I AM JOSE GUERENA

I am completely unable to get Jose Guerena's murder out of my head.

Maybe it's because I know I too respond to unknown situations in my home with a rifle in hand.

Maybe it's because I know I'd damned sure respond armed and ready if my door were being kicked in. In fact, if my door were kicked in, it's safe to say my selector switch would not be on "safe" (spare me the range safety lessons and read on, please).

That could have been me helplessly bleeding out on my own floor. That could have been my wife held outside as I died on my floor.


I AM JOSE GUERENA.

If I hear "Freedom Isn't Free", one more time, I'm going to explode. Just shut up with it. Now.

Our freedom was not won or lost in Germany, France, Vietnam, Guadalcanal, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Don't get me wrong, I'm not demeaning what went on in those places. I am not making light of the sacrifices of those who fought in those places, only emphasizing our utter failure as citizens. Stay with me here. Freedom isn't free, and we've sold ours, or worse, given it away. A soldier can defend liberty in faraway places, but it is not his role to defend it on our shores. That is your job, and it is mine.

In this, we are abject failures.

Our nation, our ideals, our liberty has been lost, in peacetime, at home, by us.

WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL IS WRONG WITH US?