Freeman Stevenson
Template:TOCnestleft Freeman Stevenson is a Utah activist.
Syria
Freeman Stevenson, a 23-year-old Utah County man returned home from Syria, December 2016 after 10 months of fighting with the Kurds in a militant group called the YPG.
He connected on Facebook with a group fighting ISIS in Syria.
Stevenson believes the world is turning a blind eye to the war. He said ISIS is not just killing off an entire people, but also wiping out its history.
Stevenson studied journalism and Middle Eastern politics in college, and he said he felt compelled to go to Syria when he saw the Arab Spring turn violent.
The last straw, he said, was watching ISIS ”bulldoze Nineveh and then blow up Palmyra.”
“There is a difference between killing people as [ISIS is] already doing," Stevenson said. "But then also taking it a step further and trying to erase any sign they ever existed.”
ISIS, he said, is trying to wipe Syria and its people out of the history books.
“You can kill a person, and their legacy is still there, even if it is a mud hut they built in the middle of Syria," Stevenson said. "ISIS is destroying everything that doesn't fit in their very narrow view.”
Stevenson said that after he sought out the YPG on Facebook, he had an extensive phone conversation with a member of the group. Several months later, he bought a plane ticket to Iraq.
That $800 plane ticket is all Stevenson said he paid for during his time with the YPG.
Training consisted of three weeks of lessons to learn Kurdish and a few minutes learning how to load military-style weapons.
The rocket propelled grenades were supposed to be off limits, but in the end, launching them was his job. They gave him three meals a day, a uniform and the means to fight for a cause he said he was willing to die for.
During his 10 months in Syria, he became accustomed to the idea of death. His parents, as you might imagine, were not happy when they got the call from overseas.
“My mom was pretty supportive," Stevenson said. "My dad was not. I was already gone. There was not much they could do.”
Stevenson returned home with war wounds and graphic images of war on his own smartphone.
He said its not the images of those injured that last in his memory.
"I remember the people I saved," Stevenson said. "I remember the people I stuffed gauze in their chest after they are shot.”
In the battle to take Manbij, Stevenson said he was hit by shrapnel from a grenade. It was just two weeks after he said he'd been shot.
Now back in Utah, with weeks of reflection, and time spent binge-watching on Netflix, he said he doesn’t regret any of it.
Stevenson grew up in Salt Lake County and returned from Syria to his fathers' house in Utah County in early October.
He hasn't gone back to work yet, and he said he doesn't know what he'll do next.
The hardest part is thinking about the friends he lost — the one he said died in his arms.
“If nothing else, it is showing these people and those people over there, they are not alone," Stevenson said. "People care about them, are willing to come fight with them and die with them if necessary.”
The YPG reports it lost 50 percent of its forces in the battle of Manbij. There are now not enough fighters, tanks or provisions to carry on until the force rebuilds.
Stevenson said he was saved by U.S special forces, who he said, “do have boots on the ground.”
While they're not fighting, he said they are almost always watching near the front lines of the fight and saving the lives of those who are fighting ISIS.
Now home for two months, Stevenson said he is struggling to comprehend why people question his motives for fighting.
"My response is, 'Why didn’t you?'”
He said he has worked in journalism before and plans to return to the field but that, first, he'll have some adjusting to do.
“Someone kick-started a Harley the other day, and a bang goes off," Stevenson said. "Am I going to die?”[1]
DSSL Meeting with Howie Hawkins & Angela Walker
Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America monthly meeting Auugust 31 2020·
Join @slcDSA, @HowieHawkins, and @AngelaNWalker for a discussion and glimpse at the DSSL's monthly meetings. The chapter will hold an endorsement vote after interviewing the Green Party nominees.
With Kitrina Kearfott, Phelan Acheson, Mark Patterson, Elliot Goble , Charlie Erickson, Sonja Hutson, Wendy Thompson, Michael Lavery, Deborah Gressett, Trent Weber, Joshua Gonzales, Hailey Freeman, Jonathan Camacho, Freeman Stevenson, Jeff Staples .[2]