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Choice
May 27, 2026
(needs editing)
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Our rights... as citizens of the United States... belong to individuals...
not groups... not religions... not clubs... not organizations...
not churches... not temples... not mosques...
not strip clubs or saloons... not cultural sexual trends...
... individuals.
Choice... in our Constitutional framework... is about each person's freedom to choose.
In this country... no one can force obedience from another...
no church can force obedience...
no group can force obedience...
no authority can force obedience...
... obedience must come by way of understanding...
and not by way of violence.
Even parents have lines that cannot be crossed...
such as when discipline... becomes abuse.
It compels us to find a better answer... than brutality.
You must earn respect by the weight of your beliefs...
and in our homes... there should never be resentment.
Human beings will always tend to disagree.
We all... seek the light... of understanding...
and understanding comes by way of learning...
... and evidence.
We are ALL... pilgrims.
The group that we call "pilgrims"...
the group that braved the trip to the new world...
did not use the term "pilgrim" as the name of their group...
but only referred to themselves... as pilgrims.
Their doctrine was... that God's light reveals over time...
This group consisted of educated and scholarly men and women.
They had fled England during the purge over religion.
No one... could disagree with King James.
They fled to Holland.
In Holland they found many adherents of Martin Luther's doctrines.
It became more and more oppressive... and they were compelled to leave.
Scholarship required freedom... and humility.
No one could claim to have all the answers.
They believed in religious freedom.
And in the new world...
they lived in peace with the Indians....
in a brotherly love... and mutual respect.
The new colonists survived with their help.
The pilgrim's Mayflower Compact was remembered in the Constitution.
Perhaps it was the forces of tyranny... royal claims on great swaths of land...
more land than anyone could use or ever need...
or perhaps it was the betrayal of trust...
or perhaps it was the disrespect... from powerful forces in England...
and ignorant colonists treatment of their national hosts... "the savages".
Thus... resentment... division... and war.
The charting of this great new world by Lewis & Clark
was a story of being greeted and befriended by the tribes...
there was no automatic fear and killing of strangers.
Indians must have sat in wonder about the larger world societies.
Trading posts were built... each was learning about the other.
This early brotherly love was mutual... and wondrous...
and then was distrusted... ruined... and destroyed.
It's a story... that has been told... too many times.
America... just was not... England.
Colonists... were not just opportunists.
Freedom was blooming...
and it was a great prize worth having... and keeping.
Freedoms established in our Constitution...
applied... to individuals... and not to groups.
There should be no oppression from anyone... towards anyone.
And it goes both ways.
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