Fleeing to Freedom, Now Fleeing From It: A retrospective of the America I once loved.

Written by Max Seltzer, Fellowship Coordinator at Men4Choice 

In my opinion, despite it all, there is one experiment that tops all in the course of science. Penicillin, Electricity, the Motion Picture, all places in comparison to the greatest one of all, The American Experiment. It was an Idea that our founding fathers had to create a nation with the freedom to express ourselves, which was at the forefront of all with our First Amendment. A nation in which all men are to be created equal with certain unalienable rights. A nation free from Kings and Monarchs and instead Presidents and Representatives. 

This is the America that my family fled to. 

If you asked me my heritage, I would tell you that I am Jewish, and I am lucky. The lucky part would be the fact that my direct family fled Europe before the Holocaust occurred. Instead, they were forced to deal with the Pogroms, programs used by the Russian Empire and later the Soviets to terrorize, kill, and lessen the quality of life of Jewish people across their territories, but my family made it out, and after landing in the Port of Philadelphia fought and bled for this free nation in every conflict since then. They didn’t fight for a flag or a Preisdent, they fought for the American Experiment and the struggle to be free.

The tie of all marginalized groups, whether it be racial, religious, or sexual orientation-wise, is the tie of struggle. 

Our country is in a struggle right now. As I write this piece, Americans all across the country are getting their rights stripped. We’re seeing citizens being arrested and Senators being beaten like enemy combatants simply for standing up to this authoritarian regime in charge of our country. One of the biggest threats to this administration is the struggle to fight for freedom with our bodies. Around the country, in almost every state, Abortion restrictions are becoming stricter and stricter. Some states like Lousiana, have no protections for rape or incest. Texas is firing its prosecutors who refuse to prosecute abortion cases. Florida is using our taxpayer dollars to create anti-abortion clinics to trick vulnerable young women with promises of free formula and diapers, only to go silent once the baby has been delivered. Reproductive rights are an issue on the forefront of our nation today, it is not just the fight to have an abortion, but the right to a free body. This may only be three stories, three states to the person reading this, but this is millions of women who have millions of mothers, fathers, siblings, partners who have to watch their loved ones suffer under these cruel bans with seemingly no way to stop it.

While many fled to our country for freedom, our nation seems to be fleeing from the freedom we promised. 

I leave you with this: Martin Niemöller was a German pastor living in the Third Reich. He penned these words: 

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

I am in no way comparing America to the Nazi Regime however, this sentiment is hauntingly accurate in regards to our situation-Are we going to wait until there is no one left to speak for us? We live in a country of apathy, a country of cognitive dissonance in which we can write off the issues of our time by telling ourselves, “It’s just politics” and going on with our day. The truth is coming faster and faster each day; they will not stop at Abortion. It begins with Abortion, and then Birth Control, and then contraceptives, and then policing sex; gay couples, inter-racial couples will come shortly after. Some may call this fearmongering, yet I call it reading the news and listening exactly to what Republicans say they are going to do. 

But we do not have to be silent, we do not have to sit on the sidelines until there is no one left to speak for us. 

To the men reading this, I have a plea. Despite your thoughts on abortion, we all live here when the shared common thread of freedom coursing through our veins; is this not the same? What is more patriotic than despite it all having the courage to stand up with your fellow Americans and telling the government hands off our bodies, hands off your daughter or your mother or sister or wife or niece. At the end of the day, the fight for reproductive rights is not just a woman’s fight but a fight for freedom-and a fight we will lose if men continue to sit on the sidelines. 

The American Experiment will live on if we try hard enough to save it.