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Most of us remember the time we had a few freedoms no matter who was president of the United States. The rights are found in our Bill of Rights. Now, we are not so sure what we have the right to do without standing up to the president and his minions who seem never to have read what those rights are.
Recently, the people in Minnesota and beyond have discovered that rights like assembly, free press, religion, association and petitioning the government are no longer guaranteed as taught in school, but they are willing to do what is necessary to bring them back and to the attention of those now governing without the slightest idea what those rights are. Minnesotans and those who are protesting are reminding them of what those rights are.
Just over the past few weeks, we’ve looked closely at what has happened in Minnesota, but Minnesota is not the only place we must have our eyes and ears open with a plan on what we are prepared to do to stop the madness. On Jan. 7, Renée Good was simply parked in the area where others were assembled and was shot to death in her face as she tried to move her car. A bystander doctor tried to do what doctors are charged with doing after Good was shot, but was abruptly stopped by federal agents who blocked him from providing medical care.
Seventeen days later, Alex Pretti, a nurse, was killed as he tried to help a woman who’d been manhandled and brutally knocked to the ground by federal immigration agents. For that, he was attacked by agents, thrown to the ground, beaten and shot several times. He was murdered in cold blood by agents who falsely claimed he had brandished a gun. Video shows he was holding his phone. While Pretti did have a legally permitted firearm, it was in his pocket, not in his hand. Federal agents tried to hoodwink the entire world as we saw no gun in his hand.
A few days ago, veteran journalist Don Lemon had his home invaded with an arrest warrant and was arrested while working as a member of the press — exercising his freedom of the press right. Georgia Fort, another member of the press, was arrested at her home for a violation of her right to be a member of the press. We saw those federal agents sneaking around her house, looking through her windows and trying to arrest her with no regard for the children in her home.
This is not just Minnesota’s fight; it belongs to all of us, and we must be determined to find ways to stop the evil acts against our people.
These are our rights we are being asked to protect. So, think about the meaning for you and your family of the cold-blooded murders of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti, and how the people of Minnesota are responding, then come up with an action you can and are willing to take if something similar were happening to your family.
Join the people across the country legally protesting to show Trump they are in solidarity with stopping the tyrannical government we now have, and they are standing against such action. We are Americans and our families fought to gain what the Constitution offers us, and “We ain’t gonna let nobody take them away.”
We applaud Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and the people of Minnesota as they are leading the way in protecting our rights.
Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).
Source: Published without changes from Washington Informer Newspaper
