This 9-year-old girl is a U.S. citizen, with a passport, and was detained for 32 hours, by herself, because she gave inconsistent answers to questions. I have two main points to make about this.

First, teach your children to disrespect false authority, and to not to talk to government officials, whether it’s border patrol, local police, child protective service, school teachers (because I know no one reading this would ever be stupid enough to send their kids to public school), or anyone else with the government. We all have a 5th Amendment right to not answer questions. What good is a right if you voluntarily give it up? If they don’t answer questions, their answers won’t be inconsistent, as this girl had, and is completely understandable for a girl her age.

I have told my kids this, but who knows how they would actually behave when under pressure. This is a good opportunity for a refresher.

Second, most of my friends are conservatives. Standard conservative beliefs include the following two tenets:

1. You should submit to, and honor law enforcement.
2. Members of the armed forces serve to protect our freedom.

These are contradictory beliefs. The police lie and steal (via civil asset forfeiture, frivolous traffic ticketing and enforcing unjust taxation) to take away our freedom.

Most of my conservative friends would be in shock that I’m not teaching my children to be subservient to the police, and that the police aren’t a valid authority. They would be in shock if I told my kids to remain silent and not answer government’s questions.

However, the best way to honor the sacrifice of military veterans is to exercise those freedoms they fought for. Remaining silent is the best way to honor veterans. When you surrender your freedoms you’re disrespecting the sacrifice of veterans.