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Today, Inside They Dedicated A New Statue Of Another American Giant, Fredrick Douglas - A Man Born Into Slavery, But Who Knew Instinctively That He Was Not Born A Slave. No Man Is.

To Keep A Man A Slave You Do Much The Same As The Cruel Circus Masters Did To The Elephant Around The Turn Of Last Century. Clamp Heavy Chains Around Their Legs And Stake Them To The Ground. Then Beat And Terrorize Them. After A While You No Longer Even Have To Stake The Chain, The Elephant Gives Up And Just The Mere Rattle Of The Chain Convinces The Elephant There Is No Hope, So They Give Up And Do What Ever It Is The Circus Requires.

Fredrick Douglas Was Lucky Enough To Live In A House Where He Was Taught To Read, Write And Think. He Knew God Did Not Make Men Masters Over Others. Nor Did He Ever Intend Any Man To Impose Unrighteous Dominion Over Another Man Or Beast.

It Is Time We Remind Ourselves Of This Truth Again And Begin To Rise Up Against The Intimidation Before The Handful Of Peanuts From Our New Political Circus Masters Is Considered A Kindness And Not The Symbol Of Evil Cruelty.

In The Building Behind Me, They Are Now Excusing Storing All Data, Phonecalls, Financial Transactions, Geo Tracking On Every American For Our “Safety” While Allowing Anyone To Cross Our Borders Either On Foot Or In Underground Tunnels Without Any Worry Or Consequence.

They Have Not Suspended Or Fired But Promoted Those At The Irs Who Rattled The Chains Of Control To Any Group That Disagreed With Their Policies, And Now After Pushing Misery And Death Through The So Called Arab Spring In Country After Country They Are Plotting A New War With Syria. This Will Bring Death And Destruction The World Over. We Are Told That We Need To Pick Sides And Arm Those Who Are So Far Down The Scale Of Decency That Even Vladimir Putin Asked Americans If They Even Knew That Those We Are Arming Have Literally Eaten Their Enemies On The Battle Field.

The Fact That He Even Needed To Ask That Question, And That Most Have Never Even Seen The Video Of The Commander Of The Rebel Troops On Tv Engaging In This Ungodly Horror, Is An Inditement Of Our Government Officials And Our Media.

I Am Surrounded Today By Some Modern Day Spiritual Giants. All From Different Faiths, Different Backgrounds And Many Different Views. But We All Have One Thing In Common. We Don’t Recognize Our Country Anymore And Because We Know That God Is Just, We Tremble For Our Childrens Future.

We Wonder, Are We Even Worth Defending Anymore? If So, Why? Who Are We? And Will We Even Notice Or Care When The Chain Is Finally Snapped Around Our Legs.

What Will Be Written About Us? The Greatest Generation Has Passed. We Are Who Historians Will Watch.

Will It Be Said That None Called For Justice Not One Pleaded For Truth. They Trusted In Vanity And Spoke Lies. They Concieved Mischief And Brought Forth Iniquity.

What Is It We Even Believe As A People Anymore? Where Did We Get These Ideas That Now Seem So Popular?

Our Forbears Came To These Shores Not For Free Stuff But For Freedom. The Chance To Make Their Own Way, Create A Different Life. They Came Here Because They Knew That God Made Them Free To Make Their Own Way In Life, Take The Risk, Do Their Best And Take Responsibility For Their Own Lives.

They Came Here Because They Wanted To Serve Him In The Way They Believed, Not As They Were Told.

But How Many Care About Our History?

And, Of Those Who Do Care, How Many Really Still Believe?

Some Things Are Worth Believing In:

That The Little Guy Can Make It,

Every Single Life Has Value And Is Worth Living,

That Honor And Integrity Do Matter,

That Justice Will Prevail – If Not In This Life – Then The Next, And God Does Exist

And What We Do In Our Lives Matters.

It Is The Meek And The Humble That Enherit The Earth. Have We Forgotten?

We Have Declared Ourselves Masters Of The Earth,

Spread Our Troops All Over The World,

Taught The World How To Do Banking Like We Do It Here In America,

Even Though, We Cant Even Master Our Own Homes,

Protect Our Neighborhood

And Simply Balance A Check Book.

How Grotesque & Garish We Must Appear To Those Looking In.

