O Pinions!

Those who stood up to tyrants

On this Veterans Day I will honor those who stood up to tyrants:

The Russians who repulsed the Nazis from their Motherland and then pinchered them as Zhukov and Konev defeated Hitler in the final Battle of Berlin. (23 April 1945)

The Japanese Americans who fought in WWII while their families sat imprisoned in Concentration Camps in the wastelands of Wyoming run by those they fought for. (1942-1945)

The Vietnamese who routed first the French, then the Americans, in their quest for freedom from their colonial oppressors who now invite their oppressors to visit. (1954-1975)

The Native Nations who fought for their land, their people and their livelihood at The Battle of the Little BigHorn, winning a pyrrhic victory over the European invaders on June 25, 1876.

The Portuguese who overthrew the tyrannical government with no lives lost in the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 as they stuffed red carnations into the rifles pointed at them.

The Costa Rican Juan Santamaría Rodríguez who died April 11, 1856 torching the imperialist forces of the American William Walker who had overthrown the government of Nicaragua in a quest to establish slave-hold colonies.

To those on both sides who fought and died for leaders who believed war was the only way to settle their grievances. To the refugees that fled. To the dead who couldn't.

The Freedom Riders who defied the tyrants of Alabama and Mississippi (North Carolina and Florida too) and rode to jail, beatings and death. (1961)

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