Our leaders must show moral courage in face of oppression

Those who fight for human rights in the worst environments on Earth believe the improbable is possible, that obstacles can be overcome. They must not fight alone.

Enes Kanter Freedom is a Swiss-born Turkish former professional basketball player. Freedom is also a dedicated democracy and human rights advocate focusing on freedom of speech, due process and religious rights violations. He is an American citizen.

The personal cost involved in standing up for human rights and human dignity is enormous. We have both felt it. Enes has been blackballed from the NBA and has had to endure the imprisonment of his father in Turkey as a result of standing up for freedom. And Tina spent the early weeks of her pregnancy in Iraq following the ISIS invasion, at one point holding in her arms a grieving woman whose child was ripped from her hands and taken away by violent extremists.

And we are united and inspired every day by the knowledge that around the world there are many living under the darkness of oppression and tyranny who daily put their lives and well-being on the line to fight for their families to have the protections of liberty that we enjoy here in the United States.