De Opresso Liber

Funny, was walking through my apartment today and stopped in front of the last reminants of my time in service, my beret that sits on my helmet. For years I wore that beret with that motto on the pin and really beleived that we were just that for other countries. But now I wonder, where are our liberators.

I have that same motto on two flashes on my desk.

The better question to ask, I think, is whether or not you're willing to liberate yourself?

It's one thing to be told to go and help someone else find a way to change their situation, especially when they are receptive, eager, and willing to do what is necessary to make those changes. It's an easy thing to do this when your students are visibly in a bad way, and everything is flowing away from them. They have the motivation.

Look at our country. The motivation is not there. Most people are happy being in debt up to their ears, working to make someone else rich and occasionally being able to do what they like to do. But for the most part, they feel ok with their lives and the crappy material goods they pay too much for. People here feel they have some control over what happens to them, even if that feeling is based in something other than reality. Being able to afford a hummer does'nt equal democracy or equality.

The people we taught to take back what belonged to them had a different perspective. Most of them lived in abject poverty, in dirt floor shacks and ate tortillas at every meal. Most had no shoes, and no money to buy them. And no money to buy anything else, for that matter.

The prospect of true democracy was a dream for them. It was a chance to have a voice against those who profited mightily from their labor. It was a chance for them to gain some semblance of control over what happened to them.

So, my brother, ask yourself, are you willing to liberate the oppressed? Or does it not mean the same thing to you?



De Oppresso Liber.

Your words hit home brother.

I just really need a good kick in the ass, I mean these past 3 years are the most active I've ever been with politics. Sure I've voted since I was 18, but I never really went out to speak my mind. But with this administration, I just couldn't sit idly by. So after all the marches, protests, and then with the elections, workin my ass off going door to door relating my experiences and why I think this country needed a change of direction. Just really burned out, and espicially after seeing these numbers, I keep thinking what was it all for. This country is feeling less and less like the one that I served proudly, wish I could change that.