We Must Act to Ensure Our Freedom

A few weeks ago, we had a protest in our small, rural town about the administration’s immigration policies. We gathered on the side of the road supporting our neighbors and participating in our right to freedom of speech. Before I went to the protest, I talked to a few people about going; however, they didn’t want to go because they were afraid of what might happen, especially after seeing all of the vitriol on the local social media groups leading up to the event. I, as well, felt tinges of fear. The fear that someone might drive up on the sidewalk and run us over. The fear that someone might start shooting. The fear of violence.

I thought back to the summer of 2020 where, again, we had a protest in our small, rural town. This time, it was against police brutality and the lynchings and murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. Again, some people didn’t go, citing fear as the reason. My daughter and I went; her carrying a sign emblazoned with the opening words to Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream altered some for the moment: “Even its children know that the nation is in trouble.” As we stood there, gathered among others while clergy prayed, city officials spoke, and students spoke, I looked across the street. I nudged my daughter, calling her attention to a group of people under an awning, standing next to a pickup truck, looking at the crowd. Guns hung…