The article recounts a taxi ride experience in 1999 that highlighted America's commitment to free speech compared to the author's taxi driver’s experiences in Kenya. The author reflects on the current trend toward authoritarianism in the U.S. by highlighting recent actions against dissent, including illegal detentions, mass deportations, and threats against university students. These developments are alarming and suggest a significant erosion of civil rights, prompting the author to urge all citizens to actively speak out against these injustices and combat the timeline of freedom in America.
In 1999, I could feel pretty confident in saying Well, of course the president doesn't have his opponents taken out and shot. This is America! However, at the rate the right to free speech is being stripped away, I'm not sure how much longer we can guarantee that.
If you weren't worried about the disappearance of our civil rights before, you should absolutely, definitely, beyond a doubt, be worried now. And we all need to speak up, loud and clear, as often as we can.
That exchange has been on my mind as we watch our country slide headlong into authoritarianism.
In the past few weeks, we have seen the illegal seizure and detention of Mahmoud Khalil; mass deportations to prisons in other countries with little or no information, accountability, or oversight.
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