{"id":1141,"date":"2020-07-31T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T17:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/?p=1141"},"modified":"2022-06-28T22:27:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T05:27:49","slug":"the-defense-of-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/the-defense-of-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Defense of Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1030\" height=\"687\" src=\"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis-1030x687.jpg\" alt=\"The Defense of Liberty\" class=\"wp-image-1143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis-1030x687.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/The-Defense-of-Liberty-President_Barack_Obama_awards_the_2010_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_to_Congressman_John_Lewis.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\" \/><figcaption>President Barack Obama awards the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Congressman John Lewis in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 15, 2011.  (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5941e3d296d93160cf428ce8cd765ee18511a6ac6a849062da2f8185e4b7df33?s=48&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5941e3d296d93160cf428ce8cd765ee18511a6ac6a849062da2f8185e4b7df33?s=96&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-48 photo' height='48' width='48' \/><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">George Alfred Kennedy<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>On July 30, while delivering the eulogy for a universally admired, loved, and respected humanitarian, John R. Lewis, the nation\u2019s 44<sup>th<\/sup> President \u2013 himself an African-American \u2013 artfully, eloquently, and passionately reminded all of us the work of perfecting the American experiment continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former President also reminded us the legislative gains achieved and paid for with crushed dreams and aspirations, blood, even lives, are not permanent; those gains are continuously under assault by the current U.S. Supreme Court and the current American President. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The work of perfecting and protecting democracy is analogous to nurturing the family garden or the family farm.&nbsp; Gardens\/farms of any size require nutrients, commitment, and sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most potent weapon in our citizens\u2019 arsenal for defense of liberty, inclusion, and justice is the right to vote.&nbsp; The awesome power of the vote is derived from our commitment to preserve it for all \u2013 not just a pre-selected group or category. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we vote, we express our collective will and our preference for an alternative to taking up arms against tyranny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a moment in time, our story will be written.&nbsp; What we do or fail to do in the struggle for liberty, inclusion, and justice will become part of our legacy.&nbsp; How will your story be written?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 30, while delivering the eulogy for a universally admired, loved, and respected humanitarian, John R. Lewis, the nation\u2019s 44th President \u2013 himself an African-American \u2013 artfully, eloquently, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-black-history","8":"category-blog","9":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1247,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/1247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgealfredkennedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}