Over the weekend, I heard all types of the news on the unrest in Pakistan. Despite what our government wants to tell us, Pakistan is ruled by dictatorship. If not, how else can a general (and supposed president) suspend a nation’s constitution, black out all media and even fire a supreme court (the same court that was to decide if his election to president was even legal) when it doesn’t side with him?

But, if you look, the story isn’t as much about what a government is doing as it is about what the people are doing in response to it.

This is the lesson of Pakistan.

Today, I see that even lawyers are taking it to the streets in protest of having their rights trampled. Thousands of attorney are squaring off with police as they say “no” to having their constitutional rights taken from them at the word of one person. This follows protests by other Pakistanis from all walks of life, all saying “no” to be ruled by a dictator.

In this country, as we see more and more of our rights taken away, we heap scorn on the people who say “no”. We live in such a fear of another attack, that we allow people to tap our phones and read our mail to “protect” us. We allow people to take away our First and Fourth Amendment rights because we have be scared into compliance, not realizing that once these powers are taken, they are not easily returned back to the people. Some of us laugh at the possibility of ever ending up like these nations we see on TV but, we need to remember that this things don’t always start with a military coup. Sometimes, it’s the gradual erosion of one’s way of life that puts you on the same path.

What we should take from Pakistan is that freedom and self-determination are the best defenses against tyranny and terror. It is the absence of the prior that make the growth of the latter possible.

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