Jay Kilbourn: Censorship and denial threaten nation

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Published: 03-16-2025 9:11 PM

I write especially for friends who support President Donald Trump. Americans across the political spectrum despise censorship and threats to free speech. Now censorship threatens national security and our military personnel. Denial of obvious truths, suppression of data, and banning words and language are an affront and a threat to us all.

On Feb. 14, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered department officials to “eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology in DHS policies and programs.”

President Trump has ordered this withdrawal of climate change policies. The Coast Guard Academy, where seagoing officers are trained, has eliminated “climate change” from its curriculum!

In truth, the U.S. military has long recognized the increased threats to the U.S. and our military caused by climate change. In 2014, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called climate change a “threat multiplier.”

“Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, climbing sea levels and more extreme weather events will intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty, and conflict,” Hagel said, and “will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and resources, and destruction by natural disasters in regions across the globe.”

In the past, many people have felt censored or offended and pressured to hold certain “politically correct,” or “woke” views, or to use or not use certain words. Our new and more powerful administration exercises an extreme form of censorship, suppression of speech and voting, and even revenge.

Let’s all keep acting together to defend our freedom of speech, no matter the administration.

Jay Kilbourn

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