The right to speak freely,

The right to walk where we want,

The right to protect ourselves as we ought.

These rights form part of our freedom.

They speak the truth with an undeniable presence.

These rights I know we will never overlook.

These rights that have fought for life.

These rights that are vital to ours.

Yet… We chose someone,

Someone so sickened and frail,

To do exactly as we fought to prevent.

We chose someone who will prohibit these rights for an indefinite amount of time.

These rights we claim we fought so hard to protect.

These rights we claim to be our lives.

What have we done with them?

Abuse and mistreat them.

Exclude and deceit them.

And all because we chose the most fallible of all lies,

We chose those most corrupted facts.

The ones we thought could make no aberration.

We chose the guise.

We chose the deception,

The distortion and fraud.

We fell for the sweet, sweet, vilification.

For the simple trick that has ended those before us.

We put too much faith,

In fake teeth and promises.

Too much faith in pondering the unknown.

Too much faith in unknown revelations and intelligible words.

Too much faith in the words we thought were safe.

So, where exactly does our freedom have room to breathe in this world we created?

The truth of the matter is,

That it doesn’t.

Sadly, it can’t breathe.

It can’t survive beneath the veil we live under.

Our freedom is fighting to survive.

To come through and stay in the stitchings of our lives.

Because even freedom knows…

Everyone lies.

Freedom confusingly accepts this and forgives us for it.

But this time we may have pushed too far.

We asked for what we got.

We pushed and pushed,

Until there was nothing left.

And so,

We may have thought we were doing the right thing,

But evidently,

We were wrong.

We did exactly as Denzel Washington warned us not to do.

We fell back,

Not forward.

And so,

When you ask me,

Where our freedom is now,

Think of our actions,

Our thoughts and pastimes,

And ask yourself,

Where is your freedom now?

And then I want you to ask yourself this…

Are you falling forward or back?