I have to admit I find no particular pleasure in writing this piece. I am usually the eternal optimist. Hell, I’ve been a member of my local Optimist International club for over seventeen years now!

No matter how dark the circumstances have been in my life, my faith in God and sincere belief HE will show me the correct path has always sustained me through my most trying times.

I still believe that with all my heart but my consternation lies solely in what I see currently happening in our country. I know this is not the first time our country has experienced societal unrest and change. I was born in the mid 1960’s so I wasn’t yet alive during the assassinations of President Kennedy, Malcolm X or Medgar Evers. 

And I was far too young to remember the assassinations in 1968 of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the ensuing riots that occurred afterwards in inner cities all around the country.

Back then, the culture war was still in its infancy, and America was still a country that overwhelmingly believed in God, Family and Country – no matter where your personal beliefs fell on the political spectrum.

God, Family and Country were the three bedrock principles that a melting pot of diverse people depended on to keep our society cohesive and orderly.

Today, those bedrock principles have been jackhammered by activist courts, the so called “woke” generation who sadly have been indoctrinated in their public schools and colleges by the 1960’s culture warriors, and by the Democrat(ic) Party which long ago sold out America and their principles for political power. I firmly believe the obliteration of God, Family and Country has resulted in the deep divisions we currently see in our country. 

These divisions are fostering a total disrespect for the law that goes far beyond the constitutionally protected right we have to peacefully protest and air our grievances. These divisions are now resulting in open defiance of the law and authority. I’ve identified below three areas of open defiance that are of great concern to me.

First, is the allowance of protesters to openly defy lawful curfews and protest at night. Don’t get me wrong, protestors have every right to protest whenever or wherever they choose (until curfew) and this is only a suggestion but why protest at night?

Unless your aim is to create conditions of fear, mayhem and chaos – and give looters and rioters the opportunity to steal, kill and destroy – I don’t understand this stubborn insistence on protesting at night? The message isn’t any less effective during the day. This simple gesture would foster so much goodwill and would show a willingness to separate themselves from the riff raff.

The second act of defiance comes from within our very government. The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York was refusing to resign last weekend and eventually had to be fired by Attorney General Barr:

“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”

The media is quick to point out that Geoffrey Berman is a “registered Republican” and “Trump appointee” but we know in the age of  “Never Trumpers,”  “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) is an equal opportunity affliction that doesn’t discriminate.

Of course, this isn’t the first act of defiance by a high ranking justice department official during the Trump Administration. Obama Administration holdover and acting Attorney General Sally Yates refused to enforce President Trump’s controversial travel ban, that she and other liberals, felt discriminated against Muslims and Muslim countries.

“Consequently, for as long as I am the Acting Attorney General, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the Executive Order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so.”

The third worrisome act of defiance is the vandalizing and destruction of statues of historic figures in cities all around the nation. When did it become the norm – or lawful – to tear and down public works of art the mob now deems unacceptable and offensive?

There is supposed to be a process where these statues are removed through citizens petitioning their local government to have them removed. Regardless of how I personally feel about some of these statues, I personally have a problem with an angry mob making decisions for me regarding the future of these statues. 

The most egregious act of property destruction defiance is what is happening in now three square blocks (it was six square blocks) in downtown Seattle.  Calling it the “Summer of Love,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has allowed Antifa anarchists and Black Lives Matter to have a “police free zone” along with their own little socialist caliphate.

Couple all of this defiance with so-called sanctuary cities who already openly defy the federal government on immigration law, and you have the makings of a real witches’ brew of problems about to be served up to the United States.  Conservatives often say that a country without borders is really not a country at all. I also believe that country without the rule of law is not a country either.