I For One Still Believe In The Silly Notion Of Truth, Justice And The American Way. Since Our Founding A Good Percentage Of Our Fellow Citizens Closed Their Eyes To The Civil Rights Of All Americans.

“I’m Okay, I Dont Want To Think Of The Bad Things Going On, I Am Busy, It Doesnt Effect Me, It Can’t Be That Bad, And Even If It Is, I Am Just One Person And What Can I Do About It Anyway?

Nothing Has Changed. Except The Chairs At The Table.

Someone Has Always Been On The Losing End Of The Stick Of Power. Blacks Are The Most Obvious, The Chineese, The Native American But Lets Not Forget The Irish, The Catholics, The Mormons, The Jews And Now It Seems All Those Of Faith That Will Not Conform.

For Those That Think Men Make Progress Collectively, I Warn You, History Teaches: You Couldn’t Be More Wrong.

We Are Redeemed One Man At A Time. There Is No Family Pass Ticket Or Park Hopping Pass To Life. One Ticket, One Life At A Time.

Man Doesn’t Vanquish Hatred Or Bigotry. The Target Keeps Moving. From The Blacks To The Irish. Aethists To Christians.

But As Always There Are A Few Leaders: Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T Washington, Gandhi And Martin Luther King.

They Know That The March Toward Freedom Never Ends, Man Must Be Ever Vigilant And Pray Less With His Lips And More With His Legs.

They Never Forget That Truth, Justice And Freedom Are The Well Spring From Which The Waters Of Mans Civil Rights Come. And So They Must Be Upheld For All Men – Those You Know, Those You Do Not And Maybe More Importantly They Must Be Upheld For Those Who You Do Know But Do Not Like Or Agree With At All.

If They Are Lost For One, In The End They Are Lost For All.

In The Past These Historic Stands, Which We Now Call Civil Rights Movements, Were Done By A Small But Dedicated Portion Of Our Citizens Which Led To Great Shifts In Our Culture.

But Those Movements Always Came From The Same Institutions … The Church.

And Usually Not The Church With The Popular Preacher,

But The One Who Put It On The Line To Tell The People The Truth.

Preachers Like These Men, Who Know That We Are All Born Free, But That Freedom Comes A Great Price,

A Profound Resposibility ...

To Stand Against Injustice, Hatred And Bigotry.

Our Pulpits Have Gone Quiet Out Of Arrogance, Fear And Apathy. Their Faith Is Found In The Wisdom Of Man And Not In The Power Of God.

For Some, Losing Tithing Checks Or The Gold Rolex Watch Has Become More Important Than Losing Mans Freedom.

Whatever The Reason Too Many Are No Longer Willing To Call Evil By Its Name,

There Is No Vision. And When There Is No Vision The People Perish.

I Humbly Suggest To You That Martin Luther King Knew The Answer And He Lost More Than Congregants During His Long March.

Students Are Taught, That His Vision Came From The Ideas Gandhi. Maybe A New Radical 20th Century Progressive Philospher Was The One That Taught Mlk That

“Although We Be Free Of All Men, When We Choose To Make Our Selves Servants To All We Gain The More.”

Let’s Get A Couple Of Things Straight. What Mlk And Gandhi Did Was Not Progressive Or New. It Was An Ancient Idea.

Hollywood, Woodstock Nor The Hippy Culture Was The Source Of Power Of The 1960s Freedom Movement.

God Was.

He Was Leading Those Who Risked Their Lives Over That Bridge In Selma, Not Janice Joplin, Columbia University Or A Labor Union.

It Wasn’t John Lennon That Taught People About Love And Peaceful Resistance, That Job Fell On The Shoulders Of A Jewish Carpenter.

And It Is There That We Will Find The Answers That Will Break The Chains That Are Being Forged For A New Generation Of Slaves.

The Rights That So Many Americans Ignorantly Preach About So Often, Are Not Really Their Rights. They Belong To God And They Are Given To Us For Stewardship. They Are Pretty Important And Obvious. So Obvious That We Used To Say They Were Self Evident.

Meaning That Humans Don’t Need To Be Taught, You Instictively Know That You Have A Right Not To Be Executed Without A Trial, Held Without Charge, Searched Without Warrant Or Spied Upon Without Cause.

The Govenment Is No Longer The Protector Of Those Civil Rights And So We Must Be.

