What sets America apart is that we are a nation of laws. There is a core value of law in this nation that seldom changes called the Constitution. It has served us well for 200-plus years.

After the Constitution, we have federal, state and local laws which are more likely to change over time, but rarely in a drastic format. We are a law and order nation that has historically respected minority opinions and positions. We have debates, elections and elected officials pass legislation that reflects our society.

Again, we have differences of opinions, but we as a nation have chosen to abide by the laws passed by our legislatures. That is until recent dates.

Until this decade, the last time the public, or at least a part of the public, actually engaged in mass protest was at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. There were two major issues driving the protests: the recent assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King and the Vietnam War. Those protests provided the impetus for the U. S. to get out of Vietnam and for much of our nation’s civil rights legislation. There was certainly civil unrest, but there was not a call to destroy the nation.

Fast forward to the past 5 years. There has come about a significant movement to do away with the laws of this nation and even the nation itself. The Black Lives Matter and the defund the police were the starting points of the anti-U.S. movement on U.S. soil. These movements advocated a form of anarchy by diminishing and demeaning the police. The movements became riots on the west coast and some cities in the hinterland.

Many large cities cut the budgets of their police forces. The results were a loss of control by the local governments and the people clamoring for police protection. This debate is ongoing, but the public is angry, and the protesters appear to have plotted their next move.

On college and university campuses across the nation the anti-Israel movement is fast approaching. This movement, which appears to be highly organized, based on the preparedness of the protesters at each campus, appears to be highly motivated and thoroughly ignorant of history.

The movement claims to be pro-Palestine. Never mind that it was the Hamas terrorists that initiated an attach on Israel soil on October 7, they believe the entire hostility is Israel’s fault. They view Israel’s military response as genocide against the Palestinian people. Granted there are civilian casualties, but Israel has sought to minimize that collateral damage. Actual combat is not a polite event, it is war and that means death and destruction. The protesters have two slogans that say a lot in political terms.

They first chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The chant clearly suggests the elimination of the Jewish state by its geographical statement. That in and of itself is a proclamation for genocide. The second chant is “death to America and death to Israel”.

Again, the protesters wish to destroy two nations, the U. S. being one of them. The last time chants asking for death to Jews was used in free country was in Germany in the early 1930s when Hitler was ascending to power. What these protesters want is the death of race and culture and if it takes the destruction of the United States to accomplish that, so much the better.

I realize that our schools already have too many mandates to teach particular subjects, but perhaps it is time to go back to basics. These protests are being held on college campuses and the protests enlist college students. These students were in theory taught history and civics in high school classrooms. Are we teaching our children the history of WWII and the Holocaust? Are we teaching our children the principles of American democracy or are we by default supporting the concept of anarchy?

Civil protests are a part of American democracy. Anarchy should be an abhorrent concept to every citizen of this free nation.

Take the time this week to go out on your patio and have a cup of coffee in the morning. Listen to the birds. Appreciate your freedom as there are those who wish to take it away from you. To maintain our freedom we must be vigilant for those who would take it from us.