I often proclaim on my Twitter account, as well as to my friends that “Truth Shall Prevail”, a rallying cry often found in the sermons of martyred Czech philosopher, theologian and reformer, Jan Hus. The truth in his case did prevail, but only centuries after he was sentenced to death at the stake by the Church. Hus refused to renounce what he knew to be the truth - God’s truth is immutable - and the flames consumed him in Konstanz, Germany, in 1415. I also often quote a much more recent famous figure, my favorite Beatle, George Harrison who wrote “All Things Must Pass”. Yes, all things do pass and truth does always prevail but I think I may be excused if I am given to bouts of sadness, and even dread, these dark days.
For almost all my adult life (from 1980 - 2011), I lived in Toronto, a great and vibrant city with awful winters. Toronto was the fourth stop on my global anabasis after fleeing Soviet tanks in 1968. Although I managed to escape the occupation of my birthplace, Prague, physically, I was never able to throw off its shackles mentally. The feeling of utter helplessness remains buried deep within you once you've experienced it. You have witnessed and you know with utter certainty that governments can do whatever the heck they please - be it via tanks and 18-year old boys with assault rifles or via de-banking, de-platforming and de-personing you. I moved to the US in 2011 to escape the Toronto winters. Little did I know that I had also escaped the second occupation of my life, no better than the first despite there being no tanks, no dead bodies, no bullet hole-ridden facades and no burning buildings (yet) The wicked fascists of Canada have now made their intentions clear. Justin Trudeau and his second in command, the morally repugnant Chrystia Freeland, have subverted democracy and usurped freedom. It hadn’t entered my mind that a more ghoulish female tyrant than Jacinda Ardern was on the scene. I was wrong. In dribs and drabs at first, and now in their “grand gesture” of invoking the Emergencies Act, the duo of willfully blind, morally deaf and politically inept juveniles, Justin and Chrystia have made a mockery of Canada’s constitutional promise of “peace, liberty and good government”
And so now I live with two occupations in my soul. The one from 50 years ago and the current one in the formerly free and fabulous country of Canada. The place where I always stood up and held a hand over my heart on 11/11 each year as we commemorated the country's fallen, and where I sang "God keep our land glorious and free". I welled up at those words and still do. Because freedom is glorious. And now that gloriously free country, and soon the rest of the world, is in the clutches of work-from-home, latte sipping, well-coiffed fascists who will be jetting to their private Caribbean islands as we roam rudderless through spiritually impoverished lives because we will "own nothing and be happy"
That feeling of helplessness, it’s horrific. It’s antithetical to the US Constitution.
George, this moved me to tears. I stand with you in condemnation of Trudeau's actions. Let us hope & pray that Freedom prevails. Love & blessings my friend. xx