When We Are Told That It Is Okay For The Irs, Epa, Atf, Fbi Or Anyone To Hassle, Threaten Or Intimidate Others Because Of Their Skin Color, Religion Or Political Belief We Stop Being The Country That We All Want To Build

And Start Being The Country The World Should Fear.

The Long Train Of Abuses Regarding These Rights Are The Same Mlk Marched Against And The Very Same Our Dusty Founders Warned Us About Losing.

Men May Make Progress, But Man Never Changes.

Man Loves Power And Money. No Matter The Skin Color, Religion Or Income Level. These Symbols Of Our Nation Make Men Drunk With Power Who Then Justify Their Lust For More By Claiming They Are Public Servants.

The Only Difference Between Las Vegas And Washington Dc Is That At Least Vegas Has The Decency To Admit The Town Is Full Of Hookers And Crooks.

We Must Sober Up And Admit, Too Many Of The Republicans And The Democrats Have Played Us, Lied To Us And Stolen From Us While The Get Away Car Was Driven By The Media. A Media That Can No Longer Claim With A Straight Face The Role Of Journalist.

Journalists Print The Things The Powerful Don’t Want Printed.

What They Do, Is Done By A Public Relations Firm.

Those Pr Firms Will Not Print The Truth About The Average American Who Finds Himself Concerned With The Direction Of Our Country Today. So We Must:

We Are Not Violent,

We Are Not Racist,

We Are Not Anti Immigrant,

We Are Not Anti Government

And We Will Not Be Silent Anymore.

Those Who Wish To Use Unrighteous Dominion Over Mankind Are Not Enemies Of Ours They Are Enemies Of God And He Will Not Be Silent Much Longer Either.

We Will No Longer Accept The Lies, The Corruption, Or The Information And Data Gathering.

It Is Evil.

And We Come Here Today To Send A Message That We Will Surround All Of Those Who Wish To Stand And Break The Cycle Of Corruption.

We Will Use Ourselves As Shields To Protect Those In The System, The Elected Officials Or Whistle Blowers With The Courage To Stand.

We Come Here Today To Respectfully But With The Power Of The Spirit Demand To Be Treated As An Equal Member Of Society.

I Am A Man And I Will Be Treated As Such.

I Answer To Only One King And His Kingdom Will Come, His Will Be Done. We Have Chosen Sides And We Choose God. America As A Nation Must Do The Same As Well.

We Come Today To Declare Our Independence. Reaffirm Our Founding Principles:

We, As A Nation, Acknowledge A Creator;

We Acknowledge That He Gives Certain Natural, Guaranteed Rights To Man;

We Declare That Government Exists Primarily To Protect These Natural, God-Given Rights

He Has Established Right And Wrong

He Is Just And Therefor, Man Must Pay For His Mistakes Either Now On Earth Or Through Gods Justice Later

There Is No Such Thing As Social Justice. Only God Can Balance Things Out

And We Are Not God.

But Honest And Decent Men Can Fight For And Establish Equal Justice

There Is No Such Thing As Collective Salvation

We However Are Going To Be Judged On How We Treat Our Fellow Brothers And Sisters. Thus We Must Serve Them, Help Them With Charity Toward All.

Malice Toward None, Lincoln Said. God Said It Slightly Differently - Vengence Is Mine.

Any One Who Speaks Of Punishing Their Political Enemies In On The Wrong Side. It Is Clearly Evil And We Have A Responsiblitly To Say So.

America It Is Now Your Time To Rise Up And Boldly Declare Those Same Self Evident Truths That Changed The World And Demand That Those Truths Remain The Basis Of Our Laws.

My Civil Rights Will Not Be Trampled, And I Say This Not For Me But For My Children And All Those Who Yearn To Breath Free. Those Who Make Your Apple Products At Foxxcon, Those Who Langish In Prisions In Cuba, North Korea And Venasula.

Those Homosexuals Who Are Stoned To Death In The Streets Of Egypt, Or Iran, While Our So Called Civil Rights Leaders Hold Coffee Clatches With Third Graders In The White House.

We Will Stand Not For Our Job, House Or Income But We Will Standfor Those Immigrants Who Came Her The Right Way And Not Have Their Dreams Destroyed By Increasing Competition At The Lowest Rung Of The Ladder While Keeping The Brightest And Best Minds Out Of The Visa Pool Allowing For Little Competition At The Top.

