Independence Day

Maintaining Freedom Is A Never Ending Fight

“That all men are created equal” with the right to “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness” may be “self-evident,” but it’s not automatic.

Dialogue & Discourse
5 min readJul 4, 2023

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Seven years of power

The corporation claw

The rich control the government, the media, the law

To make some kind of difference

Then everyone must know

Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow

– Queensrÿche

Sitting in a theater last weekend watching the final installment in the Indiana Jones saga, I was struck by how outdated one of the storytelling devices used in the series has become. When Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, the appearance of the Nazis was a quick setup for the audience to identify the bad guys. In today’s America, a significant portion of the country has no problem backing a leader who asserts that a group chanting “Jews will not replace us” can still include “very fine people”. It is almost as if the brutal killing of 11 million is seen as a character flaw instead of Hitler’s defining sin.

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Carl J. Petersen
Dialogue & Discourse

Parent, special education advocate and former LAUSD School Board candidate. Still fighting for the children. www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com