Steve Gilbert: a Conversation

The text of my broadcast on Sunday in the House, May 7, 2026, in response to the message from long time acquaintance Steve Gilbert of Owensboro, Kentucky. His response follows below. 

So here is my top ten list of fragile freedoms endangered or lost. 

10-Right of Due process in court; thousands of detainees have been denied due process and speedy adjudication. Dear Steve, I suppose there is a good reason you don’t know about this. I am sure Fox News does not report it.

9-Right to apply for Asylum: shut down the entire process. Nobody admitted, except a few thousand white people from South Africa.

8-Right to Citizenship by birth: they have been in court, at the Supreme Court, seeking to deny people the path to citizenship and even to strip people of citizenship.  Not you, Steve, because you are white and Christian, so no need to worry.

 7-Right to Representation in congress: During your lifetime, Steve, people black and white have struggled to gain the right to vote. But now that the Supreme Court has nullified the Voting rights Act, all over the South, these white evangelical Christians, people like you Steve, have in the last three weeks met to redraw voting boundaries in order to disenfranchise black people. Are you paying attention?

6-Right to be free of Intrusion by federal officers: Steve, have you read the Fourth Amendment? “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated….” But we have all seen video after video of federal officers busting doors and windows, dragging people out, even shooting people. Killing people.  Not you, Steve, because you are white and Christian and a man. But lots of others. Have you seen these videos, Steve. It will not be too many months, a couple of years perhaps before many of these ICE will have to appear in court, not federal court, because Trump will pardon all of them, thousands of them.  But state courts.

5-Free from deceit. We have a right to the truth, from presidents, officers, judges, and such.  But, All of us, including you, Steve, are subject to the lying that is coming out of the White House. Trump never gives a speech without telling many things that are untrue…. To all of us. 

4-Freedom from political mobs, like the one that stormed the Capital on January 6, 2021. We have lost this freedom because Trump, and thousands, even millions of his minions now describe that as harmless tourism disrupted by deceitful Democrats designed to make Trump look bad. People at the highest levels are spinning another story.  We all saw what happened and the courts ruled against these violent mobs. But now, Trump and his people are telling us not to believe what we saw and not to remember what we heard. 

 3-The freedom to be treated equally under the law, especially in federal employment and in the wider stretches of opportunity.  You know, Steve, that when we were little, women could not get into law school; there were no female federal judges, and none on the Supreme Court. No female generals. But alas: if you are black or female, you are going to have a hard time getting promoted to the top ranks in the military.  And all four of Trumps fired cabinet secretaries are women. But you don’t have to worry, Steve, you are white and male and Christian. All good for you. 

2-Freedom of religion. No longer. Not in the military. They just announced that 180 religious traditions are no longer recognized in the U S military. Including Unitarian Universalist.  Pete Hegseth made the announcement and he probably does not not what a Unitarian Universalist is; but we all do, because they are in every city in America. But no religious identity for them. And the Mormons? Latter Day Saints.  There is a vicious rebellion brewing in one of the most conservative states in the USA.  UTAH.  They are protesting this ignorance and insensitive move by the doofus who runs the Department of War. But for you, Steve, you still have your religious freedom, because you are white and male and Christian. Good for you. 

1-And the number one freedom: To be left alone and be yourself.  Now gay , lesbian, and trans are harassed and denied and refused to be treated as people, as citizens, as customers, as humans. There is every reason to believe that the Trump Supreme Court will strike down the right to marry, just like they did the right to an abortion. But you don’t have to worry, Steve.  You are white, male, Christian, and straight.  All good for you. You are the kind of people Trump wants to promote and protect. You and I–straight, white, Christian men–make us less than 20% of the population, and our rights are intact, are secure, are still there. So I am not surprised that you pretend not to know what is happening. 

But you asked, and I answered, in public. Grace and peace to you, and to all people: gay and straight, male and female, black, brown, and white, Christian, Muslim, and jew, believer and not, rich and poor, married and single, citizen and not.  Grace and peace to everybody, in the name and spirit of Jesus, prophet of God, rabbi of Nazareth, healer of the sick and infirmed, protester against the religious and political establishment, prisoner of the state, crucified for being a disrupter of the peace, but most of all, risen from the dead, vindicated by God, alive and among us today, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, feeding the poor, visiting the prisoner, and passing out water to the thirsty. 

And here is Steve Gilbert’s response, posted in public on my Facebook page on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.