We Will Not Pervert Womans Rights And Twist It Into A Gross Silent Defense Of Abortion Doctors In Philly And Houston While Turning Our Eyes From The Forgotten Women Who Have Never Had The Civil Right To Walk Alone On A Street Without A Man, Or To Drive A Car In Pakistan Or Saudi Arabia And Even Those Who Now Cower In Fear With Their Faces Covered In States Like Florida, Virginia, New York And Minnisota.

We Will Not Waste Another Second Shadow Boxing The Demons Of The Past When The Fight To End Actual Slavery Is Still Happening Today. Call It What You Will, But Those Who Make Your Ipad In China - Those Who Make Your Cute Little Mao Purses - Are The Very People You Claim To Care So Much About. They Are The Ones Yearning To Breath Free.

And Worse There Is The Oldest Form Of Human Degradation Man Has Ever Known, The Sex Slave Trade That Currently Has In Its Coils Over 2 Million Children. The Biggest Source Of This Evil Is A Wide Open Whole In Our Arizona Border.

We Beg The American People To Wake Up And Help The 8 Year Old Children Being Sold Into Sex Slavery.

The Press May Say How Dare These Men Declare Themselves The Next Martin Luther King Or Civil Rights Leaders.

How Blind To Believe The Civil Rights Movement Ever Ended.

The Civil Rights Movement Never Ends And It Never Will. It Has Been Marching Since The Beginning Of Time. Where Martin Luther King Started Is Where Gandhi Left Off, And Where He Started, Abe Lincoln Left Off And Before That Whitfield All The Way Back To Moses. God Has Not Moved. We Have.

But It Is Never Too Late. We Are Not At The Mercy Of These Events. We Can Alter The Course Of History. We Can Stand Against The Dangerous Arc Of This Story.

But We Need People Who Are Willing To Speak Truth.

The Last Century Was A Century Of Genocide. A Century Where Collectivist, National Socialist, And Communist Evil Rose Up Again And Again… Swallowing Up The Lives Of Millions.

It Happens Every Time Man Says The Collective Is More Important Than The Right Of The Individual. That One Phrase Becomes In The End – Everytime – A Licence To Kill Anyone Deemed Standing In The Way Of Progress.

But Evil Met Its Match. Goodness Eventually Prevailed. People Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr. And Lech Walesa And Mother Theresa Awoke The World.

They Gave Their Lives To The Pursuit Of Human Rights. They Took The Side Of Justice Against Injustice, They Held Aloft The Torch Of Freedom To Push Out The Darkness Of Hate.

These Men And Women Lived Difficult Lives. They Often Lived Shortened Lives. They Were Often Born To Relative Privilege, But Willing To Take On Suffering.

They Did Want Not To Martyr Themselves. They Would Have Happily Lived To The End Of Their Natural Lives In Comfort… But To The Righteous, There Is No Comfort When Evil Has Taken Root.

But The Cause Of Human Rights Has Been Taken Over By Organizations Who Share Little With The Individuals Who Led The Movement.

Human Rights Was Once A Cry For Justice. Now It Used As A Threat.

These Organizations Have Become Bullies And Grotesque Parodies Of The Principles They Pretend To Represent.

They Criticize Free Nations And Spare The Unfree. They Denounce Nations Like Israel And America, Who Have High Standards For Freedom, And Leave Alone Nations That Have No Freedom At All. They Are Nearly Comical In Their Double-Standards.

They Are No More Than The Enforcers Or The Attack Dogs Of Those Who Wish To Keep Men Confined In Spaces They Design.

Whatever Moral Force They Once Had Is Spent. Their Time Is Up. And So, We Dismiss Them.

Today, We Take Back The Phrase “Human Rights” And Place It Where It Belongs, As The First Half Of God’s Plan For Humanity. The Second Half Is Responsibility.

If We Want To Be Endowed With Rights – Real Human Rights, We Have To Act With Responsibility. We Must Not Be Comfortable With Rights. We Must Be Comfortable With Responsibility.

Who Will Protect Your Rights Better? A King, President Or You?

Who Will Protect The Truth? A Reporter, A Labor Union Or You?

Who Will Protect And Teach Your Children To Seek Truth? A Textbook Committee, An Education Bureaucrat, Or You?

Did A Commission Of Wise Men Stop The Holocaust? Did A Committee Of Congress End Jim Crow?

No. In Each Case, The Work Was Done By Individuals Who Would Not Abide Convenient Lies.

