Yesterday we had a delightful Australian couple drop by the farm.  They’re Queensland natives, in their 60s, sharp small business owners all their lives, and have now fled Australia for America under the immigration investment program.

             I had them share with our Polyface team at supper because as I listened to their story, I found it profoundly disheartening and yet heartening.  If you’ve kept up with the news, you know that Australia has probably had the most draconian covid lockdowns of any country In the world.  I’ve been there 16 times over the years and have accumulated some wonderful and close friends who have kept me up to speed on the deterioration there.   But it was still shocking and amazing to hear the saga straight from the mouth of two refugees.  What follows are some highlights from their discussion last evening.

             Within 2-3 weeks of covid becoming a “thing” in 2020, all stores had a QR code on the front door.  Not just big businesses, but even barber shops, shoe stores, everything.  Everyone had to have an app on their phone that could register upon entering the store or shop.  If you didn’t have this tracking app on your phone, you couldn’t enter or buy.  Initially elderly folks who didn’t have smart phones had a paper option, but eventually even that went away.  Numerous times police sprayed elderly women with tear gas and rubber bullets.

             Mounted police patrolled business districts demanding to see phones to make sure the government tracking apps were installed. If you refused to let them see your phone or had purchased something without having the app, the penalty was immediate arrest plus a $1,000 fine.  Australia has no sheriff.  It’s either federal or state police; nothing lower.  And no Bill of Rights.  No warrants necessary to enter your house and check the status of your firearms.

             No right to use deadly force if you’re being attacked, even in your home.

             The lockdowns became more and more draconian, including a state-to-state travel prohibition.  In other words, you couldn’t cross state lines.  He told the story of a lady with twins who needed medical attention for one of them.  Even though she lived a couple of miles from a hospital, she was near the state (provincial) border and could not go to the close one across the line.  She had to be flown 1,100 miles to a hospital in New South Wales and one of the twins died as a result.  The incident generated outrage on social media, but two weeks later the same party in power was re-elected with an even wider margin than before.

             According to these folks, the average Australian thinks the government should have been more stringent rather than less.  People could not go more than 2 or 3 miles from home.  Every movement was tracked by authorities.  Often police in riot gear would apprehend someone who had left their home.  Intimidation.  “I didn’t turn 60 to be locked in my own house,” he said.

             As soon as this couple saw the handwriting on the wall, they began the process to escape.  About 18 months later they finally received approval to leave.

             He kept telling our Polyface team: “America is the only country in the world with guaranteed rights.  Don’t ever give up your rights.  You have no idea how special it is to have your rights protected.  The world needs America’s example.”

             It was a powerful, spontaneous admonition that all of us, with our anger and frustrations at dysfunction within our own country, needed to be grateful and encouraged that in spite of our warts and maladies, America is still the beacon of liberty and opportunity in the world.  I know every time I travel internationally, when I get off that plane and see that American flag at the entry of customs, tears well up in my eyes.

             Are we perfect?  No.  Could things be much better?  Yes.  Are we heading into difficult waters?  Yes.  Do I think our leaders know what to do?  No.  But we have a Bill of Rights that overlays every dysfunction.  It got rid of mask mandates.  It’s giving about 35 percent of Americans the backbone to stand up to the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates and the orthodox pharmaceutical-government industrial complex.  Liberty is in our DNA.  Let’s be grateful for it and let’s defend it like precious life itself.

             What Bill of Rights right are you most grateful for?