true love

How much of our lives do we truly choose, and how much is shaped by forces around us - history, society, our aspirations, the expectations we battle? 

While freedom is essential for self-fulfillment it has a cost and there are consequences. Personal stories are always intertwined with historical events - shaping destinies in ways we often fail to recognize. History lives on in our lives and shapes the world we live in. 

There are many rights we take for granted in our democracy - from leaders respecting the rule of law to freedom of speech, from the freedom to criticize the government to the peaceful transition of power after free and fair elections. 

Tragically, throughout history, many people have discovered how fragile those rights and democracies can be when extreme polarization leads to despotic rule and the erosion of democratic norms. Love alone cannot sustain people when their desires and life paths diverge too drastically. 

Valentine’s Day used to be celebrated with love and gift giving. Now this harmless occasion has been torn to shreds. Amidst the divisive chaos of a world split asunder – so much carnage has left us in a wasteland of harshness.  

Time after time, in countries around the world, would-be autocrats and authoritarian regimes have used these fractures in weakened democracies to assert absolute control - often violently suppressing any opposition, too many lost in the rubble.

An essential component of all healthy democracies is teaching people about the dangers of extremism and the realities of life under authoritarianism. Conformity is a prison of clear cages that suppress independence and creation. 

Anita Manuel always felt free in her home island – removed from the center of things. Her parents managed to protect her from the truth of their dictator’s regime. Yet secrets and untold stories of those who came before shape us and color our identity - whether we acknowledge them or not.

Anita is more concerned with her crush on the American boy next door than the question of whether their maid is spying on her family. But as Anita starts to understand the meaning behind the adults' whispers - tensions bubble over. 

A plot to assassinate Makoy, the dictator is secretly woven in the shadows. Will their fight for freedom be worth the brutal reprisals the family will suffer if they are uncovered? Can Anita and her family escape to a place where they are finally free - with no estrangement, loss, and regret to haunt them? 

The children tell their stories - biographical and fictional - the past is never fully done. They avidly vied over who told the goriest and scariest tale that would keep them tossing over disturbing dreams – asleep or awake, Anita told the best ones. She loved looking across at her mesmerized audience - bug eyed with terror but totally under her spell. 

Most of all she took pointed aim at her American boy – so sheltered and innocent, so easily destroyed. She left him notes in secret places. She sent him anonymous postcards - slipped under the front door. She bombarded him with shock therapy in a daily barrage of news and updates from the front. 

While the lives featured in these stories offer an often harrowing look at authoritarian oppression - they also spoke to the power of the human spirit. The courage and determination of people daring to find their own ways to resist. Artistic expression waved high - as an act of resistance against societal constraints. 

Ultimately, their stories lead to important insight into the struggles of those who have suffered under authoritarianism. More and more daily disturbances would intrude and break into their world. Sirens blaring in the dark of night, screams and yelling in terror laced outrage – worse of all the eventual utter silence. Everything expediently erased – done and disappeared. 

One day Anita looked across their fence into the house next door and it stood silent and abandoned. Her American boy and their whole family up and gone with no warning. Who knows where to and why. 

Did her powerful and poignant stories drive them away? Did it offer a deeper appreciation of the rights and freedoms afforded within a shattered democracy? Did it illuminate and illustrate why it is so essential to protect our freedom and rights? Did it cause or create an informed and engaged citizen? 

Life is filled with paths not taken, choices not made, and alternate selves that exist only in our innermost imagination. Recognizing these unlived lives becomes essential in understanding our very own.

Then today – decades since and clear across the world - this hand-written note, slipped under the door - "I've never forgotten your promise to be my Valentine." Unsigned, yet Anita knows exactly who it is from.