Truth from the Trenches by Melissa Hart 

 

GoDaddy.com caved to the whims of animal rights activists and decided not to air their Super Bowl ad titled “Journey Home.” According to USA Today last week, the commercial features a cute puppy that’s been separated from its family on its journey home – but the ending is what’s causing the uproar, when you find out the owners are happy to see the puppy because they just sold it on a website built using GoDaddy.

According to animal activists, this commercial promotes puppy mills. They believe instead of buying a dog, we should all go to the local animal shelter and to pick out our pet.

Really? This is ridiculous on steroids. I never thought I would see the day when we, as a free country, would try to dictate where people acquire their faithful companions.

In the wake of the box office boom of the movie “American Sniper,” in which real-life Iraq War soldier and Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is trying to balance his career as the most prolific U.S. sniper with his family life, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore remarked that snipers were cowards.

Mr. Moore has never served our country in the military and yet he makes that sweeping generalization while enjoying the freedom that many like Chris Kyle died to provide. That’s ridiculous on double doses of steroids.

And then our friend with the mouth that can’t be quiet, Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, voiced his unpopular opinion about the movie. “There’s a lot of anger in this country. And the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry,” Dean said, during a panel discussion on whether the film was pro-war propaganda or art.

I’m wondering how someone can determine whether the film was pro-war propaganda or art when he hadn’t even seen the movie himself. And then, after not even seeing the movie, he generalized all the people who have spent $200 million flooding the theater to watch it as “very angry.”

Remember, it’s Howard Dean, so no need to even classify his ridiculous comments. But what does all this ridiculousness around our nation have in common? The freedom to be ridiculous. Solders with no shoes and bloody feet fought for the birth of America, a free country. Men from the North fought men from the South for the freedom of skin color.

Soldiers have jumped out of airplanes, submerged themselves in submarines and stormed beaches for me to sit here and voice my opinion on this page. Men and women today will raise their right hand and promise to give their lives for a free nation.

And a man, over 2,000 years ago, paid the final price as he was raised to die on a cross for our ultimate freedom to choose life or death. And yet day after day we are blind to the fact that choosing life will grant more freedom than we could ever imagine.

While I intensely disagree with the opinions of radical animal rights groups, Michael Moore and Howard Dean, I’m grateful for those who fought for my freedom and their freedom to express our heartfelt opinions.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.