Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be the mother of an 18-year-old son on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked? She must have been terrified knowing that her boy was about to march to war, possibly never to come home again.
Yet mothers and fathers willingly sent their sons to war because they knew that the only way to save democracy in America was to defeat Hitler, Mussolini, and all the tyrants who wanted to make us their subjects. Many of those boys in The Greatest Generation were still in high school. And many gave their lives when they had barely begun. We are free today because of their sacrifice.
I’m a mom of two boys, 24 and 20 − just like the boys who sent Hitler to his grave. I am awed by the sacrifices those families made.
After 250 years, the republic stands, battered by war but unbowed. Today, we are threatened not only by warmongers but by billionaires who treat regular Americans like pawns on a chessboard.
The Civil War and two world wars couldn’t break us. Not even the 9/11 terrorist attacks could. Instead of dividing us, they brought us together to preserve our independence.
Nine days after terrorists attacked us in 2001, President George W. Bush helped unify the nation by speaking to a special joint session of Congress, where he said, “Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”
Folks may not remember, but President Bush went out of his way to thank the leaders of Congress − Democrats and Republicans − and the leaders of many faiths for standing shoulder to shoulder for a common cause.
Who holds the power today?
Today, that kind of unity is sorely missing in America. It’s not only terrorists attacking our way of life. It’s billionaires right here at home trying to tear us apart.
I can’t fathom why people like Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire, crave more money and absolute power over our daily lives while American families struggle to survive and pay their bills.
Billionaires are trying to force massive data centers on our rural communities. And they’re lying to us about how those electricity plants will send our rates soaring. Have you seen those dark-money ads that promise the data plants will create zillions of jobs and not raise our electricity bills? How stupid do they think we are?
We may not understand the bottomless greed of these people, but we don’t have to understand. All we have to do is defeat them like we defeated all the despots who came before them. Together.
The choice before voters
This year, they declared war on Rep. Thomas Massie because he demanded justice for the underage girls who were raped by monstrous people in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking ring. And the billionaires beat him.
They beat him by making the primary for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District the most expensive congressional primary in U.S. history. They hated our freedom so much that they spent more than $30 million in dark money to silence an elected representative who dared to defy them. In Rep. Massie’s place, they put their darling to serve them instead of us. I don’t need to spell out who Ed Gallrein would serve − the billionaires or us − because he’s already taken their money.
Right now, billionaires want to squash the investigations into Epstein’s crimes against humanity and his collaborators, and they don’t care if we don’t want the energy-hogging data centers in our backyards. What will they want tomorrow?
Washington is making choices that have made our gas and food prices skyrocket. An estimated trillion dollars of our hard-earned tax dollars are being spent on a war of choice in Iran. It’s a war that not only failed to defeat the Iranian dictatorship but has empowered the dictators by promising them a $300 billion rebuilding fund. That’s money that won’t be invested in our military, our schools, or to protect Social Security and Medicare.
It makes me angry, and I’m doing something about it. Billionaires don’t own me, and they never will. I’m running for Congress to honor the sacrifices of all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and nurses − and their families − who preserved our independence for our nation’s first 250 years.
We beat the tyrants before, and we’ll do it again. God Bless America!
Melissa Strange is the Democratic nominee for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: America wasn’t built for billionaires to rule | Opinion
Reporting by Melissa Strange, Opinion contributor / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Melissa Strange, Opinion contributor | USA TODAY Network
