Over this past Christmas week, my Romanian neighbors had a wonderful time. Yes, I was
peeking and listening to their parties and loud music. I only had to look down the street to peek. I met the man who lives down the street one day when his truck almost knocked over an electrical pole because he was hauling a large, overly tall, trailer. He didn't see what happened and so I ran down the street to tell him. And then I heard his accent, and warmth and good memories flooded over me. He was
Romanian. When I was eighteen, I dated a man from Romania named Horia. He was quite something.
This past week, when my son was coming and going, visiting friends and relatives for Christmas, and I was baking or cooking, or sitting... I heard the music. Wonderful, joyful, deeply resonant, perhaps gypsy music. And saw my neighbor and two other young men riding "
hoverboard" type things while they pushed their children in strollers. They were racing the strollers up and down the street while they rode circular
hoverboards. I didn't think "only in America", I thought -
how innovative and fun-loving they are! I didn't see their
wives but once or twice, yet the men were taking care of the children with such a fun-loving attitude. They resonated Freedom.
The Freedom of America. In America, people from other lands can come and live and work and raise their children without a care as to who hears them, who sees them, who likes their gypsy music, or who doesn't. It's what my father fought for. For the Flag of the United States of America. Not simply the world-known symbol of Freedom, but the blood and glory of the price of real Freedom.
Americans traveling abroad today
are told not to display anything "American", in case we should be a target. A target, each of us. Each of us carries The Right To Vote. The Right to say yeah or
nea. That is what the target is. It is
said by the story of Revelations that at the end, we will have a choice, that all peoples will have the right to vote yeah or
nea. We in America have that inherent choice now, in every action we take. We are a Nation that has struggled very hard to develop and maintain true Freedom, and we still work on making sure each of us have choices, and that our right to choose is recognized by all. The Right to Vote, however, is the Right of every American citizen who lives within the law.
My Romanian neighbors will always be Romanian, unless they choose to become United States citizens. Unless they
choose to become citizens of the United States-the Freedom of choice is open to anyone still here in America. The Right To Vote as an American, to uphold the Constitution of our Nation. My father fought so that my Romanian, Syrian, Pakistani, Indian, French, Canadian, and American neighbors could run free down the street with their children.
Honor the Flag, Say The Pledge Of Allegiance, Live The Freedom.
