#FreeAssange

Jesus Christ. Ten whole years it's been, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is still under attack. Somehow, some way, the United Kingdom's government has decided that Assange should be extradited to the US, where he would likely be held in a maximum security prison, ignoring his already worsening health. Freedom of the press is a joke, and Assange is the punch line.

For those not in the loop, Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a non-profit organization that publishes state secrets in the public interest. This, as you could probably guess, is problematic for shady governments like the US. Assange has done great things for freedom of the press and the public, but you can't speak truth in a kingdom of lies, so the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has decided to extradite Assange to the US because of the things published on WikiLeaks concerning the US government and constant pressure from the US.

What did he do? That's complicated. Assange is wanted in the United States on 18 criminal charges regarding the thousands of secret diplomatic and military documents published by WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010 concerning wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The British Home Office made this statement: "In this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust, or an abuse of process to extradite Mr. Assange." I, personally, find it unjust. The first ammendment guarantees freedom of the press in the United States. I don't think the founding fathers wanted to make an exception for US war crimes, but here we are. Assange is facing charges because the US government doesn't want the people to know that it's actually corrupt.

The Continental Congress of 1776 declared that if a government becomes abusive, then it loses its validity and should be overthrown. The people who drafted the Constitution were very aware of that danger. The US government₁ today, in my opinion, is abusive, as it₁ is censoring and trying to imprison the biggest advocate of free speech and freedom of the press for speaking out against it₁.

We the people can do more than just sit and wait for everything to go south, though. We can protest and we can inform others about the situation. The more people fight for freedom, the more freedom we will get. If Assange is imprisoned, it sets a horrible precedent for freedom-related trials in the future. Governments will start to censor even more, bring down freedom as a whole, and we end up in 1984 even more than we already are. Assange's freedom means our freedom, and his imprisonment means our imprisonment.

I stand with Assange, for freedom, against censorship. The US wants to break the law to hide their war crimes, and I will not let them. What happens behind closed doors is not my business, but the doors to the US's crimes have been unjustly closed in my face, and I will not stand for it. I hope you feel the same way, and I hope you spread the word. #FreeAssange.