They Saw Injustice And They Called It Out. They Saw Their Nation Wage War Against A Single Group And They Said “Not In My Name.” They Didn’t Wait For The Conventions Of Society To Catch Up To God’s Laws. They Pushed. They Pressed. And They Were Victorious.

Each Of Us Have Been Waiting For A Leader To Rise From Among Us. And None Have. How Many Have Been Called And Refused To Serve? How Many Must Have Failed To Heed The Call For The Lord To Make It All The Way Down To Us?

I Pray Now That Those Who Have Heard The Call To Rise Up In The Tradition Of Peaceful Resistance Do So Now Before, As It Was With Bonhoeffer, It Is Too Late.

I Beg Those With Eyes And Ears To Heed The Call And Begin To Train Under The Exact System Used By Mlk. Search His Words Out. You Will Find That Your History Professors And Civil Rights Activists Left Out The Real Author Of The Words Of Gandhi, King And Bonhoeffer.

Read Them, Ponder Them And Risk Living Them. Even Though They Will Make You A Target Of The Nsa, Having Your Name On Their List As An Enemy May In The End Be The Way Your Name Is Forever Etched In His Book Of Life.

Pastors, Priests And Rabbis, I Challenge You. What Have You Done With Your Knowledge And Priesthood Power That Those Without Have Not Done This Week. If You Can Not Answer That With Power Every Day, What Does That Say About You?

Average Citizens And College Students. I Challenge You. Martin Luther King Didn’t Take A Class, Get A Certificate And A Bunch Of Permits. He Saw Injustice, Studied Eternal Truths, Excersized Disapline And Marched.

If You Don’t Find A Leader Perhaps It Is Because You Were Meant To Lead.

Christians, I Believe In The Free Market. If Your Preacher Is Too Afraid To Preach It From The Pulpit, Maybe You Should Preach It From The Street Corner. Many Are Called. Will You Answer?

Our Spiritual Body Is Out Of Shape And We Need Intensive Training Right Now.

Get Back To God

And Know That Somethings Are True And Worth Believing In.

The Good Guys Do Win In The End. Evil Does Not Stand Unless Good Men Never Rise Up.

The Time Is Now And We Are The People The World Is Waiting For. We Must Never Stop Being The Shore That Others Can Come To For Shelter And Hope.

But To Do So We Must Reliagn Ourselves With Truth And Rise Up And Stand.

This Is The Vision.

We Must Preach Good Tidings To The Meek, Bind Up The Brokenhearted, And Proclaim Liberty To Those Held Captive. To Declare Vengence Belongs To God And God Alone.

We Must Give Unto Those Who Mourn -- Beauty For Ashes And Water The Trees Of Righteousness.

We Shall Not Perish

I Can’t Help That Most Of Us Don’t Like To Hear The Truth, But Hear It We Must: George Washington Told Us Religion And Morality Are The Only Stable And Lasting Basis Of Individual Life And Public Policy. If We Are To Survive They Must Be Part Of Our Public Policy Rather Than Driven From It

It Is No Longer Enough To Just Be A Good Person, We Must Work To Be The Next Abraham Lincoln Or Martin Luther King. It Is Noble To Strive To Be The Size Of The Bronze Giant They Dedicated This Morning In The Building Behind Me. Fredrick Douglas’ Time Was In The 1800, Kings Time Has Passed. This Is Our Time, This Is The Next Long March Toward Civil Rights And We Shall Overcome.

Stand Without Fear, Lock Arms And Stare Down The Bullies That Wish To Enslave Mankind Yet Again.

Honor, Courage And Love Are What Is Required And They Are Contageous, Spread The Word And Proclaim Liberty Throughout The Land.

"Let Us, Today, Raise A Standard To Which The Wise And Honest Can Repair; The Rest Is In The Hands Of God

Trump's proposal explained: Ukraine's path to peace without NATO expansion

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Contributor | Getty Images

Strategic compromise, not absolute victory, often ensures lasting stability.

When has any country been asked to give up land it won in a war? Even if a nation is at fault, the punishment must be measured.

After World War I, Germany, the main aggressor, faced harsh penalties under the Treaty of Versailles. Germans resented the restrictions, and that resentment fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler, ultimately leading to World War II. History teaches that justice for transgressions must avoid creating conditions for future conflict.

