Hello everyone!
As much as I love all of my fellow Americans and I do, I think we get true oppression and political inconvenience confused. Please allow me to explain.
True oppression in the political sense involves all kinds of state led limitations on freedom, up to and including rules for religion, control of the media and even the kinds of movies and entertainment people watch. State led regimes can even determine your moral climate, or lack thereof, if they choose. Punishments never fit the crime (e.g. execution for viewing certain media, execution or jail time for getting in contact with someone else outside of one's said country, execution or jail time for promoting certain religions but not others). The world has seen and is now seeing this kind of oppression in the regimes of Communism, ISIL and the now defunct but never dying Nazi regime.
Let's face it fellow Americans, in the US we have what we call political inconvenience. In other words, "my party didn't win the election" or "this or that bill didn't pass that I wanted" or "my candidate didn't win the presidency." When was the last time a person was executed live on broadcast TV for not covering their head or watching 50 Shades of Grey? When was last time someone was jailed if they wanted to practice a different religion than you?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is far from true oppression. I have seen more whining and complaining because of inconvenience than I have because of true political oppression. Have we become so spoiled we don't know the difference? Where is the outcry for those continuously oppressed by the cruel regimes of Communism and ISIL in particular as they are still fairly organized? I can hear the crickets more loudly at this point then I can an outcry.
I would like to encourage all of you to watch a video going around on FB social media about a young North Korean girl who escaped the brutal Communist regime of Kim Jong-un. She tells her audience about true, cruel oppression. She is not talking about inconvenience or not getting one's way. You can find her full speech at https://youtu.be/Ei-gGvLWOZI
The next time you think you are being oppressed I want you to think about her and many others who see true oppression everyday and are helpless to do anything about it. I want you to think about the woman who is executed because she didn't wear her head scarf or face covering, or the family who is executed because they dared have a Bible, or the man who is sent to prison or executed because he dared read an article from a foreign press agency that goes against "regime ideals", or the child who is forced into sex slavery or into killing others to survive brutal civil war.
True oppression vs political inconvenience. They aren't the same are they?
Until next time,
Elizabeth
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