Our leaders must show moral courage in face of oppression

Enes Freedom says the NBA only cares about morality until money or business is involved on 'The Ingraham Angle.'

Too often, in the face of global atrocities, oppression and the deprivation of basic human rights and liberties, those with the largest platforms – our elected officials, cultural icons and the leaders of our largest corporations – are woefully silent. 

From LeBron James, the NBA and Disney keeping quiet about Chinese human rights atrocities in order to keep that government’s censors from cutting into their bottom line to those elected to represent our nation placating tyrants in the name of appeasement and political considerations, it is in the darkness of this silence that evil is allowed to flourish. This is why we need moral courage in the face of oppression.

The personal cost involved in standing up for human rights and human dignity is enormous. We have both felt it. Enes has been blackballed from the NBA and has had to endure the imprisonment of his father in Turkey as a result of standing up for freedom. And Tina spent the early weeks of her pregnancy in Iraq following the ISIS invasion, at one point holding in her arms a grieving woman whose child was ripped from her hands and taken away by violent extremists.

And we are united and inspired every day by the knowledge that around the world there are many living under the darkness of oppression and tyranny who daily put their lives and well-being on the line to fight for their families to have the protections of liberty that we enjoy here in the United States.  

Tina Ramirez, president and executive director of Hardwired Global, meeting with Iraqi kids in Iraq. (Tina Ramirez)

CHINA IS AT WORK IN AFRICA WITH A DANGEROUS STRATEGY. US MUST ACT NOW TO