Ukraine and Russia must choose to either continue the cycle of bloodshed or make difficult compromises in pursuit of survival and stability.

Russia and Ukraine now stand at a similar crossroads. They can cling to disputed land and prolong a devastating war, or they can make concessions that might secure a lasting peace. The stakes could not be higher: Tens of thousands die each month, and the choice between endless bloodshed and negotiated stability hinges on each side’s willingness to yield.

History offers a guide. In 1967, Israel faced annihilation. Surrounded by hostile armies, the nation fought back and seized large swaths of territory from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Yet Israel did not seek an empire. It held only the buffer zones needed for survival and returned most of the land. Security and peace, not conquest, drove its decisions.

Peace requires concessions

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says both Russia and Ukraine will need to “get something” from a peace deal. He’s right. Israel proved that survival outweighs pride. By giving up land in exchange for recognition and an end to hostilities, it stopped the cycle of war. Egypt and Israel have not fought in more than 50 years.

Russia and Ukraine now press opposing security demands. Moscow wants a buffer to block NATO. Kyiv, scarred by invasion, seeks NATO membership — a pledge that any attack would trigger collective defense by the United States and Europe.

President Donald Trump and his allies have floated a middle path: an Article 5-style guarantee without full NATO membership. Article 5, the core of NATO’s charter, declares that an attack on one is an attack on all. For Ukraine, such a pledge would act as a powerful deterrent. For Russia, it might be more palatable than NATO expansion to its border

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

Peace requires concessions. The human cost is staggering: U.S. estimates indicate 20,000 Russian soldiers died in a single month — nearly half the total U.S. casualties in Vietnam — and the toll on Ukrainians is also severe. To stop this bloodshed, both sides need to recognize reality on the ground, make difficult choices, and anchor negotiations in security and peace rather than pride.

Peace or bloodshed?

Both Russia and Ukraine claim deep historical grievances. Ukraine arguably has a stronger claim of injustice. But the question is not whose parchment is older or whose deed is more valid. The question is whether either side is willing to trade some land for the lives of thousands of innocent people. True security, not historical vindication, must guide the path forward.

History shows that punitive measures or rigid insistence on territorial claims can perpetuate cycles of war. Germany’s punishment after World War I contributed directly to World War II. By contrast, Israel’s willingness to cede land for security and recognition created enduring peace. Ukraine and Russia now face the same choice: Continue the cycle of bloodshed or make difficult compromises in pursuit of survival and stability.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The loneliness epidemic: Are machines replacing human connection?

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Seniors, children, and the isolated increasingly rely on machines for conversation, risking real relationships and the emotional depth that only humans provide.

Jill Smola is 75 years old. She’s a retiree from Orlando, Florida, and she spent her life caring for the elderly. She played games, assembled puzzles, and offered company to those who otherwise would have sat alone.

Now, she sits alone herself. Her husband has died. She has a lung condition. She can’t drive. She can’t leave her home. Weeks can pass without human interaction.

Loneliness is an epidemic. And AI will not fix it. It will only dull the edges and make a diminished life tolerable.

But CBS News reports that she has a new companion. And she likes this companion more than her own daughter.

The companion? Artificial intelligence.

She spends five hours a day talking to her AI friend. They play games, do trivia, and just talk. She says she even prefers it to real people.

My first thought was simple: Stop this. We are losing our humanity.

But as I sat with the story, I realized something uncomfortable. Maybe we’ve already lost some of our humanity — not to AI, but to ourselves.

Outsourcing presence

How often do we know the right thing to do yet fail to act? We know we should visit the lonely. We know we should sit with someone in pain. We know what Jesus would do: Notice the forgotten, touch the untouchable, offer time and attention without outsourcing compassion.

Yet how often do we just … talk about it? On the radio, online, in lectures, in posts. We pontificate, and then we retreat.

I asked myself: What am I actually doing to close the distance between knowing and doing?

Human connection is messy. It’s inconvenient. It takes patience, humility, and endurance. AI doesn’t challenge you. It doesn’t interrupt your day. It doesn’t ask anything of you. Real people do. Real people make us confront our pride, our discomfort, our loneliness.

We’ve built an economy of convenience. We can have groceries delivered, movies streamed, answers instantly. But friendships — real relationships — are slow, inefficient, unpredictable. They happen in the blank spaces of life that we’ve been trained to ignore.

And now we’re replacing that inefficiency with machines.

