“Ask yourself at every moment: ‘Is this necessary?’ ”

 Marcus Aurelius’s wisdom thankfully carries through the ages of the Earth to urge us to attention: U.S. citizens have been deported to countries where, upon landing, they no longer have rights. Not just ‘undocumented immigrants’ or ‘illegals,’ but those very people who our constitution should explicitly protect.

‘The New Republic’ news outlet, as well as the local ‘Oklahoma News 4’ channel, both reported on a story where a born-in-the-USA citizen had ICE and FBI agents show up at her house and present her with a search warrant for people who didn't live there. They forced her and her three children outside, reportedly took her computers and stole enough from her house that the woman, Marisa, pleaded, saying: “I have to feed my children, I need gas money.”

I wouldn’t bring out the heavy words of Emperor Aurelius to claim the above are merely distractions, not in the current sense; rather, in the way that while driving down the road and a car crashes into another, draws your attention to be displaced. What happened to the crashed car was both a tragedy and a distraction. Not that you shouldn’t care or shouldn't help either, but that the road in front of you that your eyes are now removed from is ever approaching.

On May 14th, Sarah McFarlane at Reuters reported that over the past nine months, U.S. energy officials have found many wireless communication devices inside Chinese power inverters. Described quickly: inverters are devices that allow remote access and wireless maintenance between solar panels and wind turbines to the electrical grid. The U.S. energy officials have even found other unlisted cellular radios inside the batteries of such equipment, which they said could be used to bypass firewalls and hand over access to someone else, or even destroy the equipment and cause mass power failures and blackouts.

“There is a built-in way to physically destroy (our) grid.” One of the energy officials stated, preferring to go unnamed.

In the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s regular and repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and energy grids have often been reported by plenty of new outlets around the world, but also by the ever prestigious and non-partisan ‘The Institute for the Study of War.’

Every hour that power is gone from everyone's home and grocery store is another hour of food spoilage: another hour of freezing, deathly temperatures in the winter. To destroy energy infrastructure is to kill your opponent from the inside, on a genocidal scale.

How many Americans could survive suddenly in the depths of winter, without power, beyond those fortunate to live in climates like Florida?

What was found by U.S. energy employees was no small thing, and quite the opposite when drawn alongside the fact that for the next military budget, the Pentagon is asking for an extra 150 billion dollars (the same amount of Russia’s current war effort) for extra funding for Indo-Pacific Command, to a total of 1.01 trillion USD.

To return to the analogy: there are car wrecks happening up and down the proverbial road: tragic, and dangerous distractions that deserve their due and aid and attention. I would not dare even request someone not to stand up for what they believe in, or to stop their own vehicle and attention to give aid.

There are, of course, more than just the crises with U.S. citizens being deported, or having to be displaced from their homes, and having jackbooted men ransack their homes:

The Trump Administration recently reversed a ban on “forced-rest-triggers," which can effectively turn a semi-automatic gun into one that functions much like an automatic one.

Executive Order 14168, signed early in President Trump’s term, mandates that all federal agencies recognize only two genders. 14190 criminalizes educators who support the social transition of students by framing it under unauthorized medical practice and sexual exploitation.

 Rowe v. Wade was overturned, and tariffs are incoming like a meteor that you don't see coming, but once it hits, the price hikes will be violent.

One of the preeminent American military generals of our time, James Mattis, who had a tenure as the secretary of defense, said that the Russians privately indicated to him that they would likely use nuclear weapons on the Baltic states, should a war erupt. He began to understand in that moment that the Russians are an existential threat. They have, after all, threatened to nuke whole countries as freely as Iran does. 

Good men don’t do that.

Upon this road that each of us in the United States finds ourselves upon, to the right and left, things are changing so suddenly: cars are crashing, causing distractions. Or, maybe you are so far right that this all looks golden to you. However, I have to hope that the real Federalists and Conservatives whom I have met are as upset as the next American to see these slanders on the Constitution.

More context in brief: President Trump’s U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer stated on the record that the Administration’s Justice Department did not always have to follow court orders. In the words of Justice Barrett, “...because you might disagree with the opinion?”

"Generally.” Mr. Sauer replied.

When I beg you, take into your conscious thought that which Marcus Aurelius says:

 “Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’”

I plead that you, Dear American, ever-brethren of mine who were raised to cherish free speech and focus your abilities on one of those distractions or a different one you see about you, but not all of them. Order them in such an order of importance that you put the ‘distractions’ at the top of your list, which preclude the existence of others.

Such as the upholding and stability of our constitution, and the safety of our elections from foreign and internal meddling. The rest of the accidents alongside the road, whether you revel in them or cry, could not be made secure even if you swept in like a white-knight and set them back up without our constitution being whole and unassailable. And the drums of war that are at the end of the road, that inherently threaten all the layers of the fabric of our civilization.

I'd leave with this:

The constitution should work for you like it does for me: free speech is not free if only one group gets it, even if that group is me.

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.