“Sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint, but instead it is done one piece of paper…”

Cuban-American poet, diplomat and former political prisoner Armando Valladares received the Canterbury Medal from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and gave this speech on May 12, 2016:
     
“Sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time.”
   
         
Wikipedia: Armando Valladares
Armando Valladares Perez (born May 30, 1937) is a Cuban-American poet, diplomat and former political prisoner for his involvement in the Cuban dissident movement.
 
In 1960, he was arrested by the Cuban government for conflicting reasons; the Cuban government alleged that he had been complicit in anti-Castro terrorism, while foreign sources regarded his arrest as being due to his protesting communism, leading Amnesty International to name him a prisoner of conscience.
 
Following his release in 1982, he wrote a book detailing his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Cuban government, and was appointed in 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
     
YouTube
Keynote Address by Armando Valladares, Canterbury Medal Dinner 2016
Becket
May 20, 2016
Armando Valladares received the The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s 2016 Canterbury Medal on May 12, 2016.
 
Armando Valladares is a former political prisoner who spent 22 years in Castro’s gulags for refusing to place a sign on his desk in support of Fidel. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison without due process. While in prison he became a “Plantado”—a prisoner who refuses to wear a common prison uniform. For refusing to sign a document admitting he was wrong and the Revolution was right, he was brutally tortured, spent 8 years in solitary confinement and underwent several hunger strikes which left him paralyzed for many years.  During this time, he wrote numerous poems which his wife smuggled out of Cuba and had published to critical acclaim. Valladares was adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.
 
In 1982 Valladares was released thanks to an international campaign on his behalf. Upon release, he wrote a New York Times bestselling memoir, Against All Hope, which was translated into 18 languages.
(...)
(Said at about 11:34, first in Spanish and then by the translator in English.—ed.)
“And sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time.”
 
Becket
Armando Valladares Speech Transcript
Armando Valladares receives the 2016 Canterbury Medal
For Immediate Release: September 18, 2017
(...)
I warn you: Just as there is a very short distance between the US and Cuba, there is a very short distance between a democracy and a dictatorship where the government gets to decide what to do, how to think, and how to live. And sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time. Never allow the government–or anyone else–to tell you what you can or cannot believe or what you can and cannot say or what your conscience tells you to have to do or not do.
   
Twitter
RedBloodedAmerica
@RedBloodedGuy
“Sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time.” https://tmblr.co/ZlDDiw2FZIGq-
6:00 PM · Dec 6, 2016
   
Twitter
Manuel Rodriguez Diaz
@Aguaviva_OA
sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time…
6:06 PM · Dec 8, 2016
 
Twitter
Jason Bassler
@JasonBassler1
“Sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time. One seemingly meaningless rule at a time One small silencing at a time.
- Armando Valladares (Cuban prisoner for 22 years)
5:45 PM · May 3, 2022
 
Twittter
Rothmus 🏴
@Rothmus
(The following tet is shown on an image.—ed.)
SOMETIMES YOUR
FREEDOM IS NOT TAKEN
AWAY AT GUNPOINT BUT
INSTEAD IT IS DONE ONE
PIECE OF PAPER AT
A TIME, ONE SEEMINGLY
MEANINGLESS RULE AT A
TIME, ONE SMALL
SILENING AT A TIME.
2:18 PM · Mar 9, 2023