AI provides comfort without challenge. It eliminates the risk of real intimacy. It’s an elegant coping mechanism for loneliness, but a poor substitute for life. If we’re not careful, the lonely won’t just be alone — they’ll be alone with an anesthetic, a shadow that never asks for anything, never interrupts, never makes them grow.

Reclaiming our humanity

We need to reclaim our humanity. Presence matters. Not theory. Not outrage. Action.

It starts small. Pull up a chair for someone who eats alone. Call a neighbor you haven’t spoken to in months. Visit a nursing home once a month — then once a week. Ask their names, hear their stories. Teach your children how to be present, to sit with someone in grief, without rushing to fix it.

Turn phones off at dinner. Make Sunday afternoons human time. Listen. Ask questions. Don’t post about it afterward. Make the act itself sacred.

Humility is central. We prefer machines because we can control them. Real people are inconvenient. They interrupt our narratives. They demand patience, forgiveness, and endurance. They make us confront ourselves.

A friend will challenge your self-image. A chatbot won’t.

Our homes are quieter. Our streets are emptier. Loneliness is an epidemic. And AI will not fix it. It will only dull the edges and make a diminished life tolerable.

Before we worry about how AI will reshape humanity, we must first practice humanity. It can start with 15 minutes a day of undivided attention, presence, and listening.

Change usually comes when pain finally wins. Let’s not wait for that. Let’s start now. Because real connection restores faster than any machine ever will.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Exposed: The radical Left's bloody rampage against America

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

For years, the media warned of right-wing terror. But the bullets, bombs, and body bags are piling up on the left — with support from Democrat leaders and voters.

For decades, the media and federal agencies have warned Americans that the greatest threat to our homeland is the political right — gun-owning veterans, conservative Christians, anyone who ever voted for President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden once declared that white supremacy is “the single most dangerous terrorist threat” in the nation.

Since Trump’s re-election, the rhetoric has only escalated. Outlets like the Washington Post and the Guardian warned that his second term would trigger a wave of far-right violence.

As Democrats bleed working-class voters and lose control of their base, they’re not moderating. They’re radicalizing.

They were wrong.

The real domestic threat isn’t coming from MAGA grandmas or rifle-toting red-staters. It’s coming from the radical left — the anarchists, the Marxists, the pro-Palestinian militants, and the anti-American agitators who have declared war on law enforcement, elected officials, and civil society.

Willful blindness

On July 4, a group of black-clad terrorists ambushed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas. They hurled fireworks at the building, spray-painted graffiti, and then opened fire on responding law enforcement, shooting a local officer in the neck. Journalist Andy Ngo has linked the attackers to an Antifa cell in the Dallas area.

Authorities have so far charged 14 people in the plot and recovered AR-style rifles, body armor, Kevlar vests, helmets, tactical gloves, and radios. According to the Department of Justice, this was a “planned ambush with intent to kill.”

And it wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a growing pattern of continuous violent left-wing incidents since December last year.

Monthly attacks

Most notably, in December 2024, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. Mangione reportedly left a manifesto raging against the American health care system and was glorified by some on social media as a kind of modern Robin Hood.

One Emerson College poll found that 41% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 said the murder was “acceptable” or “somewhat acceptable.”

The next month, a man carrying Molotov cocktails was arrested near the U.S. Capitol. He allegedly planned to assassinate Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In February, the “Tesla Takedown” attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships started picking up traction.

In March, a self-described “queer scientist” was arrested after allegedly firebombing the Republican Party headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Graffiti on the burned building read “ICE = KKK.”

In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-Pa.) official residence was firebombed on Passover night. The suspect allegedly set the governor’s mansion on fire because of what Shapiro, who is Jewish, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.”

In May, two young Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Witnesses said the shooter shouted “Free Palestine” as he was being arrested. The suspect told police he acted “for Gaza” and was reportedly linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

In June, an Egyptian national who had entered the U.S. illegally allegedly threw a firebomb at a peaceful pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado. Eight people were hospitalized, and an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor later died from her injuries.

That same month, a pro-Palestinian rioter in New York was arrested for allegedly setting fire to 11 police vehicles. In Los Angeles, anti-ICE rioters smashed cars, set fires, and hurled rocks at law enforcement. House Democrats refused to condemn the violence.

