Bona Fide Bravery
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 15, 2021

While Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and especially Kamala Harris are engaging in a drool-fest over the “bravery” of the Texas Democrats who fled both their state and their responsibilities, devaluing the meaning of that word, real bravery is being exhibited from Havana to Hong Kong and parts in between.

Bravery is thousands upon thousands of Cuban nationals taking to the streets to protest the totalitarian Marxist-Communist government that has been torturing and murdering its own citizens for 62 years. These brave men and women are under threat of arrest, imprisonment, or worse, but their quest for real, genuine freedom, dignity, and human rights heretofore not experienced in more than three generations has superseded the potential punitive actions the Miguel Diaz-Canal regime could mete out against its own people.

While far too many so-called Americans are busy disrespecting,  spitting on, turning their backs on, trampling on, and even burning the American flag, thousands of Cubans can be seen marching with American flags. The same is true in Hong Kong, where their rights and freedoms are being subjugated by the Chinese Communist Party, and thousands of Hong Kongers are also witnessed marching with American flags. Brave men like entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, 72, founder of Apple Daily, a popular newspaper forced into closure by the CCP, have been imprisoned along with members of the paper’s staff simply for attempting to communicate the truth to the people. 

These brave men and women are fighting for the right to communicate freely and openly, being denied in both Hong Kong and Cuba. The governments of both locales dictate the when and how often access to the outside world via the internet is granted while Americans take these inherent freedoms for granted. Havana and Beijing can flip a switch putting their own people in a technological black hole. Worse still, is the growing amount of censorship, at first creeping into our own American society, now blatantly being thrust upon us, being accepted by a press and media who should be fighting for every word to be printed, spoken, or recorded, whether or not they agree with those words.

“I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote has been incorrectly attributed to Voltaire for more than a century, but actually came from Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her 1906 biography about Voltaire, in her summary of his thoughts on free speech. 

Free speech, sadly, is at a premium in the United States - the last best beacon of hope for freedom on this planet. Between the political correctness, cancel culture, and wokeness denying free speech and calling anyone who dares to speak freely a racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, xenophobe, anti-Muslim, and anti-Asian, most Americans fear for their basic employment and/or place in American society. People supporting capitalism are also being lambasted for denying equity in today’s America where equality is now ancient history, and skin color is the rule of the day. We are surrendering rights brave men and women outside of these United States are willing to die to acquire. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Consider Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. Under a constant threat of death, a recent plot to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home, send her to Venezuela en route to Iran, was thwarted. At-large and wanted by the FBI are Iranians Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Omid Noori, and Kiya Sadeghi. Alinejad is an outspoken journalist who wrote The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran. This is a tale of a brave woman fighting the antiquated system in her native Iran calling for girls and women to unburden themselves of their veils and hijabs as is the law in the Muslim nation. She is currently leading this online movement in exile, while her own brother is serving eight years in an Iranian prison. Iran denies all of this.

Not far from Iran, there are a large number of Afghani interpreters who bravely risked their lives aiding Americans against the very powerful Taliban. That is the epitome of bravery, which is actually being rewarded by the Biden administration via Operation Allies Refuge. Beginning the end of July, under special immigrant visas, many of these interpreters will be airlifted out of Afghanistan to the United States. Also brave, are the girls and women of Afghanistan who, in the past, and no doubt in the future once American troops are evacuated and the Taliban terrorists retake the country, will be subjected to unspeakable acts against them.

These brave people are fighting for true, bona fide freedom, at the risk of their own lives, while many Americans are taking their own freedom for granted unnecessarily worrying about their ridiculous pronouns.

But, for all the bravery exhibited by these Afghanis, Cubans, Hong Kongers, and a specific lone Irani-American, it is these cowardly Texas Democrat state legislators who are being praised for their so-called bravery. Harris, since the Texas Democrats ran away from Texas, has commended their pusillanimous behavior as “bold, courageous action,” and acts of “bravery and patriotism,” making “great sacrifices” akin to the Civil Rights era. Harris compared the Texas Democrats to those who marched, in great peril for their lives, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL in 1965 in what was known as “Bloody Sunday.” No blood has been shed from a single Texas Democrat legislator.

Harris continued praising these Texas Democrats comparing their quest with that of the women suffragettes who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1913 in Washington, DC fighting for voting rights for women. Harris should be ashamed of herself for tarnishing those most significant historic events while politically posturing over a voting rights bill that is not the least bit racist or controversial.
Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat in streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage. When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. 

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day. Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. All votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026. Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. 

No legal voter is denied their right to vote. No legal voter is disenfranchised. By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

This is not bravery; this is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels and the voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day. Bravery, unfortunately, is being defined in the current climate as those Americans willing to speak out against the Marxist BLM and racist Critical Race Theory. Unfortunate, because to speak ill of those entities finds one on the short end of American society, when to be critical of BLM and CRT makes the most logical sense as any American or any clear thinking, freedom loving individual. True bravery is defined by the bona fide champions of freedom described above. May their examples teach us all the serious lessons we must learn before the grand American Experiment in plunged into perpetual darkness.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.