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And Freedom From Tyranny For All

As much as we Americans like to gripe about what our government has been pulling on us for what seems like a very long time now, on July 4th, we still come together in celebration of freedom. There will be concerts and BBQ's. We'll have dance-a-thons and sing alongs. To top off the day and evening of celebrations and beer drinking the nation over, explosions will light up the skies of virtually every city across the land.

Although it is well and good for us to hold festivities paying homage to what we as a country have accomplished over the last two and a half centuries, we should also stop and reflect on three important issues. The first would be the people who have fought to protect what we have and although we have a separate holiday to honor them, today should also remind us that many have paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend our way of life.

Second we must keep in mind today during our celebrations of freedom that there are those who wish to take those freedoms from us, and they are our own countrymen and women.

Third, we should all take a moment every 4th of July to think about the people all across the world who have absolutely no freedom, and who live under the most brutal and repressive regimes known to man. There are literally billions of people living under tyranny, with no hope, no future save abject poverty and despair.

Regimes such as the Saudi government, our 'friends and allies' who put bloggers in prison for speaking our against the regime or it's policies. A country where freedom of religion is not even a thought, and where be-headings are such a ho-hum happening, that spectators to the gruesome practice hardly give the executions a second glance any more. Just being gay can get a rope put around your neck and Lord help a woman who isn't covered from head to toe. A place where young children can be arrested for such minor offenses as running away from home, or being seen together with another child of the opposite sex without an adult present. The boys can be held for six months without any judicial review, and the girls can be kept without charge indefinitely for re-education. This land that provides the world with most of their terrorists also does not allow women to do or say anything without the permission of a man. Being declared a witch in a Saudi court of law will be cause for execution.

Sudan's al-Bashir must be one of the first to come to mind also when we think of tyrannical madmen who enslave their

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