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

In Portland, Oregon, rioters tried to burn down another ICE facility and assaulted police officers before being dispersed with tear gas. Graffiti left behind read: “Kill your masters.”

On July 7, a Michigan man opened fire on a Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, Texas, wounding two police officers and an agent. Border agents returned fire, killing the suspect.

Days later in California, ICE officers conducting a raid on an illegal cannabis farm in Ventura County were attacked by left-wing activists. One protester appeared to fire at federal agents.

This is not a series of isolated incidents. It’s a timeline of escalation. Political assassinations, firebombings, arson, ambushes — all carried out in the name of radical leftist ideology.

Democrats are radicalizing

This isn’t just the work of fringe agitators. It’s being enabled — and in many cases encouraged — by elected Democrats.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz routinely calls ICE “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attempted to block an ICE operation in her city. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu compared ICE agents to a neo-Nazi group. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson referred to them as “secret police terrorizing our communities.”

Apparently, other Democratic lawmakers, according to Axios, are privately troubled by their own base. One unnamed House Democrat admitted that supporters were urging members to escalate further: “Some of them have suggested what we really need to do is be willing to get shot.” Others were demanding blood in the streets to get the media’s attention.

A study from Rutgers University and the National Contagion Research Institute found that 55% of Americans who identify as “left of center” believe that murdering Donald Trump would be at least “somewhat justified.”

As Democrats bleed working-class voters and lose control of their base, they’re not moderating. They’re radicalizing. They don’t want the chaos to stop. They want to harness it, normalize it, and weaponize it.

The truth is, this isn’t just about ICE. It’s not even about Trump. It’s about whether a republic can survive when one major party decides that our institutions no longer apply.

Truth still matters. Law and order still matter. And if the left refuses to defend them, then we must be the ones who do.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

America's comeback: Trump is crushing crime in the Capitol

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

Trump’s DC crackdown is about more than controlling crime — it’s about restoring America’s strength and credibility on the world stage.

Donald Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to restore law and order. This move is long overdue.

D.C.’s crime problem has been spiraling for years as local authorities and Democratic leadership have abandoned the nation’s capital to the consequences of their own failed policies. The city’s murder rate is about three times higher than that of Islamabad, Pakistan, and 18 times higher than that of communist-led Havana, Cuba.

When DC is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak.

Theft, assaults, and carjackings have transformed many of its streets into war zones. D.C. saw a 32% increase in homicides from 2022 to 2023, marking the highest number in two decades and surpassing both New York and Los Angeles. Even if crime rates dropped to 2019 levels, that wouldn’t be good enough.

Local leaders have downplayed the crisis, manipulating crime stats to preserve their image. Felony assault, for example, is no longer considered a “violent crime” in their crime stats. Same with carjacking. But the reality on the streets is different. People in D.C. are living in constant fear.

Trump isn’t waiting for the crime rate to improve on its own. He’s taking action.

Broken windows theory in action

Trump’s takeover of D.C. puts the “broken windows theory” into action — the idea that ignoring minor crimes invites bigger ones. When authorities look the other way on turnstile-jumping or graffiti, they signal that lawbreaking carries no real consequence.

Rudy Giuliani used this approach in the 1990s to clean up New York, cracking down on small offenses before they escalated. Trump is doing the same in the capital, drawing a hard line and declaring enough is enough. Letting crime fester in Washington tells the world that the seat of American power tolerates lawlessness.

What Trump is doing for D.C. isn’t just about law enforcement — it’s about national identity. When D.C. is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak. The capital city represents the soul of the country. If we can’t even keep our own capital safe, how can we expect anyone to take us seriously?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Reversing the decline

Anyone who has visited D.C. regularly over the past several years has witnessed its rapid decline. Homeless people bathe in the fountains outside Union Station. People are tripping out in Dupont Circle. The left’s negligence is a disgrace, enabling drug use and homelessness to explode on our capital’s streets while depriving these individuals of desperately needed care and help.

Restoring law and order to D.C. is not about politics or scoring points. It’s about doing what’s right for the people. It’s about protecting communities, taking the vulnerable off the streets, and sending the message to both law-abiding and law-breaking citizens alike that the rule of law matters.

D.C. should be a lesson to the rest of America. If we want to take our cities back, we need leadership willing to take bold action. Trump is showing how to do it.

Now, it’s time for other cities to step up and follow his lead. We can restore law and order. We can make our cities something to be proud of again.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.