By Heidi St. John
“What’s wrong with people?” If the 21st century has a slogan, that would be it. Everywhere I’ve traveled, it’s the question on everyone’s lips. “What is wrong with people?”
We’ve become a nation of passive observers. Whether it’s our television set, our children’s soccer game, or apps on our phones–we sit and watch. The world goes on around us and we give it a “like” or a “frown.” Then we scroll on to the next post, the next channel, the next video, or the next game.
The result of our passivity towards politics is clear: our nation is stalled at the intersection of passivity and politics. We’ve delegated the running of America to career politicians and we’re paying dearly for it.
The Founding Fathers would be shaking their heads in disbelief at what is happening in the United States. Having come from tyranny, they created a framework for limited government, ensuring individual freedom. But with every passing year, the President, through executive order, and Congress, through a refusal to limit its own power, moves farther and farther away from the idea of limited government and instead, clamors to reach into nearly every aspect of our lives.
Under the “leadership” of the woke Democrat party, we have become a nation that I barely recognize.
Libraries and school boards have filled our schools with perverted materials aimed at children as young as five.
The NEA and other teachers’ unions, not parents, dictate health policy to America’s children, closing schools, mandating masks, and insisting on distance learning.
City Councils recklessly “reimagine” law enforcement and defund police departments despite rapidly rising crime rates.
Soros-funded city prosecutors refuse to charge even the most flagrant crimes, turning dangerous criminals back onto the street within hours to commit additional crimes.
Governors like Jay Inslee imagine themselves to be dictators rather than servants of the people. Never forget that it was a dictator, not a servant or a statesman, who determined which of us was “essential” in Washington State.
Using powers they were granted in the event of an “emergency,” these authoritarian leaders demonstrated that they cared more about wokeism than leading with wisdom.
What was the benefit? Studies prove that it benefitted us very little, if at all. In the aftermath of the lockdowns, the suicide rate skyrocketed, and many business owners lost their livelihoods and the freedom to choose what was best for their own families.
Today’s members of Congress, including Jaime Hererra Buetler, who I am running to replace, seem to care very little about what is happening to our freedom. Like many of her Democrat counterparts, Jaime focuses more on an imaginary “insurrection” than the real-life consequences that we are living with due to the crushing mandates that pitted citizen against citizen and made our children afraid of the air they breathe.
Supreme Court nominees demonstrate this as they obfuscate and lie without a moment’s hesitation in order to hide their radical agendas. Our newest Justice lied on camera when she pretended that she could not define what a woman is. Thanks to Biden, who chose her solely based on her race and gender, and a woke Senate who agreed with this new criteria, Ketanji Brown Jackson now has a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.
“In the absence of courage, truth is an orphan,” says my friend, Pastor Rob McCoy. He is absolutely correct, of course, and as a nation we learn this every day.
The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech—and yet —most of our leaders have stood by silently as social media and leftist media brutally silenced any opposition to the government’s narrative during Covid. Friends, this is not freedom. In fact, it looks an awful lot like Communism, where a few powerful people can exercise soul-crushing authority to silence dissent against approved messaging.
What exactly is the narrative of our government officials? With every passing day, it’s harder to ascertain. Kamala Harris mumbles and equivocates in one bizarre speech after another.
Joe Biden, obviously suffering from mental decline, refuses to enforce the laws that protect America’s borders, allowing a tidal wave of illegal immigrants, sex traffickers, and deadly drugs to come across our southern border. He intentionally destroyed America’s energy independence to pander to his radical left base.
If we’re going to move America back from the brink of social and economic collapse, we need to engage together in the process of electing new leaders. These leaders must be bold in their defense of truth and freedom.
The framers of the Constitution knew this, of course. Their response to tyranny? A revolution. Because of their courage, we are free. Our founders understood that what the government gives, it can also take away. As a result, they boldly spoke the truth about freedom: it does not come from government, it comes from God.
The privilege of living in the United States cannot be understated—but if we are going to pass on a legacy of freedom to our children and grandchildren, we need to fight to preserve it. We can no longer afford to be passive observers as politicians erode our freedoms with one devastating piece of legislation after another.
America is at a crossroads. A choice must be made as to who we are and what we want America to be. The way we answer will determine whether or not our grandchildren will be free. Will we remain indifferent as our leaders drag us into a self-inflicted recession? Or will we choose freedom?
I pray for the latter.
And while it may seem a daunting task to heal the wounds we have suffered at the hands of unwise and corrupt leaders, I have reason to hope that our best days are ahead of us. Here in the United States, we have been given a gift. The gift is freedom. The gift is representative government. We choose who will speak for us.
All across America, citizens who care about our cities, schools, states, and our nation are getting off the bench and onto the battlefield. They are challenging the political hirelings who have nearly destroyed America—and not a moment too soon.
Parents are speaking up at school board meetings and refusing to be silenced by arrogant board autocrats, the threats of arrest or of being labeled a “domestic terrorist.”
Mothers and fathers are taking their places on local library boards to say “no” to activists that are stealing the innocence of our children through cleverly designed picture books.
Small business owners and retirees are running for city councils to end the backroom deals and the political corruption that has ruined too many of our once-safe cities.
Individuals are standing against vaccine mandates and defending medical freedom.
As a business owner, a mother of seven, a grandmother, and a lifetime conservative, I am deeply invested here in southwest Washington. Like you, I’m tired of watching this beautiful state languish under bad leadership. I’m running for Congress to bring restoration and common sense back to the leadership of our nation. There’s no time to lose. I hope you’ll join me as I leave it all on the field for freedom.
If we are going to secure the blessings of liberty for generations to come, the time to engage is now.
