Greetings, everyone from Palatka, Florida, where I am undergoing my semi-annual Airborne training. I was truly humbled and honored that the Round Canopy Parachuting Team leadership invited me to Jumpmaster refresher training for this cycle. Now, this ain’t no joke; it has been 23 years since I last did Jumpmaster duties, and I graduated from Jumpmaster school in 1984. The first thing we had to do was pass a fill-in-the-blank 50-question parachute equipment/harness nomenclature test. Mind you, some things have changed in military static line parachuting since 2002. Regardless, no excuses, and I passed, scoring 42/50 correct responses…and you had to perfectly name the piece of equipment in question. So, I have the privilege of once again being a current static line Airborne Jumpmaster.

I also had to demonstrate proficiency to successfully do a static line “Hollywood” jumpmaster personnel inspection in proper sequence, and as they say, “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

Monday night, I sat in my hotel room, after sharing this with my family, and considered the earned privilege and responsibility. I also pondered how our Nation is struggling at this time with the delineation between a privilege and a right.

Even though I had once passed Jumpmaster school and, in my career, attained the Army Master Parachutist Badge, I did not have a right to be a current Airborne Jumpmaster. In other words, I was not entitled to the honor; it had to be earned.

Sadly, too many in our Republic, well, progressive socialists, are confusing rights with privileges.

Take, for instance, this hubbub over Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Hamas Columbia “student.” Somehow, we have leftists who contend that his rights are being infringed upon. Hmm, it seems to me that he has been enjoying the privilege of being in our Country with a student Visa. He is not entitled to any rights, especially those reserved for U.S. citizens and legal residents who abide by our laws and do not support and endorse violence and terrorist organizations. The same goes with Judge James Boasberg, who believes that criminal illegal immigrants have a right to stay in our Country and even enjoy the privileges of our legal system. Way wrong answer! It is not a right, certainly not a privilege, to enter into our Country illegally, be a member of a designated terrorist organization, and commit crimes against our law-abiding citizens.

But it is not just what we see happening now. It was during the Carter administration that there was a belief that Americans had a right to own a home. That was the thinking behind the Community Reinvestment Act, which led to the mortgage-backed securities crisis and the ensuing financial collapse in our Nation. Leftists have taken up the insidious and absurd position that individuals with the mental condition of gender dysphoria have a right to compete in women’s sports and frequent the bathroom and locker rooms of their delusional choice.

However, the very Rights that are enumerated in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights have no meaning to leftists; they reject them as mere suggestions. The question then is why? The answer is simple.

Rights and privileges are whatever the progressive socialist left sees as aligning with their ideological agenda. Same-sex attracted individuals have a “right” to be married. Certain people in government have a “right” to redistribute wealth. Healthcare is a “right”.

Funny, we are endowed with unalienable rights from the Judeo-Christian faith heritage God, Natural Rights Theory of John Locke. The first one is life, but leftists do not believe that an unborn child has a right to Life…that does not fit their ideological agenda…which is a racist one if you understand the goals of one Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.

The Second Amendment clearly articulates that we have a “right to keep and bear arms, that shall not be infringed"…nope. Joe Biden once said that no amendment to the Constitution is absolute…the right of Americans to be armed does not agree with the left’s totalitarian ideological agenda. Leftists would rather give criminal illegal immigrants the right to stay in our Country and continue to commit crimes against Americans, like setting a woman on fire in a NYC subway.

So, going forward, think about what is a right, as opposed to what is a privilege. As soon as the government operates under the irrational notion that it gives you rights…know that they can also take them away. Socialism and maniacal tyranny have always sounded good in the beginning, but as the saying goes, "You can vote your way into socialism, but you will have to shoot your way out.” Ergo, the issue with the American Constitutional Right known as the Second Amendment, when you have no ability to defend yourself, as the well-regulated (trained) militia, you will transition from citizen to subject.

And folks, subjects have no rights nor privileges unless granted by dictators, despots, and autocrats…meaning none!

Steadfast and Loyal!