Sounds like I’m about to toss tea overboard and holler that some dudes in red jackets are coming, but hey, I was wandering around while on vacation. In all seriousness, I wrote the initial version of this post from the peaceful shores of Plymouth, Massachusetts — which for those of you who have been will know is a potent force in conjuring up the hallowed American ideals of democracy and patriotism, especially at sunset when the skies are such radiant hues…
As Atlantic waves crest onto its sands, I imagine the Pilgrims who braved the unknown to escape religious persecution and find amnesty on faraway lands. I suddenly remember Amistad, Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film featuring Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, and the breakout performance of Djimon Hounsou. Based on the true story of La Amistad — the ship of African slaves who courageously overthrew their captors to achieve self-determination only to have their hard-fought mutiny and initial freedom thwarted by misdirection to foreign soil as well as — challenges that were overcome with great additional sacrifice that would then set the stage for the American Civil War.
Today, tyranny continues, as so saliently conveyed by the great Timothy Snyder. Refugees hurl themselves into peril to evade conflict, disaster, and oppression — and it is remarkable if we even hear about their struggles, so lost…
