face reality head-on. 

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel fought relentlessly against the plague of indifference. In his December 10, 1986, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Wiesel said:

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe.”

Dennis Prager defines three types of people: those who actively defy indifference and injustice, those who support ones actively defying those things by giving financial donations or volunteering their time and resources, and those who remain silent.

Of course, remaining silent is choosing a side. It is siding with the oppressors.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Brillant commentary! Thank you.
    Let’s stand up and fight for freedom, take our parts, not be complacent or silent.
    For as Martin Niemoller, German pastor during WWII, said,
    “First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I’m not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I’m not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I’m not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.”

  2. God squading your perspective about a bunch of losers in that idiotic convoy are the same as the drooling mental cases who stand on the Lynn Rd. freeway bridge, too drunk from their cults to ever again have a sane thought.

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