July 4, 2020 vs. Freedom

Going Nowhere and Everywhere in 2020

 March 2020 "Hope" Projection

Zermatt 

© Light Art by Gerry Hofstetter / Foto Gabriel Perren

To write a travel blog in a year when we can't travel is certainly a challenge.  There is only so much to be said about "Staycations". 

So, like many out there, I long to return to a time when we may once again travel freely. 

And after just celebrating another 4th of July weekend, the words "travel freely" takes on very special significance.

As a kid I remember jumping in our station wagon with dad pointing us in a direction and off we'd go. Sometimes we'd go lake camping or drive to Canada or visit my cousins in Colorado. The scenery, the radio stations, the food, the people and those dark star-filled skies. 

Damn. It was wonderful.

So it was confusing when my parents struggled to explain that travel was a freedom.

It just was inconceivable that residents of China or Cuba or (then) the Soviet Union lacked the freedom to travel. And, in 1961, at the age of 5, I could not fully grasp Nureyev's dramatic defection in Paris. 

Until 2020 I viewed my freedom to travel as an essential American birthright.         

But it is 2020 and I can no longer count freedom to travel as my birthright.

Americans with 4% of the worlds population now have 24% of the world's Covid cases. And we are barred from much of the world. We cannot go to Canada or Mexico. The EU has barred us (justifiably) from Europe. Heck, even some US states now require us to quarantine.

A friend applied for a US Passport in January. It is now Mid-July and the passport is nowhere in sight. I'm beginning to develop a strong perception that our Federal leadership is actively working to isolate Americans.

Even more chilling is the fact that when we are once again free to travel, we'll need to exercise more care as much of the world is rapidly embracing Totalitarianism and is increasingly dangerous.

China is forcing sterilization on ethnic Uyghur's in "re-education" camps (chillingly similar to Hitler's Holocaust). And, in stark similarity to the rise of Nazism, the world is once again averting its eyes and letting it happen without any real global condemnation. Our indifference has emboldened China to enact a premature end to the "One Country, Two Systems" treaty with Hong Kong. Personally, I will never consider travel to China.

Totalitarian leadership is flowing over Poland and Hungary. And, I fear, it is too late for The Philippines where they throw suspected drug dealers out of helicopters. Who needs a time-consuming judicial system?

Leader's in Brazil and Turkey work tirelessly to steal democracy from their citizens.

In the Russian Federation police encourage rabid gangs to run down, torture and murder suspected citizens for the crime of being gay. In the Chechen Republic forced disappearances, secret abductions, imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killing of LGBT citizens is sanctioned by authorities. They simply throw gay people off of rooftops for their "crime". This is sick shit. And, while Russia's economy tanks, and its wealth slides dramatically into the pockets of its leader and corrupt oligarchs, Putin becomes dictator for life.

For me, the amount of the world's surface I am willing to visit is shrinking. I will never spend a single travel dollar to see The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul or lovely Budapest.

Independence Day is the national celebration of our right and obligation to question and stand against unreasonable control and uncaring leadership. Rather than destroy it through divisiveness, lets redouble efforts to perfect our amazing country, with liberty and justice for all.

Roadboy's Travels © 2020